Book Review: The Borders of Violence: Temporary Migration and Domestic and Family Violence 

Guest post by Dr Erman Örsan Yetiş. He is a UKRI-Horizon (MSCA) Research Fellow in Criminology, Gendered Violence, and Migration Studies and the principal investigator of the UKRI-funded RAMPDOWN project at the Department of Politics and International Relations, the University of Sheffield, UK. He is also a senior expert in gender equality training, collaborating with various civil society organisations. His research interests include migration and diaspora studies, criminology, gender-based violence, psychosocial studies, critical studies on men and masculinities, social movements, and gender-sensitive research and design. He can be found on X: @cinnamonfennel, BlueSky: @ermanorsanyetis.bsky.social and ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Erman-Yetis-2  

Review of: The Borders of Violence: Temporary Migration and Domestic and Family Violence by Marie Segrave and Stefani Vasil (Routledge, 2024) 

In ‘The Borders of Violence’, Segrave and Vasil shed light on how the structural violence of the border regime exacerbates violence against temporary non-citizen women. Through their meticulous research involving 300 case files of domestic and family violence against migrant women in Australia and interviews with 18 victims/survivors and 23 stakeholders, the authors unearth the insidious ways in which state and migration systems perpetuate domestic and family violence. The book not only bridges various fields of scholarship but also calls for further research, inspiring scholars to contribute to the complexities of gendered violence and the impact of border regimes on women's safety. Therefore, I believe this is a crucial read for scholars examining gendered violence experienced by migrants within border regimes, particularly in the fields of migration studies, critical feminist studies, and criminology.    

It is particularly striking how the authors demonstrate that, while the Australian state seems dedicated to gender equality and preventing gender-based violence, this commitment primarily remains in rhetoric and is met with a notable gap in actual implementation, especially regarding migrant women. Australia’s security-focused border policies compromise the safety of migrant women – as their priority is the security state and the border regime. The authors’ analysis can be directly translated into other contexts and border regimes, as the differences among visa types and the legal and administrative mechanisms bear similarities in most countries worldwide. Australia’s example is pertinent to other nations in the Global North, which I have encountered through my RAMPDOWN project on migrant communities in the UK. Similar commitments to preventing gender-based violence often remain mere rhetoric while the discriminatory legal framework operates against these communities – allowing scholars to articulate this discrimination and exclusion through the lens of structural violence. Nevertheless, the book overlooks contexts without commitments to prevent gender-based violence, especially in many Global South countries. Implementing a stronger and more inclusive framework could more effectively integrate the Australian context into a larger perspective, providing a grounded understanding for a wider global audience. 

The authors use the conceptual framework of structural violence to unearth the fragmented and siloed approach of the state and to analyse how women with temporary visas are excluded from the protection of existing prevention services. Administrative and legal mechanisms vary greatly among different types of visa holders, inhibiting the formation of a comprehensive response to, and solidarity against, the issue of violence against migrant women. In line with the concept of structural violence, the authors emphasise the tendency to frame vulnerability in a reductive manner and remind us that individuals become vulnerable due to the structural conditions in which they find themselves rather than being inherently vulnerable. Alongside this, the authors recommend that researchers focusing on border criminology adopt a nuanced approach and avoid the tendency of applying a standardised framework for preventing violence or viewing migrants as a homogenous group.  

However, it also occurs to me that the emergence, accumulation and dissipation of such gendered violence could be more effectively explained through the concept of slow violence. The very concept of structural violence may risk flattening the realities experienced by migrant women by overwhelmingly reflecting the features of the top-down state structure and its mechanisms. As such, the siloed and fragmented approach implemented by the state poses a fine example of daunted managerialism as a form of slow violence, in which violence is regarded as a top-down administrative issue to manage, while its repercussions from below remain tolerable, if not totally negligible. This literature would deepen the authors’ commitment to a perspective of borders, which emphasises the protean realities of migrant women’s vulnerabilities in combination with the cruelty of the border regime and the varied layers and forms of gendered violence they face. The concept of slow violence, instead of structural violence, could have therefore conveyed their endeavours in more direct yet nuanced ways.  

In a similar vein, the authors highlight that they deliberately steer clear of a culturally sensitive approach as they aim to examine and elucidate the structural violence of the Australian border regime. Nevertheless, moving beyond cultural and identity-based politics, scholars in migration studies continue to acknowledge the significance of the cultural aspects of transnational migrants’ countries of origin when examining issue-based politics, such as gender-based violence. Thus, even if the authors relay the role of cultural background and context of origin countries in enabling gendered violence against migrant women in relation to the border regimes, these aspects are overshadowed by the theoretical frameworks they privilege in their analysis.  

The book consistently underscores that the system's failure is exploited by male perpetrators and their extended families. While I have no doubt that some men,  migrant and Australian citizens, exploit the vulnerabilities created by this border regime to perpetuate gendered violence,  there is a risk that this framing may come across as overly reductive. I was at times concerned about their depiction of an almost organic alliance between the state and migrant perpetrator men. Exploring this relationship in more depth, through empirical research involving migrant men or even perpetrators,  would help substantiate these claims and add additional complexity. For example, the authors disregard the ambiguity and fear perpetrator migrant men are also likely to experience in the face of the possibility of deportation or suspension of their visas in case their involvement in gendered violence is exposed. The key point here is that such fear and ambiguity do not act as a deterrent for perpetrator men but can, in some ways, exacerbate controlling behaviour, oppression and violence against women. While I acknowledge that this was a research study centred on migrant women, this nuanced understanding could be integrated into data analysis to foster a more thorough and significant discussion on these matters. This opens up potential areas for further research, such as the experiences and perspectives of migrant men in the context of gendered violence, which could enrich the current discourse and stimulate scholarly debate.   

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