"He Has Me Tied with the Blessed and Damned Papers": Undocumented-Immigrant Battered Women in Phoenix, Arizona

Human Organization, Summer 2004 by Salcido, Olivia, Adelman, Madelaine

Conclusion

Undocumented and conditional-status battered women's stories can reconceptualize the way researchers, advocates, and others theorize and intervene into domestic violence. We have tried to model a new approach in four ways: 1) by moving beyond a decontextualized mainstream approach to domestic violence; 2) by integrating components of a feminist "violence against women" analysis of domestic violence; 3) by providing an ethnographic account of structural forces and collective identities central to domestic violence; and, 4) by questioning the universality of leaving as a safety strategy.

We explored the effects of immigration on the battering of undocumented women in the Southwest borderlands and understood how undocumented-immigrant battered women struggle simultaneously around being "illegal" and battered. Ultimately, we observed this as a mutually constitutive relationship, in that immigration policy and migration informs battering while at the same time battering forms migration, and most recently, immigration policy. Gloria and Chave's and Sonia and Jazmin's stories may encourage researchers and advocates to ask additional questions-about kinship and familial ideology, national identity and the desire for cultural authenticity, as well as links between borderland economies and immigration policies-to determine whether current theories, interventions, and public policies address the double bind of illegality and battering in both receiving and host countries.

In addition to economic security, battered women may cross the border to seek safety. The border can be an emergency exit or an escape from a violent and controlling spouse. But the border also can be a prison, containing women and thwarting their escape from the near total institution of battering. The border can be a resource and a strategy of survival but it can also be a means of violence and illegality. Flowing from this battering perspective on the border is the pragmatic suggestion that NGOs and policy decision makers continue to reform immigration and welfare policies to reflect the needs of undocumented-immigrant battered women and their families, including those excluded from VAWA II. In light of interviewees' lack of domestic violence and immigration policy knowledge, the development of innovative means to disseminate information to immigrant women residing legally or illegally in the U.S. remains paramount. Something as simple as flyers or posters in grocery stores may reach marginalized victims. Finally, access to legal representation and economic stability remain critical missing elements in undocumented battered women's pursuit of safety.

Immigrant battered women's pursuit of safety may not embody the recommended form. Physical separation or legal divorce may intensify or engender new forms of battering and illegality for some. Leaving, or attempting to leave, also may threaten a woman's economic stability and legal viability. For others, remaining illegal and estranged from their husbands may constitute a strategy of resistance. Immigrant battered women's lives call into question domestic violence research and policy's emphasis on the termination of relationships and the pathologizing of women who refuse or fail to exit.