Emergency Frames: Gender Violence and Immigration Status in Spain

Abstract

Immigration relief for undocumented migrants in the European Union (EU) increasingly focuses on trafficked and battered women. These measures allow flexibility in responding to concerns related to women's rights issues. This study analyzes the humanitarian clause within Spanish immigration law that concerns undocumented battered women. In Spain, undocumented battered women who accuse their male partners of abuse and win legal cases against them become eligible for five-year residence and work permits. Those women who lose must be deported. Several nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have criticized the arbitrary application of the clause, arguing that protecting battered women should be prioritized over legal status. By putting this argument in dialogue with philosophical and anthropological studies, this study shows how NGO advocacy strategy might obscure the close link between gender violence and the legal status of undocumented migrant women.