Gender, Movement and Safety

This book looks into the sexual assault of irregular/illegal immigrant women and girls throughout their arrival to the European Union borders and borderlands between the period of 2011 and 2018, through an Intersectional lens. It intends to analyze this sensitive human rights issue through grasping the cultural obstacles and procedures at European borders which have fueled the violation of this fragile migrant group's human rights, while also supporting this argument with academic research, statistical data and reports on irregular migration from international and regional organizations, security mechanisms at borders, and statistics on sexual abuse and exploitation during the aforementioned period.
It intends to explore the manner in which several factors and developments at European borders and in the borderlands have resulted in a more dangerous migration journey for these women and girls, as well as the likelihood of sexual violence of migrants, and female migrants in particular.
This book aims to comprehend the linkages between academic research and the supporting statistical information through the lens of Intersectionality Theory.
Through this lens, this process is examined across: power dynamics, security, legal status, and gender. Thus, it becomes evident that this particularly vulnerable group of women and girls from developing countries escaping war, economic burdens and conflict, are ostracized and subordinated in a number of interconnected patterns. This book highlights a need for more gender-sensitive policies because the group of women in question has close to no viable resource for justice within a system that currently acts against them and views them as criminal or "illegal".

Autorentext

Ms. Diab is a Canadian-Lebanese researcher, author, manager and consultant in the areas of International Affairs, Dialogue, Gender, and Migration and Refugee Studies. She holds a B.A. in International Affairs and Diplomacy she earned from Notre Dame University-Louaize (NDU) in Lebanon, as well as an M.A. in International Law she earned from NDU, complimented with coursework at both University of Pisa, and University of Palermo in Italy. Ms. Diab earned her second Master of Advanced Study in Democracy and Human Rights from the Saint Joseph University of Beirut in Lebanon, under a joint supervision with the International University for Rabat in Morocco. Currently, she is a PhD Candidate in International Relations and Diplomacy at the esteemed Centre d'Etudes Diplomatiques et Stratégiques (HEIP/INSEEC U.) in France. She currently serves as Country Director (Lebanon) of the Global Peace Chain. Other positions she holds include: Office, Research and Project Manager at the Lebanese Research Center for Migration and Diaspora Studies at the Faculty of Law and Political Science at NDU, Operations Manager and Youth Coordinator at the Lebanon Dialogue Initiative, as well as Consultant at the Lebanese Development Network. She is a Research Affiliate at the Middle East Institute for Research and Strategic Studies, as well as at the Carthage Center for Research and Information. Ms. Diab is also the Editor of The International Journal for Arts and Politics, a journal published by the Global Arts and Politics Alliance in Austria.

Leseprobe
Text Sample:
Chapter 4: Undocumented Immigrant Women: The Walls between Abuse, the Law and the Human:
One of the most critical issues within the field of Migration Studies today remains the delicate status of undocumented immigrants. In turn, immigration legislative proposals are currently at the center of heated debates on political, social, and economic levels - these debates often hindering the more important issue at hand which is the needs of undocumented victims of abuse.
Undocumented women who are victims of any form of abuse, be it physical, emotional, sexual or verbal abuse committed by their spouses, parents or citizens of the host country do not possess any form of legal protection. The sad fact is that the law does not always treat these immigrant women as individuals with rights, but rather looks at their illegal "status" as a justification for the fact that they are being stripped of their basic human rights and their dignity.
Despite the fact that discourse, research, and policy critiques have both addressed the severity of this issue, as well as provided tremendous research and publication efforts in the areas of history of current legal protections and the potential for these victims to obtain citizenship legally, little progress has been made in this regard. Even more noteworthy, is the fact that discourse and research has also tackled the barriers associated with reporting abuse and seeking help for undocumented battered women, and has also looked into medical practices and advocacy in order to aid in moving beyond the challenges in the accessing of services by this marginalized and segregated faction of the population.
The group "immigrant women" is a diverse group which encompasses women who have lived in the host country anywhere between one month and fifty years. An immigrant woman within this category may have entered the host country as a refugee, as a student, as a tourist, or as a jobseeker looking for better economic conditions and upward social mobility - with the initial intention of doing this legally.
The issue with rendering a life "illegal" is problematic on more than one level. One of the major violations of these individual's basic human needs often comes from non-governmental organizations who are sadly more preoccupied with the legal consequences or funding limitations of aiding a battered immigrant women, particularly one who is undocumented or who is "illegally present within the country" than in aiding these women in-line with their ownmandates, visions and mission statements. Is it that aid is selective? Or is it that aid has lost ist humanitarian aspect completely?
Often enough, the barrier between the law and the individuals exist due to the lack of education. Most non-governmental organizations mistakenly assume that the provision of services to undocumented women is against the law. However, what these non-governmental organizations are explicitly unaware of is that they are particularly exempt from any requirements of verifying immigration legality status as a pre-condition for the provision of aid.
Moreover, any non-governmental organizations, domestic violence programs, as well as shelter services which deny the provision of aid and protection to these undocumented immigrants are not only in violation of International Law, but are in violation of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (1990) Part I, Article, 1 stating: " [...] The present Convention is applicable, except as otherwise provided hereafter, to all migrant workers and members of their families without distinction of any kind such as sex, race, color, language, religion or conviction, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, nationality, age, economic position, property, marital status, birth or other status."
Immigration status is not relevant to a battered immigrant woman requesting the protection of her life on