This article investigates women's experiences of gender-based violence (GBV) and migration, using data from a quantitative survey of migrant women in France. Breaking down their life trajectories into three phases—before, during, and after migration, we show how these elements intertwine, and even mutually reinforce one another. First, women who experienced different forms of GBV in their country of origin were more likely to make a more complex migration journey. Second, long journey, requiring multiple means of transportation and crossing multiple countries, in particular Libya, considerably increase the risk. Third, migrant women in France face a high risk of GBV independently of the complexity of their migration journey. Women's experiences of violence and migration can thus be understood as entangled.
AndroA.ScodellaroC.EberhardM.GellyM., & l’équipe Dsafhir. (2019). Parcours migratoire, violences déclarées et santé perçue des femmes migrantes hébergées en hôtel en Île-de-France. Enquête Dsafhir. Bulletin Epidémiologique Hebdomadaire, (17–18), 334–341. http://beh.santepubliquefrance.fr/beh/2019/17-18/2019_17-18_3.html
3.
AraujoJ. D. O.SouzaF. M. D.ProençaR.BastosM. L.TrajmanA.FaersteinE. (2019). Prevalence of sexual violence among refugees: A systematic review. Revista de Saúde Pública, 53(78), 15. https://doi.org/10.11606/s1518-8787.2019053001081
4.
BacchusL. J.RanganathanM.WattsC.DevriesK. (2018). Recent intimate partner violence against women and health: A systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies. BMJ Open, 8(e019995), 20. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2017-019995
5.
BeaucheminC.CaronL.HaddadM.TemporalF. (2021). International migration: What is measured (and what is not). Population & Societies, 594(10), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.3917/popsoc.594.0001
6.
BlackJ. (2020). “No one talks about what it’s really like”—Risks faced by migrants in the Sahara Desert. In International organization for migration, migration in west and north Africa and across the Mediterranean. Trends, risks, development and governance (pp. 149–161). International Organization for Migration.
7.
BoydM. (1989). Family and personal networks in international migration: Recent developments and new agendas. International Migration Review, 23(3), 638–670. https://doi.org/10.1177/019791838902300313
8.
BretonD.BelliotN.BarbieriM.ChaputJ.d’AlbisH. (2023). Recent demographic trends in France. Do men and women behave differently? (C. Dutreuilh, Trad.). Population, 78(3–4), 325–388. https://doi.org/10.3917/popu.2303.0363
9.
BrownE.DebaucheA.HamelC.MazuyM. (2020). Violences et rapports de genre. Enquête sur les violences de genre en France. Ined éditions.
Cook HeffronL. (2019). “Salía de uno y me metí en otro”: Exploring the migration-violence nexus among Central American women. Violence Against Women, 25(6), 677–702. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801218797473
12.
CreightonM. J.RiosmenaF. (2013). Migration and the gendered origin of migrant networks among couples in Mexico. Social Science Quarterly, 94(1), 79–99. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2012.00928.x
13.
CusumanoE. (2019). Migrant rescue as organized hypocrisy: EU maritime missions offshore Libya between humanitarianism and border control. Cooperation and Conflict, 54(1), 3–24. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010836718780175
14.
DaduscD.MuduP. (2022). Care without control: The humanitarian industrial complex and the criminalisation of solidarity. Geopolitics, 27(4), 1205–1230. https://doi.org/10.1080/14650045.2020.1749839
15.
DanneckerP. (2005). Transnational migration and the transformation of gender relations: The case of Bangladeshi Labour Migrants. Current Sociology, 53(4), 655–674. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392105052720
16.
DaviesT.IsakjeeA.DhesiS. (2017). Violent inaction: The necropolitical experience of refugees in Europe. Antipode, 49(5), 1263–1284. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12325
17.
DobashR. P.DobashR. E.CavanaghK.LewisR. (1998). Separate and intersecting realities. A comparison of men’s and women’s accounts of violence against women. Violence Against Women, 4(4), 382–414. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801298004004002
18.
EN-HERA!. (2009). Promotion of sexual and reproductive health and rights of refugee, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants in Europe & Beyond (No. EN-HERA! Report 1; Academia Press, p. 128). IRCH.
19.
Engliz-BeyE.CavalinC.BrocvielleM.Le MénerE. (2019). Violences subies et état de santé: Résultats et enseignements de santé publique tirés de bilans infirmiers réalisés en Île-de-France auprès de populations migrantes (octobre 2015-juillet 2018). Bulletin Epidémiologique Hebdomadaire, (17–18), 312–326. http://beh.santepubliquefrance.fr/beh/2019/17-18/2019_17-18_1.html
FreedmanJ. (2015). Gendering the international asylum and refugee debate. Palgrave Macmillan.
22.
FreedmanJ. (2016a). Engendering security at the borders of Europe: Women migrants and the Mediterranean ‘crisis’. Journal of Refugee Studies, 29(4), 568–582. https://doi.org/10.1093/jrs/few019
23.
FreedmanJ. (2016b). Sexual and gender-based violence against refugee women: A hidden aspect of the refugee “crisis.”Reproductive Health Matters, 24(47), 18–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rhm.2016.05.003
24.
FreedmanJ. (2017). Women’s experience of forced migration: Gender-based forms of insecurity and the uses of “vulnerability”. In FreedmanJ.KivilicimZ.BakaciogluN. O. (Eds.), A gendered approach to the Syrian refugee crisis (pp. 125–141). Routledge.
25.
FreedmanJ. (2018). “After Calais”: Creating and managing (in)security for refugees in Europe. French Politics, 16(4), 400–418. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41253-018-0071-z
26.
FreedmanJ.SahraouiN.TastsoglouE. (2022a). Gender-based violence in migration: Interdisciplinary, feminist and intersectional approaches. Palgrave Macmillan.
27.
FreedmanJ.SahraouiN.TyszlerE. (2022b). Asylum, racism, and the structural production of sexual violence against racialised women in exile in Paris. Social Sciences, 11(10), 426–443. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci11100426
28.
GiesbrechtC. J.KikulweD.SatoC. L.EsteD. C.WatkinsonA. M.FalihiA. (2024). “I felt like I was a puppet—he’s the master, and he’s playing with my life”: Newcomer women’s experiences of intimate partner violence. Violence Against Women, 30(5), 1126–1254. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778012231158108
29.
GonçalvesM.MatosM. (2016). Prevalence of violence against immigrant women: A systematic review of the literature. Journal of Family Violence, 31(6), 697–710. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-016-9820-4
30.
GrottiV.MalakasisC.QuagliarielloC.SahraouiN. (2018). Shifting vulnerabilities: Gender and reproductive care on the migrant trail to Europe. Comparative Migration Studies, 6(23), 18. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-018-0089-z
31.
HazenA. L.SorianoF. I. (2007). Experiences with intimate partner violence among Latina women. Violence Against Women, 13(6), 562–582. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801207301558
32.
InnesA.CarlisleS.ManzurH.CookE.CorsiJ.LewisN. V. (2024). Prevalence of physical violence against people in insecure migration status: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS One, 19(3), 29. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0300189
33.
JaspardM.BrownE.CondonS.Fougeyrollas-SchwebelD.HouelA.LhomondB.MaillochonF.Saurel-CubizollesM.-J.SchlitzM.-A. (2002). Les violences envers les femmes en France. Une enquête nationale. La Documentation française.
34.
JohnsonM. P. (2008). A typology of domestic violence: Intimate terrorism, violent resistance, and situational couple violence. Northeastern University Press.
35.
JohnsonM. P.LeoneJ. M.XuY. (2014). Intimate terrorism and situational couple violence in general surveys: Ex-spouses required. Violence Against Women, 20(2), 186–207. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801214521324
36.
JonkerI. E.LakoD. A. M.BeijersbergenM. D.SijbrandijM.Van HemertA. M.WolfJ. R. L. M. (2019). Factors related to depression and post-traumatic stress disorder in shelter-based abused women. Violence Against Women, 25(4), 401–420. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801218790700
37.
KastnerK. (2010). Moving relationships: Family ties of Nigerian migrants on their way to Europe. African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal, 3(1), 17–34. https://doi.org/10.1080/17528630903319813
38.
KellyL. (1988). Surviving sexual violence. Polity Press & Basil Blackwell.
39.
KeygnaertI.VettenburgN.TemmermanM. (2012). Hidden violence is silent rape: Sexual and gender-based violence in refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants in Belgium and the Netherlands. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 14(5), 505–520. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2012.671961
40.
KhouaniJ.LandrinM.BoulakiaR. C.TahtahS.GentileG.DesruesA.VengeonM.LoundouA.BarbarouxA.AuquierP.JegoM. (2023). Incidence of sexual violence among recently arrived asylum-seeking women in France: A retrospective cohort study. The Lancet Regional Health – Europe, 34(100731), 15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lanepe.2023.100731
41.
KimT.DrauckerC. B.BradwayC.GrissoJ. A.SommersM. S. (2017). Somos Hermanas Del Mismo Dolor (We are sisters of the same pain): Intimate partner sexual violence narratives among Mexican immigrant women in the United States. Violence Against Women, 23(5), 623–642. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801216646224
42.
KrauseU. (2015). A continuum of violence? Linking sexual and gender-based violence during conflict, flight, and encampment. Refugee Survey Quarterly, 34(4), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1093/rsq/hdv014
43.
LoisonM.PerrierG. (2019). Les trajectoires des femmes sans domicile à travers le prisme du genre: Entre vulnérabilité et protection. Déviance et Société, 43(1), 77–110. https://doi.org/10.3917/ds.431.0077
44.
López RicoyA.AndrewsA.MedinaA. (2022). Exit as care: How motherhood mediates women’s exodus from violence in Mexico and Central America. Violence Against Women, 28(1), 211–231. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801221992875
45.
MainaudT.RaynaudÉ (2021). France, portrait social. Édition 2021. Insee.
46.
MenjívarC.AbregoL. J. (2012). Legal violence: Immigration law and the lives of Central American immigrants. American Journal of Sociology, 117(5), 1380–1421. https://doi.org/10.1086/663575
47.
MenjívarC.SalcidoO. (2002). Immigrant women and domestic violence: Common experiences in different countries. Gender & Society, 16(6), 898–920. https://doi.org/10.1177/089124302237894
48.
MyhillA. (2015). Measuring coercive control: What can we learn from national population surveys?Violence Against Women, 21(3), 355–375. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801214568032
49.
NamB.LeeY.BrightC.NegiN. (2022). Polyvictimization and psychological outcomes among north Korean refugee women. Violence Against Women, 28(15–16), 3726–3741. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778012221088311
50.
ObinnaD. N. (2021). Seeking sanctuary: Violence against women in El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala. Violence Against Women, 27(6-7), 806–827. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801220913633
51.
OECD. (2004). Trends in international migration, annual report, 2004 Edition. OECD Publishing, OECD.
52.
OishiN. (2005). Women in motion. Globalization, state policies, and labor migration in Asia. Stanford University.
53.
ØrkeE. C.VatnarS. K. B.BjørklyS. (2018). Risk for revictimization of intimate partner violence by multiple partners: A systematic review. Journal of Family Violence, 33(5), 325–339. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-018-9952-9
54.
OunA. M.HadidaE. M.StewartC. (2017). Assessment of the knowledge of blast injuries management among physicians working in Tripoli Hospitals (Libya). Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, 32(3), 311–316. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049023X17000127
55.
PalloniA.MasseyD. S.CeballosM.EspinosaK.SpittelM. (2001). Social capital and international migration: A test using information on family networks. American Journal of Sociology, 106(5), 1262–1298. https://doi.org/10.1086/320817
56.
PannetierJ.RavalihasyA.LydiéN.LertF.Desgrées du LoûA. (2018). Prevalence and circumstances of forced sex and post-migration HIV acquisition in sub-Saharan African migrant women in France: An analysis of the ANRS-PARCOURS retrospective population-based study. The Lancet Public Health, 3(1), e16–e23. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(17)30211-6
57.
ParsonN. (2010). “I am not [just] a rabbit who has a bunch of children!”: Agency in the midst of suffering at the intersections of global inequalities, gendered violence, and migration. Violence Against Women, 16(8), 881–901. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801210376224
PhillimoreJ.PertekS.AkyuzS.DarkalH.HouraniJ.McKnightP.OzcurumezS.TaalS. (2022). “We are forgotten”: Forced migration, sexual and gender-based violence, and coronavirus disease-2019. Violence Against Women, 28(9), 2204–2230. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778012211030943
60.
PickeringS.CochraneB. (2013). Irregular border-crossing deaths and gender: Where, how and why women die crossing borders. Theoretical Criminology, 17(1), 27–48. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362480612464510
61.
PinelliB. (2018). Control and abandonment: The power of surveillance on refugees in Italy, during and after the Mare Nostrum Operation. Antipode, 50(3), 725–747. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.12374
62.
PiperN. (2003). Feminization of labor migration as violence against women: International, regional, and local nongovernmental organization responses in Asia. Violence Against Women, 9(6), 723–745. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801203009006006
63.
PoncetL.AndroA.EberhardM.FleuryM.RiouF.GellyM.ScodellaroC.HassounD.NosedaV.SpiraA. (2019). Investigating and improving access to reproductive healthcare for vulnerable migrant women in France. Social Science Protocols, 2(2019), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.7565/ssp.2019.2672
64.
PostmusJ. L.PlummerS.-B.StylianouA. M. (2016). Measuring economic abuse in the lives of survivors: Revising the scale of economic abuse. Violence Against Women, 22(6), 692–703. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801215610012
65.
PowellR.LeverJ. (2017). Europe’s perennial ‘outsiders’: A processual approach to Roma stigmatization and ghettoization. Current Sociology, 65(5), 680–699. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392115594213
66.
RajA.SilvermanJ. (2002). Violence against immigrant women: The roles of culture, context, and legal immigrant status on intimate partner violence. Violence Against Women, 8(3), 367–398. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778010222183107
67.
ReaA.MartinielloM.MazzolaA.MeulemanB. (2019). The refugee reception crisis in Europe: Polarized opinions and mobilizations. Éditions de l’Université de Bruxelles.
68.
ReillyN.SahraouiN.McGarryO. (2021). Exclusion, minimization, inaction: A critical review of Ireland’s policy response to gender-based violence as it affects migrant women. Frontiers in Human Dynamics, 3(642445), 1–17.https://doi.org/10.3389/fhumd.2021.642445
69.
RequesL.Aranda-FernandezE.RollandC.GripponA.FalletN.ReboulC.GodardN.LuhmannN. (2020). Episodes of violence suffered by migrants transiting through Libya: A cross-sectional study in “Médecins du Monde’s” reception and healthcare centre in Seine-Saint-Denis, France. Conflict and Health, 14(12), 6. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13031-020-0256-3
70.
RosenbergerS.MüllerS. (2020). Before and after the reception crises of 2015: Asylum and reception policies in Austria. In GloriusB.DoomernikJ. (Eds.), Geographies of asylum in Europe and the role of European localities (pp. 93–110). Springer.
71.
RoupetzS.GarbernS.MichaelS.BergquistH.GlaesmerH.BartelsS. A. (2020). Continuum of sexual and gender-based violence risks among Syrian refugee women and girls in Lebanon. BMC Women’s Health, 20(176), 14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-020-01009-2
72.
SahraouiN. (2020). Gendering the care/control nexus of the humanitarian border: Women’s bodies and gendered control of mobility in a European borderland. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 38(5), 905–922. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263775820925487
73.
Sanz-BarberoB.BarónN.Vives-CasesC. (2019). Prevalence, associated factors and health impact of intimate partner violence against women in different life stages. PLoS ONE, 14(10), Article e0221049. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0221049
74.
SchmollC.SpiteriA.SaïdM. (2011). Vision of Europe among Somali women in Malta (p. 27) [EuroBroadMap working paper]. EuroBroadMap.
75.
Seethaler-WariS.YanasmayanZ. (2023). Unfolding intersecting forms of socio-spatial exclusion: Accommodation centres at the height of the “refugee reception crisis” in Germany. International Migration, 61(3), 39–53. https://doi.org/ https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.13140
76.
SimmonsW. P.MenjívarC.TéllezM. (2015). Violence and vulnerability of female migrants in drop houses in Arizona: The predictable outcome of a chain reaction of violence. Violence Against Women, 21(5), 551–570. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801215573331
77.
SimonP. (2015). The choice of ignorance: The debate on ethnic and racial statistics in France. In SimonP.PichéV.GagnonA. A. (Eds.), Social statistics and ethnic diversity. Cross-national perspectives in classifications and identity politics (pp. 65–87). Springer.
78.
StierlM.DaduscD. (2022). The “COVID excuse”: European border violence in the Mediterranean Sea. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 45(8), 1453–1474. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2021.1977367
79.
TazzioliM. (2020). The politics of migrant dispersal. Dividing and policing migrant multiplicities. Migration Studies, 8(4), 510–529. https://doi.org/10.1093/migration/mnz003
80.
ThiaraR.CondonS.SchröttleM. (2011). Violence against women and ethnicity: Commonalities and differences across Europe (1st ed.). Verlag Barbara Budrich. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvbkjw5t
81.
TomaS.VauseS. (2013). On their own? A study of independent versus partner-related migration from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Senegal. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 34(5), 533–552. https://doi.org/10.1080/07256868.2013.827832
82.
UNSMIL & UN Human Rights Office. (2016). “Detained and dehumanised”: Report on human rights abuses against migrants in Libya (p. 32). United Nations Support Mission in Libya, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
83.
VandentorrenS.Le MénerE.OppenchaimN.ArnaudA.JangalC.CaumC.VuillermozC.Martin-FernandezJ.LioretS.RozeM.Le StratY.GuyavarchE. (2016). Characteristics and health of homeless families: The ENFAMS survey in the Paris region, France 2013. The European Journal of Public Health, 26(1), 71–76. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckv187
84.
VasilS. (2024). “I came here, and it got worse day by day”: Examining the intersections between migrant precarity and family violence among women with insecure migration status in Australia. Violence Against Women, 30(10), 2482–2510. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778012231159414
85.
WalkerH. E.FreudJ. S.EllisR. A.FraineS. M.WilsonL. C. (2019). The prevalence of sexual revictimization: A meta-analytic review. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 20(1), 67–80. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838017692364
86.
WHO. (2013). Global and regional estimates of violence against women: Prevalence and health impacts of intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence (p. 50). World Health Organization, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, South African Medical Research Council.
87.
WRC. (2016). Protection risks for women and girls in the European refugee and migrant crisis (p. 25). Women’s Refugee Commission.
88.
YakubovichA. R.StöcklH.MurrayJ.Melendez-TorresG. J.SteinertJ. I.GlavinC. E. Y.HumphreysD. K. (2018). Risk and protective factors for intimate partner violence against women: Systematic review and meta-analyses of prospective–longitudinal studies. American Journal of Public Health, 108(7), e1–e11. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2018.304428
