Group work: a powerful site of resistance for migrant women experiencing gender-based violence

Abstract

During 2016, Safety4Sisters North West, a small women’s organisation based in Manchester, UK, worked with 61 women who had insecure immigration status and had experienced gender-based violence. This article examines the themes that arose from the project’s group work highlighting the realities of vulnerable migrant women living at society’s margins, resisting and navigating both patriarchal and immigration control within the context of austerity.

No recourse to public funds: a qualitative evidence synthesis

“…In contrast, small scale action research or practitioner research projects had smaller samples (Rainey, 2020;Jolly, 2018b), often with the explicit intention of producing richer, more in-depth data (Odumade and Graham, 2019). Some studies used "insider" research where the researcher was employed by the agency in which they interviewed (Sharma and Marsh, 2018;Dickson, 2019;Capron et al, 2016). This had advantages in terms of access and building up trust with a "hidden" group, but raised issues of power and possible conflicts of interest in situations where there was a combined support worker/researcher role (Pinter et al, 2020).…”

“…This had advantages in terms of access and building up trust with a "hidden" group, but raised issues of power and possible conflicts of interest in situations where there was a combined support worker/researcher role (Pinter et al, 2020). Some studies took a participatory approach (Sharma and Marsh, 2018;Anitha, 2011;Rainey, 2020;O'Neill et al, 2019;Anitha, 2010), but other research designs did not involve people with lived experience of the NRPF rule (Potter et al, 2016;Jayaweera, 2018;Oliver and Jayaweera, 2013;Jolly, 2019;Boobis et al, 2019).…”

“…Everyday racism and racialised discrimination in service provision were experienced by people with NRPF (Sharma and Marsh, 2018). O'Neill et al (2019) noted the racist, sexist and anti-migrant rhetoric from services that support migrant women and their families.…”

“…Nonetheless, the perception of widespread fraud persistedone local authority complained that Genito-Urinary Medicine clinics would not share confidential medical information with them to check that service users were not accessing medication from more than one hospital (Islington Council, 2006. p. 10). Fear of fraud was seen more broadly in a general distrust and disbelief towards people with NRPF (Sharma and Marsh, 2018), for example in surveillance of children's clothes, mobile phones and other possessions to check if migrants with NRPF were as poor as they said they were (O'Neill et al, 2019), this distrust was reflected in feelings of disappointment and frustration with social workers from families with NRPF (Jolly, 2018b).…”

The “PERSPECS” principles: early action and migrant children with no recourse to public funds

“…To apply strengths-based approaches to work with people subject to the NRPF rule would mean acknowledging the strengths, skills and resources that migrant families possess (what Sharma and Marsh (2017) describe as “self-empowerment”) as well as the resources contained in the wider community – the networks of mutual aid and support and the “hospitable environments” that support and sustain families and protect against wider societal hostility.…”