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The Impact of COVID-19 on Support-Seeking and Service Uptake Among Immigrant Victims of Intimate Partner Violence

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The Palgrave Handbook of Global Social Problems

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Abstract

The impact of COVID-19 on intimate partner violence (IPV) support service programs catering to immigrant groups in the USA is a topic that remains largely unexplored. The current paper examines extant literature in order to delineate barriers in support-seeking and service utilization by immigrant victims of IPV living in the USA and assesses the impact of COVID-19 on such help-seeking and service uptake.

IPV is a serious national concern that has the potential to be exacerbated in scope and impact by the COVID-19 pandemic. Public safety measures adopted during COVID-19 – including physical distancing, self-quarantining, and “safer-at-home” mandates intended to prevent widespread infection – decimated economic choices and left many IPV victims trapped in close contact with their abusers while being isolated from networks of support. Among immigrant victims of IPV in the USA, disclosure, support-seeking behavior, and resource uptake are remarkably low even during pre-COVID-19 times. Immigrant women experience the same stressors and trauma of IPV as women born in the USA, but they face the added burdens of immigration status and negotiate the challenges of the pandemic differently. The IPV experiences of immigrant women in the USA during the COVID-19 pandemic can be exacerbated by a set of factors that are peculiar to their immigrant status. These may include limited English-language proficiency, unique sociocultural and religious norms, changing legal status due to immigration, lack of family support, stigma of IPV, uncertain or undocumented immigration status, threats of deportation as a means of control by the abuser, and increasing social isolation.

Despite IPV program growth, service gaps remain and have been magnified by COVID-19. This is especially true for immigrant women who are a marginalized and vulnerable survivor population in the USA. The paper expects to add to the repository of research that aspires for a reimagined IPV service delivery rooted not only in the traditionalist feminist paradigm but also in the conceptual framework of intersectionality, which strives to address the unique experiences of immigrant battered women. In order to understand the impact of IPV on immigrant victims, the paper outlines the case of South Asian battered women in the USA as an example. It also analyzes the literature on barriers to support-seeking and service utilization among South Asian immigrant victims of violence and explores the importance of culture-specific IPV response and support services.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Communication, Ramapo College of New Jersey, Mahwah, NJ, USA

    Satarupa Dasgupta

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  1. Satarupa Dasgupta
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Correspondence to Satarupa Dasgupta .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work and Social Welfare, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Rajendra Baikady

  2. Department of Social Work, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India

    S.M Sajid

  3. Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, Poland

    Jaroslaw Przeperski

  4. Department of Social Work, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, South Africa

    Varoshini Nadesan

  5. Inst of Social Welfare & Res, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh

    M. Rezaul Islam

  6. Sch of Philosophy & Social Development, Shandong University, Central Campus, Jinan, China

    Jianguo Gao

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Dasgupta, S. (2022). The Impact of COVID-19 on Support-Seeking and Service Uptake Among Immigrant Victims of Intimate Partner Violence. In: Baikady, R., Sajid, S., Przeperski, J., Nadesan, V., Islam, M.R., Gao, J. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Global Social Problems. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68127-2_271-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68127-2_271-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-68127-2

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