Academic Journal
Im/mobility as a form of gender-based violence: the case of transnationally abandoned wives in India
| Title: | Im/mobility as a form of gender-based violence: the case of transnationally abandoned wives in India |
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| Authors: | Harshita Yalamarty, Sundari Anitha, Anupama Roy |
| Source: | Journal of Gender-Based Violence. 9:291-307 |
| Publisher Information: | Bristol University Press, 2025. |
| Publication Year: | 2025 |
| Subject Terms: | 5. Gender equality, 05 social sciences, 0509 other social sciences, 10. No inequality, 16. Peace & justice, 0505 law |
| Description: | Transnational marriage abandonment (TMA) of women is a growing form of violence reported across India and South Asia. The spouse, most commonly a husband, lives and works in a foreign country and exploits the advantages derived from his citizenship or visa status to exercise coercion and control over the immigrating wife. TMA takes different forms, including when a woman is left behind with the in-laws while waiting for the husband to provide visa sponsorship for her migration. Such women are vulnerable to financial precarity, isolation and domestic violence from in-laws, may be dispossessed from their marital home and served with ex parte divorces. Drawing on life-history interviews with 35 ‘never-migrant’ women conducted between 2013 and 2016, and subsequent policy and legal developments in India and the UK, this article seeks to unpack the gendered dimensions of im/mobility within TMA. Women’s immobilisation results from state migration policies, legal obstacles, patriarchal socio-cultural norms and purposive actions by husbands and their families to perpetually defer visa sponsorship and extract labour and/or money from women. Our findings indicate that immobilisation is a key facet of violence against women and legal responses to TMA must utilise a gender-based violence framework that can incorporate immobilised ‘never-migrant’ women. |
| Document Type: | Article |
| ISSN: | 2398-6816 2398-6808 |
| DOI: | 10.1332/23986808y2024d000000040 |
| Accession Number: | edsair.doi...........b9d12363f16819fc9b51de266ced91ea |
| Database: | OpenAIRE |
| ISSN: | 23986816 23986808 |
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| DOI: | 10.1332/23986808y2024d000000040 |