Marriage Migrants' Way out of Intimate Partner Violence

Between couple violence and expulsion: How can migrant women whose residence status depends on marriage find a way out of domestic violence? Every person who experiences violence within the partnership should have access to help facilities. However, for groups of people who have come to their host country through marriage and are subject to migration regulations, this access is difficult. The study shows that in these cases there is a clear tension between the private and the public space. Building on a European perspective, the author explores the question of how this problem challenges public policies in the EU member states studied, Germany, France and Italy, how competent aid institutions deal with this problem and how affected persons find their own strategies.

If the legal status depends on marriage, this leads to asymmetries in the private but also in the public sphere. If violence occurs in this constellation, it is problematic for the third-country person concerned, and assistance mechanisms, administrative problems and migration policies collide. Social, political and legal aspects intertwine. By means of a long observation work, expert interviews and biographical interviews, the author conducts a deep and comparative analysis. In doing so, she develops the concept of the "intertwining of private and public space" within the framework of her qualitative abductive study, in which she uses the methodological means of biographical policy evaluation.