Institutional Solidarity in The Netherlands: Examining the Role of Dutch Policies in Women with Migration Backgrounds’ Decisions to Leave a Violent Relationship
Abstract
:1. Introduction
“My husband knew that if I leave [him], I might ruin everything, so he blackmailed me: “if you leave, you will lose your papers, it’s me who decides to send you back to your country”, and I was afraid. Because I was new here, I didn’t know the rules of this country, I was afraid to go to the police and tell them I’m living in hell”—Patience
1.1. Domestic Violence, Culture, Gender, and Migration
1.2. Domestic Violence: An Institutional Perspective on Solidarity
1.2.1. Domestic Violence and Institutional Solidarity
“a pattern of behavior in any relationship that is used to gain or maintain power and control over an intimate partner. Abuse is physical, sexual, economic, or psychological actions or threats of actions that influence another person. This includes any behaviors that frighten, intimidate, terrorize, manipulate, hurt, humiliate, blame, injure, or wound someone”.
1.2.2. Discretionary Freedom and Domestic Violence
1.3. The Dutch Policy on Domestic Violence
1.4. Domestic Violence and Immigration Policies
In Case of Domestic Violence
2. Methodology
2.1. Narrative Interviews
2.2. Semi-Structured Interviews
2.3. Participant Observation
3. Results
3.1. Policies on Domestic Violence in Practice
3.1.1. Women
“I am holding this place for another woman with a family who really needs to leave now instead of tomorrow. But the place is occupied because I am here. Whereas I could have also waited for urgency with my mother”—Yasmina
“When I had to go to the other shelter, they said I need to report first. I said: “I can’t report for my safety”, so they said that I will have to go back to Morocco”—Espoir
“…my father told my mother: “I only accept her dead.” Because the honour of the family, it’s in a sinking ship”.—Patience
3.1.2. Social Workers
“… eventually the perpetrator goes back to the house and the wife and children have to leave anyway. What you often see is that it is very acute, that they must leave at once and leave everything behind. So, a restraining order, it’s good that it’s there. It is for a short period, it can be extended if necessary, but it turns out that it is not enough”.—Sofia
“That fear is valid, though. Because even with the first report, you are not immediately placed in a shelter. There is still research to be done”—Cloë
3.2. Implementation of Policy by Professionals
3.2.1. Women
“People came for my infuse and asked why I was always here alone, where my husband was. “I find it weird, why are you so sick? Are your in-laws good with you?” They asked”—Espoir
“And then the nurse, she called me, and she said: “you must take a step for your children. If you won’t, I will go to child custody, and we will take the children”.”—Mary
3.2.2. Social Workers
“Look, most of the women are here because Veilig Thuis told them: “If you don’t leave that man, we will take your children”.”—Mona
3.3. Leaving a Violent Relationship as a Marriage Migrant
Women
“When I was finally allowed to naturalise for my Dutch citizenship, he [told the IND that they had to] stop my residence permit [suggesting to the IND that the relationship was ending]. So, everything then lapsed. It’s been lost violent years.”
4. Discussion
4.1. Is There Enough Institutional Solidarity towards Women?
4.2. Recommendations
4.3. Limitations and Further Research
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Acknowledgments
Conflicts of Interest
1 | The term ‘with a migration background’ was introduced to replace the term allochthonous. The term was widely criticized, including by Schinkel [9]. The term would imprison people, including those, who are born in The Netherlands and hold Dutch nationality, in a perpetual otherness. The new term includes both (marriage) migrants and (Dutch) people of migrant origin, without suggesting that the latter are still considered as migrants, and thus does more justice to their actual status. |
2 | Veilig Thuis (Safe at Home) [26] is a country-wide organization with expertise in domestic violence, such as intimate partner violence, elder abuse, and child abuse. Survivors and perpetrators can call Veilig Thuis for help. Moreover, the organization advises professionals when they have concerns or suspicions of violence. Next to listening to, among others, survivors of domestic violence, Veilig Thuis will investigate the severity of the situation. In case of a dangerous and urgent situation, especially when there are children present, Veilig Thuis has to start follow-up steps such as bringing the survivor(s) to a safer situation. |
3 | We would emphasize that even if the women interviewed here have self-identified the same cultural background, their experiences were far from homogenous, due to the intersections of a range of other factors, including socio-economic status, family structure, and migration histories. Similarly, we recognise that the category of ‘cultural background’, even where self-identified as in this paper, reflects an imperfect categorisation that cannot fully encompass the complexities of individual identity and senses of cultural belonging and hertiage. We use this categorisation here simply as a means to indicate the range of backgrounds of the women we worked with and to foreground their diversity of experience. |
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Nationality | Self-Identified Cultural Background | Age | How Long Have They Been Living in The Netherlands? |
---|---|---|---|
Moroccan | Moroccan | 43 | 2 years and 6 months |
Moroccan | Moroccan | 27 | 1 year and 6 months |
Surinamese | Hindu | 46 | 6 years |
Surinamese | Hindu | 34 | 4 years |
Iranian | Iranian | 37 | 5 years |
Pakistani | Pakistani | 27 | 3 years |
Dutch | Hindu–Dutch | 31 | Since childhood |
Dutch | Hindu–Dutch | 33 | Born in The Netherlands |
Dutch | Turkish | 28 | Born in The Netherlands |
Dutch | Dutch (with Indonesian roots) | 34 | Born in The Netherlands |
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Roegiers, C.; Saharso, S.; Tonkens, E.; Darling, J. Institutional Solidarity in The Netherlands: Examining the Role of Dutch Policies in Women with Migration Backgrounds’ Decisions to Leave a Violent Relationship. Societies 2023, 13, 243. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc13110243
Roegiers C, Saharso S, Tonkens E, Darling J. Institutional Solidarity in The Netherlands: Examining the Role of Dutch Policies in Women with Migration Backgrounds’ Decisions to Leave a Violent Relationship. Societies. 2023; 13(11):243. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc13110243
Chicago/Turabian StyleRoegiers (Mayeux), Chloé, Sawitri Saharso, Evelien Tonkens, and Jonathan Darling. 2023. "Institutional Solidarity in The Netherlands: Examining the Role of Dutch Policies in Women with Migration Backgrounds’ Decisions to Leave a Violent Relationship" Societies 13, no. 11: 243. https://doi.org/10.3390/soc13110243