Temporary Migration and Family Violence: How Perpetrators Weaponise Borders

Abstract

This paper explores the implications of domestic and family violence occurring across borders, specifically the utilisation of border crossings to exert control and enact violence. While gendered violence can and does occur in border-crossing journeys, this paper focuses more specifically on how domestic and family violence extends across national borders and how violence (or the threat of violence and deportation) can manifest across multiple countries when women are temporary visa holders. This paper illuminates the way in which migration systems play a significant role in temporary migrant experiences of domestic and family violence. Drawing on a study of 300 temporary migrants and their experiences of domestic and family violence, I argue that perpetrators effectively weaponise the migration system to threaten, coerce and control women in different ways, most often with impunity. I also argue that we cannot focus on perpetrators and the individual alone—that we need to build on the border criminology scholarship that highlights the need to focus on systemic harm in the context of domestic and family violence and identify how the migration regime contributes to gendered violence.

Understanding the Nature of Family Violence Against Women With Insecure Migration Status in Australia

“…As part of this, feminist scholars have also contributed to the identification of new forms of violence. One example is transnational spouse abandonment, which is facilitated by the ways that gendered inequalities create conditions that enable men to abandon women in countries of origin and divorce them, leaving women in a precarious state by denying them access to residency and undermining their economic security (Anitha et al, 2018a(Anitha et al, 2018b; see also Segrave, 2021).…”

“…A growing number of studies in Australia and internationally has also focused on how issues regarding women's insecure migration status shape the nature of their family violence experiences (Anitha, 2010(Anitha, , 2011(Anitha, , 2019Ghafournia, 2011;Gray et al, 2014;Mahapatra & Rai, 2019;Maher & Segrave, 2018;McIlwaine et al, 2019;Segrave, 2017Segrave, , 2018Segrave, , 2021Vaughan et al, 2016;Voolma, 2018). Empirical research has, for example, examined the relationship between social isolation and sexual violence, which has been shown to manifest in distinct ways against women who are subject to visa sponsorship (e.g., Abraham, 1999Abraham, , 2000Anitha, 2011).…”

“…Most women described how they were impacted by the ways that perpetrators harnessed technology as part of the exercise of control and that this "amplified" the effects of the abuse they were experiencing (Harris, 2018;Henry et al, 2022). Women's accounts also highlight how they were disadvantaged by the ways that the violence traversed the national border with some-including those who were awaiting formal sponsorship-expressing that male partners and other family members continued to control them even when they were geographically distant (see Segrave, 2021). Their accounts highlight the transnational nature of family violence and the ways that they were simultaneously impacted by patriarchal arrangements in the home-which encompassed a variety of actors and occurred across different sites and scales (Mahler & Pessar, 2001;McIlwaine & Evans, 2020) -as well as the patriarchal authority of the state via restrictive migration and welfare policies, which were leveraged by perpetrators in the exercise of control (Segrave, 2018(Segrave, , 2021.…”

“…Qualitative studies highlight that migrant women report experiencing many of the same forms of violence as other victim-survivors in the community, including violence that is physical, sexual, social, emotional, economic, technological, and related to reproduction (see e.g., Erez et al, 2009 ; Segrave, 2017 ; Vaughan et al, 2015). More recent attention to the dynamics of coercive control has furthered understanding of the patterns of violence and abuse against migrant women, including how perpetrators use migration systems “to threaten, coerce and control women” ( Segrave, 2021 , p. 26; see also Anitha, 2019 ; McIlwaine et al, 2019 ; Segrave et al, 2021 ; Singh & Sidhu, 2020 ). As part of this, feminist scholars have also contributed to the identification of new forms of violence.…”

“…Women with dependent migration status (e.g., on partner or prospective marriage visas) experienced threats regarding the withdrawal of sponsorship, with perpetrators using their elevated status (e.g., as citizens or permanent residents) against them, making explicit threats to have women removed from the country. This had specific implications for mothers who were at risk of being separated from their children (see Segrave, 2018 ) or for women who were at risk of further violence if they were forced to return home (see Segrave, 2021 ).…”