COUV ACTES - Psychologie communautaire

Community Psychology: Common Values, Diverse PracticesBeing an immigrant favors a lack of knowledge about laws, rights, services, and how these are related to adegree of difficulty with the local language and with understanding the Spanish social system. Their migratorystatus consitutes a factor that makes it difficult for them to seek help, thus putting them in a vulnerable position:Yo ya me animaba porque ya nunca había recibido un sueldo tan grande, mucho dinero que alcambio en mi país era mucho. Entonces yo no sabía, y cuando me decían mira, tiene derecho apagas, tiene derecho a esto, yo decía uy tanto dinero más. Y ahí me iba informando pero cuandollegué no sabía nada (P.3).I kept my spirits up because I had never made so much money, lots of money that at my country'srate was a lot. So I didn't know, and when they told me look, you have a right to payments, youhave a right to this, I said, wow, that means more money. And it was there that I started informingmyself but when I got here I didn't know anything (P.3).Bueno, él me convenció de que retire la denuncia, nos quitaron la documentación por hacerlecaso, porque hubiese llegado a juicio capaz que no perdía ni los papeles porque dos años nosprendieron los papeles. Porque no llegamos a juicio, yo lo veo así, tal vez por renunciar el juicio,por quitar la denuncia mutuamente (…) No nos asesoraron bien los abogados entonces (.)quitamos la denuncia, no querríamos ir a juicio, pero me quedé sin papeles (…) pero fue él queme hizo daño. Bueno, a raíz de ahí ya, porque no te quiten los papeles a quedarte callada. Yo mequedé callada muchas cosas, me aguanté (P.2).Well, he convinced me to withdraw my formal complaint, they took our documents because we tookhis advice, because it could have gone to court that would not lose the papers because they lostthe papers for us for two years. Since we didn't get to court, that's the way I see it, maybe becausewe took back our formal complaint, because we mutually took it back (...) They didn't advise uswell, the lawyers at that time (.) we withdrew the complaint, we didn't want to go to court, but Iended up without papers (...) but it was him who hurt me. Well, since then I now, because theydon't take your papers you opt to stay quite. I kept a lot of things to myself, I put up with it (P.2).Additionally, undocumented female immigrants cannot file a formal complaint in cases of mistreatment becausethey are afraid of revealing their own legal status and that of their partner. This limits the opportunity for them toseek help from emergency centers and other specialized women protection resources for those who are victimsof close relationship gender violence. At the same time, this further increases their institutional invisibility and lackof protection (Caro, 2004; Casas, 2009; Montañes & Moyano, 2006; Runner, Yoshihama & Novick, 2009). Theparticipants of the study also express the need to review existing resource access requirements. The act ofsubmitting a formal complaint, for example, should not be a condition for them to be able to access availableresources (Caro, 2004).Although the mother tongue of the study participants is similar to that of the host country (Spain), we cannotforget that every country, region, and every geographical zone and historical moment enjoys styles, meanings,symbols and usages of speech that characterize a territorial meaning more than one that is shared amongeveryone who speaks the language of the host country. It takes time for people to learn usage and meaning88