‘I felt I had no-one to depend on but myself’: Examining how women with insecure migration status respond to domestic and family violence in Australia

Abstract

Feminist research that takes an intersectional approach has highlighted how a woman's migration status can influence their ability to disclose domestic and family violence (DFV) and access formal support in the countries where they live, work and study. In recent years, research in Western multicultural societies such as Australia has shed light on the ways that restrictive state policies work against victim-survivors and can result in women delaying formal help-seeking, withstanding violence for longer periods and presenting at frontline services at a point of crisis. While important findings have been generated, very few Australian studies have documented responses to violence among women with insecure migration status, including the strategies they rely on to resist different forms of control and to keep themselves safe during a relationship with a violent partner.This article draws on data from a study with 18 victim-survivors who experienced DFV when they were living in Victoria, Australia, and their migration status was ‘insecure’, and 23 professional stakeholders. It explores how women drew on personal strategies to resist, cope with, put a stop to and survive DFV. The article uses ‘citizenship’ as a lens to interpret women's experiences and in doing so draws attention to the ways that women's options for responding to DFV were impacted by the conditional nature of their migration status. It also highlights women's expressions of agency and explores the actions victim-survivors took, which influenced their lived experiences in different ways in the weeks, months and years following their move to the country. The article seeks to contribute to scholarship that challenges assumptions of passivity in research on DFV with migrant women and draws attention to the ways that women worked to ensure their safety and survival despite the limited recognition of their experiences in state policies that address gendered violence.