Violence

Women, girls, and gender non-conforming (GNC) refugees and aslyees experience long and complex journeys of violence and gender based violence. Understanding these journeys provides numerous entry points and opportunities to do something about it. Women, girls and GNC refugees and asylees, youth and elders, report experiencing multiple forms of violence throughout their forced migration from country of origin, to transit countries, to the country they are resettled in.

These forms of violence span physical, sexual, psychological, and economic forms of violence and include force, coercian, and deprivation of freedom in public or private life. Many of these violences are classified as gender based violence.

Gender based violence refers to harmful acts directed against a person because of their gender. The ‘gender-based’ aspect creates necessary recognition that many forms of violence against women and girls are rooted in power inequities between women and men.

ACCESSING HELP IN THE US CAN BE CHAOTIC & TRAUMATIC

Resettled survivors often do not have full information on how the US criminal justice system functions, may not have language inclusive options they want or need, or know that accessing certain services may remove them from the only community they have in the US. For instance, a domestic violence survivor might think that accessing help would mean mediation and not criminal prosecution of the perpetrator – who is often also their main support/survival system.

Violence in the U.S.

Once resettled in the US, women, girls, and GNC refugees and asylees experience numerous forms of violence, from community violence such as racist and xenophobic public harassment and attacks; violence in the home such as physical and sexual assault, economic control; workplace harassment and exploitation; school bullying; and many others. Women, girls, and GNC individuals report lacking information about their rights, and mitigating and preventing violence. 

For survivors, the process and outcome of accessing help can be more traumatic and chaotic than anticipated, as they often are not fully aware of how the U.S. criminal justice system functions. For instance, a domestic violence survivor might think that accessing help would mean mediation, not criminal prosecution of the perpetrator – who is often also their main support/survival system. If women, girls, and GNC survivors of violence know about or have access to services, they are also confronted with western-based models of that remove them from the only communities they have left, and are not always inclusive of languages and the options they want or need.

As programs and funders provide support to women, girls, and GNC resettled refugees and asylees, listening to what they need and how they can safely access it, and understanding the intersections of power, gender, and violence is critical in providing funding and services that transform these circumstances.

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a highly pervasive global form of violence that refugee and asylee women, girls, and GNC people have experienced within the U.S. One of the most common things women and girls shared was an increase in violence in the home with the onset of rapidly changing gender roles in the family where men felt like they were losing control and violence was used as a way to keep control. An increase risk of violence outside the home, left asylee women, girls, and GNC people not feeling safe in public spaces and therefore resigning to the fact that “it is not any safer to go outside the home than be in the home, so I might as well be unsafe with someone I know.”

There are many levers of control used against women, girls and GNC refugees and asylees as well. For example, lack of information. By and large, the man is considered the head of the household and is most often the individual who is being given and can information by service providers and agencies.

Language access, isolation and fear contribute to the compounding barriers as women shared that male counterparts use inaccurate threats of deportation and police taking away their children as a form of control. Economic violence and men’s controlling of resources force women to stay, as women, and black women in particular, can have harder times accessing employment, better paying jobs, and English classes due to racism.

Women-headed households reported that male “advocates” in the community preyed upon them. Newly arrived refugees and asylees depend deeply on community connections as the only support network they have left after fleeing everything they know. Women and girls reported cases where they were dependent on male community leaders and advocates (who provide and may control support and connection to community networks and services), and were exploited, abused, and raped by these men instead. These women and girls shared that they can not report their assault or rape, because they would lose the only community they have in the U.S.

IPV has a ripple effect. For adolescent girls the impacts of witnessing and experiencing violence in the home is expansive – negatively influencing their ability to learn, participate in school, their social and emotional health, or forcing them into numerous larger and protective roles with additional childcare responsibilities. They also shared experiences as being translators for their mom and families, while feeling forced to lie to social workers.

State Supported Violence, Islamaphobia, Xenophobia

State supported violence is the use of legitimate governmental authority through numerous social, economic, and political systems that expose particular groups of people to risks, vulnerabilities, harm, and mortality. Various state instruments and systems such as the police, income inequity, racism, ableism, incarceration, and other means of social exclusion manifest in both physical and symbolic means of violence and social exclusion such as poverty, trauma, assault, lack of access to care, limited mobility, and others.

Threats of harassment or violence in public impact where women, girls and GNC people feel safe going. It limits mobility and access to public spaces, and compounds trauma.

From conservative rural Idaho to progressive urban San Diego, women and girls talked about how the color of their skin, what they wear on their bodies and heads, their accent and varying levels of English, and even how they carry themselves, can make them a target for harassment and violence. In San Diego, one woman shared how she experienced harassment taking her daily walk in her neighborhood because of her hijab; one day a neighbor released his dog on her and consequently, she stopped leaving the house. 

For GNC people, it can feel like nowhere is safe, being harassed and attacked for their gender identity in public. They may experience the same harassment and risks within their community and their own household. Such high risks often force GNC people to hide their gender identity and gender expressions.