"We are Forgotten": Forced Migration, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence, and Coronavirus Disease-2019

Phillimore J., Pertek S., Akyüz Tursun S., Darkal H., Hourani J., McKnight P., ...More

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN, vol.28, no.9, pp.2204-2230, 2022 (SSCI) identifier identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 28 Issue: 9
  • Publication Date: 2022
  • Doi Number: 10.1177/10778012211030943
  • Journal Name: VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
  • Journal Indexes: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, International Bibliography of Social Sciences, CINAHL, Criminal Justice Abstracts, EMBASE, Gender Studies Database, Index Islamicus, MEDLINE, Psycinfo, Public Affairs Index, Social services abstracts, Sociological abstracts, Violence & Abuse Abstracts
  • Page Numbers: pp.2204-2230
  • Keywords: COVID-19, pandemic, structural violence, forced migrant women, SGBV, SEEKING ASYLUM, REFUGEE, WOMEN, PERSPECTIVES, UNCERTAINTY, FAMILIES
  • TED University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

Adopting a structural violence approach, this article explores, with survivors and practitioners, how early coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic conditions affected forced migrant sexual and gender-based violence survivors' lives. Introducing a new analytical framework combining violent abandonment, slow violence, and violent uncertainty, we show how interacting forms of structural violence exacerbated by pandemic conditions intensified existing inequalities. Abandonment of survivors by the state increased precarity, making everyday survival more difficult, and intensified prepandemic slow violence, while increased uncertainty heightened survivors' psychological distress. Structural violence experienced during the pandemic can be conceptualized as part of the continuum of violence against forced migrants, which generates gendered harm.