Use of domestic violence services by Portuguese women in England

Abstract

Please cite this publication as follows:Graca, S. (2015)

Portuguese culture and legal consciousness: a discussion of immigrant women's perceptions of and reactions to domestic violence

“…The category ‘resources’ included length of stay in the country, age and language skills – aspects that had been identified in exiting literature to potentially influence how immigrant women perceive and respond to domestic violence, but also any others that respondents mentioned and had not been identified before, such as economic independence. The category ‘service providers’ aimed to clarify to what extent perceptions of services (such as their usefulness, cost and accessibility) influenced women's responses to domestic violence (for an exploration of this theme, see Graca, 2015).…”

“…These categories then formed the basis of the exploratory study of respondents' legal consciousness, using a grounded theory approach. Although using pre- Graca, 2015). …”

“…Portuguese women are unlikely to access non-statutory organisations to address domestic violence, and they do not associate seeking counselling with taking positive steps to exit a situation of violence (Graca, 2015). By enabling women to talk to someone who could potentially help them choose the most appropriate course of action, familism takes on an essential role in providing them with the space and time to find a suitable strategy to exit a violent relationship.…”

Resistance and the paradox of legal entitlement – a theoretical analysis of migrant women’s responses to domestic abuse in the host country

“…To better illustrate how power dynamics influence migrant women's legal consciousness and associated behaviour, the article departs form the analysis of three studies. These are: Gill's research on South Asian women in England (Gill 2004), Graca's examination of the behaviour of Portuguese women in England (Graca 2015(Graca , 2018 and Barata et al's study of Portuguese women in Canada (Barata et al 2005). These studies were selected for several reasons: they span a large amount of time, demonstrating some consistency of women's reactions to abuse within certain sociocultural precepts, they provide rich and detailed accounts by the women researched and they discuss similar points, such as perceptions of domestic abuse, reactions to it and the influence of culture on these.…”

“…By adopting this stance and highlighting common perceptions and responses to abuse of the women studied in the work of Gill (2004), Graca (2015Graca ( , 2018 and Barata et al (2005), a number of questions arise, such as: whether some migrant women are experiencing a "paradox of legal entitlement", in that they feel empowered by the existence of legal tools to address domestic abuse, but anxious about the implications of using them; whether their apparent inaction represents an agreement with dominant narratives, or whether they are simply highly rational actors, making a cost-benefit exercise when deciding how to respond to abuse; furthermore, we are led to ask whether, regardless of motivations, migrant women's behaviour merely supports existing power dynamics, or whether it can also present an opportunity for change. To answer these questions, this article bridges the study of hegemonic discourses, which is central to most research of legal consciousness, with other forms of approaching legal consciousness, particularly those related with identity and the mobilisation of law (Hertogh 2018, 7).…”