Domestic Abuse Among Asylum Seekers

Abstract

In recent years, domestic abuse among asylum seekers and refugees has been a major public concern across the globe. In the United Kingdom, it has culminated into a modern-day policy focus based on abuse between intimate partners. Consequently, many studies tend to focus on women abuse in intimate relationships in an attempt to comprehend the challenge and formulate an explicit response to it (Taylor, 2009). Domestic abuse is perceived to be the outcome of gender inequality perpetuation in the public and social realm. Women who have been curtailed from accessing services of the public due to their status of immigration have become an increasing public concern in the context of UK since thousands of refugees and asylum seekers dispersed during the last decade. This study will explore the sufferings of asylum seekers and refugees due to domestic abuse subjection (Burchil, 2011). The study is purposed to investigate domestic abuse problems. There are two key themes that shall emerge from this research: Forms of domestic abuses and their consequences; and factors that trigger domestic violence among asylum seekers and refugees. This research shall provide a comprehensive methodology that will be employed in the study, and as such, it will provide detailed explanations regarding the manner in which data will be collected, as well as some important factors, which consequently will enhance meeting the objective of this research. In this regard, this research will commence by providing the research design. Thereafter, this will be followed by a provision of the research sample, then the data collection tools and the timeframe required of this work. After these, the study will provide ethical considerations, and finally, the process of data analysis that will be used in analyzing the findings of the research.

Introduction

While family and domestic violence happen in a lot of societies, it has been noted that refugees and asylum seekers are particularly vulnerable. Notably, some characteristics of the family and domestic violence are universal; a lot are specific to the refugee and asylum seekers experiences. There is an assumption that domestic violence is based on culture in some communities, as a result, no serious response warranted from authorities such as magistrates and police have been documented thereby putting asylum seekers and refugees at danger from their violent partners (Dennis et al., 2017). Among the aims of this research shall be to find out the level of domestic violence among the asylum seekers communities and to give voice to individuals who have arrived as asylum seekers or refugee, and to study the contextual factors in a family and domestic violence in communities of refugees. This research shall also emphasizes on glaring adjustments that should be made by refugee cultures to the dominant culture in the UK due to some of the risk factors that may lead to domestic violence. The purpose of this research supports Dennis (2017) hypothesis that violence of intimate partner is often at its apex when the community is in transition when traditional roles are assumed by women or rather when women enter the workforce, this can equally be experienced when men are incapable of fulfilling their cultural roles as protectors and providers. According to Measham et al., (2014), asylum seekers are individuals who run away from their native country and enter another nation to apply for asylum. An asylum seeker can be a refugee or a displaced person. The person seeks for the rights to remain in a given country and hold to that status until the conclusion of the application.

Aim

This research shall primarily focus on exploring the issue of domestic abuse among asylum seekers and refugees. It will critically analyze and explore various forms of insecurity and vulnerability that a number of asylum seekers and refugees have been subjected to.

Objectives

In order to meet the aforementioned aim of this study, it will be of great significance for the researchers to break it down into achievable objectives. Notably, the most suitable objectives for this study would then be as provided below:

1. To find out the level of domestic abuse among refugees and asylum seekers

2. To study the contextual factors in domestic abuse

3. To protect and give voice to the asylum seekers and refugees

4. To find out ways in which this forms of domestic abuses can be prevented from future occurrence

Research Questions

In order to meet the objectives of this study, answerable research questions will be framed. Notably, if these questions will be answered appropriately, then they will be able to meet the objectives of this research, and ultimately, the aim of the study. They are as presented below:

The primary research question is as follows:

1. In which conditions can a refugee and asylum seeker be subjected to domestic abuse?

Other secondary research questions include:

2. What factors can cause asylum seeker to flee from his or her home country?

Literature Review

Various studies demonstrate immigration influence and factors that are related to refugee status on the experience of family and domestic violence. Few comparative transcultural and cross-cultural studies have however, been put into consideration. A lot of studies are based on culture and focuses on immigrant and linguistically and culturally diverse population instead of communities of refugees. Asylum seekers and families of refugees face more risk in addition to the risk faced by communities of culturally diverse origin and migrant families. Interventions by western into family and domestic violence consider rural intricacy of violence and the impacting dynamics on asylum seekers and the refugee communities (Turner & Herlihy, 2009). This chapter explore on a general theoretical review on domestic abuse experienced by asylum seekers and refugees.

Forms of domestic abuses

Sexual violence

Sexual violence is the attempt to obtain sexual act by coercion or violence against the wish of the person. Majority of sexual violence cases comprise of rape with the gang and multiple rapes appearing to be the most common practice. Persons who are sexually abused in several cases experience long term sexual abuse by one or more persons. Sexual abuse among the victims often result into HIV and STI's these majorly consist of sexual disorders, miscarriage, unwanted pregnancy and forced abortions (Reed et al., 2012).

Physics violence

Physical abuse often takes place largely in the form of non-life threatening. These forms of violence include beating, kicking or punching. In extreme cases, it's regarded to be life-threatening. These practices include: one being thrown out through the window, burning, choking, and being hit on the head and brutal maiming. Such physical abuse often result in bleeding, bruises, unconsciousness, heart problem and other physical complaints. In extreme cases it, causes death (Coffey et al., 2010).

Social-economic abuse

Social-economic abuse mostly consists of a frequent denial of legal assistance, the denial of basic services such as healthcare. Victims are subjected to social-economic abuse more often by their partners in a lot of cases. This res results in the loss of fundamental social support, since the victims are forcefully separated from their children and expelled from their community or family thereby terminating their social-economic networks. Several refugees lose their jobs and can no longer participate actively in society (Casey, 2011).

Drivers of domestic abuses

Economic dependency

Economic dependency may be as a result of legal status which makes it elusive for women to engage in income-generating activities. It can also be due to community and familial pressure that bars women from seeking employment. Additionally, women who join their partners through programs of family reunification may not be granted permission to work, or their working rights may be restricted. Similarly, asylum seekers may be curtailed from acquiring work permits in some regions of the states. Economic dependency makes it hard for women to abandon their abusive relationships (Twibell, 2009).

Xenophobia and racism

Refugees and asylum seekers can equally be vulnerable to xenophobic and racist forms of attacks and violence. This type of violence is encountered by both men and women migrants. However, in some cases, this form of violence can be gender-based. For instance, sexual insults or sexual harassment. Attacks by racist is often done by state authorities, individuals, or other institutions. For instance, there have been a lot of reports on gender-based violence which occurs within the asylum seekers reception centers. These forms of violence include rape and sexual harassment (Lusk et al., 2013).

Changing relationships and gender roles

The migration process may result in a critical change in relationships and gender role. This can be an empowerment source for some women, however, in some cases, the frustration and difficulties of migration or the reluctance of some men to accept different roles or mode of behaviours acquired by their partners in the new environment may imply that the two resort to violence. Recent research shows that the strains of moving to a new environment, unemployment and racism can result in frustrations that can ultimately turn into domestic violence (Mullally, 2011).

Lack of intervention by state institutions

One of the major challenges in recognizing domestic violence against migrants is the fact that they often happen in private spheres of the community or the family. This implies that the local authority or the police may be more reluctant to intervene in order to shield the victims against such abuses. The problem can sometimes be exacerbated by perception of the culturalist immigrant communities that triggers abusive or violent practices to other cultures thereby making the authorities to be more reluctant to shield the victims (Guruge et al., 2012).

Insufficient accommodation

Asylum seekers and refugees vulnerability to domestic abuses are triggered by the accommodation and reception inadequacy in many nations. A case in point is the Greek island where asylum seekers and refugees are coming in large numbers with no available accommodation. This implies that they are forced to sleep in fields, parks and streets. It has been reported that in Kos, the authority in charge failed to provide the refugees who were the first to arrive with good accommodation instead they were forced to live in small rooms without electricity and water (Bookey, 2013). Men and women were compelled to share outside water taps for shower and washing. A lot of women expressed fear of sharing space with men they did not know. Women in most cases stayed in their rooms for long hours and never came out even to use toilets.

Conjugal violence and family

Cases of violence within the family on both physical and psychological abuse have been reported. During the journey of asylum seekers and the majority of the refugees, women often suffer abuses from their partners who pose a threat to them instead of protecting them. Such women find it hard to abandon their husband due to the challenge of travelling alone with their children. For that reason, they get stuck in an abusive relationship with little hope of escaping. Other cases in Serbia have also been reported where husbands were very violent to their partners, however, they felt nothing they could do within their means to help these determined women who were passionate to reach their destinations (Ghebrezghiabher, 2015). There have also been reports that all women who travelled to EU countries received no help in escaping their violent partners. For instance, in Germany, a Syrian woman was raped and beaten by her husband while living in a temporary camp that was established to house the arriving refugees. The woman tried to file a complaint with police but no one cared to investigate the matter. Ironically, a body that was established to shield refugees and asylum seekers from any form of abuse explained that asylum seeking women did not deserve any form of security due to lack of clear policy to give direction (Twibell, 2009).

Violence during the journey

Many of asylum seekers and refugees suffer violence from different sources during their journey to their destination countries. Such violent originates from traffickers or smugglers who aided their journey. Women who travelled alone are specifically prone to attacks. This violence include sexual abuse and pressure to exchange sexual relation in situations where the victim does not have enough money to pay for their journey. The UNHCR also denotes that some women are sometimes coerced to swap sexual relations in order to be granted passage to European countries (Asgary & Segar, 2011).

Methodology

This chapter will provide the methodology that will be used in this study, and as such, it will give detailed explanations regarding the manner in which data shall be collected, as well as some important factors, which consequently will aid in meeting the objective of this chapter. Notably, accomplishing this chapter effectively shall imply that this study will be able to meet the objectives of this study. In this regard, this chapter will start by providing the research design. Thereafter, this will be followed by a provision of the research sample, then the data collection tools and the timeframe required for this work. After these, the chapter will provide ethical considerations, and finally, the process of data analysis that will be used in analyzing the findings of the research.

Research Design

This research will adopt a descriptive survey approach design. According to Kallivayalil (2013), a survey is defined as a collection of data from a given population in order to determine the status quo of that given population giving regard to various variables. Research based on survey is regarded as one of the best method used by some social scientist whose aim is to collect original data. This study will therefore adopt a descriptive survey design since the researchers will be more interested in acquiring information relating to attitude and opinion of the families towards domestic abuse.

Research Sample

A sample is a specific population subject. Generally, the size of the sample depends on research design, number of variables, accessible population size and data analysis method. In this study, a graded random sampling will be employed. A total of 6 asylum seekers and refugees will be subjected to the study. The sample population will be varied among different social and religion inclusions to avoid bias. Notably, this number of participants (6) was noted to be suitable for this study, owing to the fact that having to get their perception would determine the perception of the general population and thus, would aid in making significant conclusions, as well as analysis. All participant in the research will come in voluntary basis and no form of cohesion will be allowed in the process. All data collected will be considered opinions of the respondents and not of the interviewer (Lay & Papadopoulos, 2009).

Data collection tools

This study will adopt the use of qualitative research, owing to the fact that qualitative research allows the use of questionnaires, as it is regarded as most appropriate for this study. The questionnaires will allow the researcher to get the opinion of the participants, and derive their thoughts regarding certain subjects (Vincent et al., 2013). Whilst taking into consideration, qualitative research, it is of significance that this study will use semi-structured questionnaire, which will be presented to 6 asylum seekers and refugees as a primary source of data. A semi-structured questionnaire is good enough to capture the required data without deviation but also give room for a further explanation. Generally, the use of a questionnaire offers a structured approach to data collection to avoid biases and save time (Piwowarczyk et al., 2009). Also, the respondent will be at ease in a structured approach to data collection without feeling that they are being interrogated.

Ethical consideration

This research will ensure that it meets all the ethical considerations, in order for the researcher to ascertain that it is in accordance with the required ethical standards (Guruges et al., 2012). Firstly, it is significant to take note of the fact that the participants will be treated with topmost priority, and this then implies that it is only the researchers who will get access to them and no any other third party. In addition, the content of their answers will be treated with topmost confidentiality (Smith, 2015). In this regard, when the participants will have finished producing their answers and the questionnaires will have been gotten back, for analysis, immediately after the analysis, the answered semi-structured questionnaires will be discarded, in order for them not to get to the hands of any third party (Asgary & Segar, 2011). Additionally, the participants will be provided with high-end security to protect them from any form of harm from other external factors. The participants will be granted the consent to withdraw from the study whenever they feel like. They will be assigned helpers that will guide them and make them feel comfortably while giving out the information. If the research executes all the aforementioned guidelines on ethics, then this research will be able to meet its objectives.

Discussion and Conclusion

This research shall explore the nature of domestic abuse experienced by several refugees and asylum seekers in the UK since its arrival in the EU. The study will be based on a limited scope and therefore there is a likelihood of finding different forms of victimization which may lead to a dangerous outcome. This research is purposed to find out the vulnerability nature of impoverished asylum seekers and refugees. It is evident that young men appear to be more prone to domestic abuse than global expectation. This research denotes that individuals with the perception of heightened risk and the people who have been victimized personally are prone to domestic abuse perpetration themselves and therefore an urgent need for intervention is necessary (Shishehgar et al., 2017). In this research, there shall be a cross comparison of responses made by each refugee and asylum seeker respondent on each subject to make a poll on common response. Deduction shall then be drawn on response polls on each subject question. The findings of the research will be derived, and thereafter, they will be analysed by the use of thematic analysis. Notably, thematic analysis allows the researcher to develop significant themes, based on the provisions of the participants in this study, these having been analysed, bring forth the development of significant subjects, which would require the participants to expound upon them.

Prevention

With regard to prevention, these reports shall identify social support, social networks, awareness-creating and resilience of community as essential factors of prevention. Social networking tends to provide emotional and social support, trust, control perception and shared purpose. Absence of these factors negatively affects health. Individuals living in truncated networks risk lacking confidant or they will be unable to receive good social and instrumental support (De Haene et al., 2010). An issue that is given a lot of emphasis in the context of refugee where social exclusion risk and the need to belong are the major healthy sexual development determinants and outcomes of positive resettlement. In addition, there is need to formulate and implement policies that protect the wellbeing of all asylum seekers and refugees. Appropriate policies will ensure that individuals found abusing their partner in any form are nabbed and stern action taken against them. This will ensure that rights and freedom of asylum seekers and refugees are well shielded, hence happy life among asylum seekers and refugees.

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Limitation

It's worth noting that this research shall have practical limitations. The respondents in this research are sampled through graded random sampling and criterion. Since all the six field coinvent are trained in a similar manner and the questionnaires are thoroughly translated, it is almost a guarantee that their perspective of epistemology will not vary from those gotten from the main researchers. These components might cause biases in the data which is considered to be independent. However, they can be transferred to another similar population (Lusk et al., 2011).

Conclusion

The current crisis in Europe has led to multiple forms of insecurity and vulnerability for asylum seekers and refugees. The increasing number of both men and women who are trying to seek for protection domestic abuse and conflict in their nations are subjected to violence during their journey to reach their destinations. Unfortunately, some die on the way due to extreme domestic conflict. Smugglers and other traffickers take advantage of their situation and in return exploit them brutally. Therefore due to too such situations, Specific interventions of violence prevention and health promotion should be established to aid in correcting the domestic abuse among the asylum seekers and the refugees. It is imperative to empower research population in order to enhance social networks that increase social capital and facilitate the exchange of skills and knowledge through social learning. At the organization level, it's important that healthcare services are made accessible to all persons. At the level of society, well defined structural changes should be made on asylum policies in order to enable every person to fulfill his or her human right.

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