Migrant and refugee women on the Spain´s southern border: embodied violence and gender resistance

Abstract

This paper analyses the reality of sexual and gender-based violence in the Spanish southern border space. Increased migrant and refugee arrivals in the Mediterranean, especially since 2015, and the European Union’s outsourcing of immigration control have resulted in a shift from the eastern route (Greece) to the western (southern border). The study focuses on refugee and migrant women who reach that border and analyses both the embodied violence they face, and the strategies to resist it and continue with their migration.

Keywords

• spain
• morocco
• southern border
• mobility scheme
• gender order
• feminisation of migration
• sexual and gender-based violence