Male violence in the life trajectories of migrant women / Las violencias machistas en las trayectorias vitales de mujeres migrantes

Abstract

This paper presents some of the results from ethnographic fieldwork carried out in different women’s shelters in the Valencia Autonomous Community. The aim was to find out the types of violence suffered by institutionalized migrant women, from their perspective and point of view. The study follows a qualitative methodology. Based on participant observation, personal documents, social reports and, especially, in-depth informal interviews, 15 life stories were compiled, 6 of which were for migrant women. The results show that underlying the life trajectories of these institutionalized migrant women is the fact that they suffered various types of violence in their families of origin when they were minors, and gender-based and institutional violence both as minors and adults. One of the main conclusions is that what makes these women vulnerable to male violence is poverty and social exclusion.

Keywords

• Migration
• Vulnerability
• Violence against women
• institutionalization
• Intersectionality