Domestic violence within the securitisation of (family and love) migration
(2024) Family reunification in Europe: exposing inequalities — ISBN: [9781003503217], p. 330-347, published
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- Abstract
- Most of the literature dealing with domestic violence within a migratory context concentrates on migrants’ culture to explain the apparently high frequency of violence within migrants’ households. Only more recent studies examine instead the role played by the specific structural environment in which migration takes place. This chapter aligns with this last scholarship as it untangles how migration policies contribute to (re)producing domestic violence, by focusing on Belgium’s increasingly restrictive family reunification laws and regulations. As we argue, the implementation of these restrictions impacts several aspects of migrants’ relationships and tends to generate and/or exacerbate tensions between partners. At the same time, such legal constraints prevent migrants from denouncing their abuser and/or finding refuge and protection. Empirically, the chapter builds on eight life-history interviews conducted with migrant women who arrived in Belgium through family reunification, and experienced domestic violence once in the country. This set of biographical interviews is complemented by semi-structured interviews with experts and practitioners working in the broad field of migration and family life (e.g., migrant lawyers or social workers), and a series of observations of migrant divorce hearings in the family court of a major Belgian city.
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Orsini, G., & Merla, L. (2024). Domestic violence within the securitisation of (family and love) migration. In edited by Ellen Desmet, Milena Belloni, Dirk Vanheule, Jinske Verhellen, Ayse Güdük (ed.), Family reunification in Europe: exposing inequalities (p. p. 330-347). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003503217-24