Gender-Based Violence in Migration

With contributions from a diverse array of international scholars, this edited volume offers a renewed understanding of gender-based violence (GBV) by examining its social and political dimensions in migration contexts. This book engages micro, meso, and macro levels of analysis by foregrounding a conceptualization of GBV that addresses both its interpersonal and structural causes. Chapters explore how GBV frameworks and migration management intersect, bringing to the forefront the specific inequalities these intersections produce for migrant women. Drawing upon several disciplines, the authors engage in co-writing a critical engagement which proposes an original understanding of how the concepts of intersectionality, vulnerability and precarity speak to each other from a feminist perspective. 

This volume will be of interest to scholars/researchers and policymakers in Gender Studies, Migration and Refugee Studies, Sociology, Political Science, Trauma Studies, Human Rights and Socio-Legal Studies.

“Timely and thought provoking! Critiquing narrow compartmentalized classifications, and false universalization, the authors carefully consider key theoretical frameworks and use important collaborative research to show the salience of contextualization in addressing migration and gender-based violence.  This volume—with its feminist, interdisciplinary, intersectional approaches—sheds light on the problematics and possibilities of policies and practices in tackling the causes and consequences of migration and gender-based violence at the micro and macro levels. Important concepts of intersectionality, precarity, precariousness, vulnerability are well discussed.  This is a must-read book, especially for those interested in research and action in addressing gender-based violence and migration.” (Margaret Abraham, Professor of Sociology & Harry H. Wachtel Distinguished Professor for the Study of Nonviolent Social Change, Hofstra University, USA)    

"This anthology looks at the impact of GBV on migrant women in Europe and Canada from new feminist perspectives: the authors not only use situated intersectionality to analyze the multiple facets of GBV, but they convincingly show that the Istanbul Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, which was adopted by the Council of Europe in 2014, has by no means led to the expected successes.  Many migrant/refugee women who have managed to flee their country from violence and rape face new harassments not only during their journey; they also endure the administrative exclusions of nation-state asylum laws and many new forms of discrimination in the host countries. The authors convincingly show the continuation of violence in which asylum seekers are - in the words of Achille Mbembé – ‘kept alive but in state of injury’. This book is a ‘must read’ for migration scholars, students and activists and belongs in the curriculum of human rights and international law education." (Helma Lutz, Goethe Universität Frankfurt, Germany)

“This unique and timely volume demonstrates the significance of intersectionality, vulnerability, and precarity in research and policy on gender-based violence. Case studies of migrant, trafficking victims, and asylum seekers point to the policy frameworks and media discourses and their consequences on addressing gender-based violence. A must read for scholars and students concerned with violence against women migrants and refugees.” (Mary Romero, author of Introducing Intersectionality)

“This excellent book presents the links between violence inherent in different types of migration, precarity, and racialized violence against women. It is a unique presentation of neoliberal regimes of violence, relative prospects of resistance, and analyses of policies that foster and/or interrupt the tapestry of violence.  A must read for all those who are interested in migration and violence studies.” (Bandana Purkayastha, Professor, Sociology, University of Connecticut, USA)

“A comprehensive analysis of gender-based violence (GBV) in migration contexts across Europe, Canada and Israel, this volume challenges essentialized notions of both gender and migration. The contributors propose a feminist intersectional approach to theorizing precarity and vulnerability, providing a robust and nuanced framework to analyze empirically rich case studies and offer important policy and practical insights. This book is an important contribution to migration studies—a must read for researchers, students, and policy makers.” (Christina Clark-Kazak, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa, Canada)

Jane Freedman is a Professor at the Université of Paris 8 and Co-Director of the Paris Centre for Sociological and Political Research (CRESPPA). Her research engages feminist intersectional approaches to the study of migration. Publications include Gendering the International Asylum and Refugee Debate (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), and A Gendered Approach to the Syrian Refugee Crisis (Routledge, 2017).

Nina Sahraoui is Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Researcher at the Paris Centre for Sociological and Political Research, CNRS. Among her recent publications are the monograph Racialised Workers and European Older-Age Care (Palgrave, 2019) and the edited volume Border Across Healthcare (Berghahn Books, 2020). 

Evangelia Tastsoglou is a Professor of Sociology and Global Development Studies at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Canada.  Her research engages feminist intersectional perspectives on women, gender and various aspects of migration, violence and citizenship. Publications include Interrogating Gender, Violence, and the State in National and Transnational Contexts, Current Sociology Monograph Series (SAGE, 2016) and edited special issue on Gender, Violence and Forced Migration in Frontiers in Human Dynamics – Refugees and Conflict  (2021, Open Access)