COVID-19, Intimate Partner Violence, and Immigrant Women: SDG 18 and Overcoming Communication Barriers to Attain Goal 5

Abstract

Gaining gender parity and empowerment of women across the globe is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Women’s equality is an integral aspect of inclusive and sustainable development, and the success of all SDGs depends on the achievement of Goal 5—the attainment of gender equality. Unfortunately, the targeted elimination of many of the structural barriers that restrict women’s rights in private and public spheres has halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On October 28, 2020, an article in NPR noted that “[w]omen are seeing the fabric of their lives unravel during the coronavirus pandemic … the pandemic is wreaking havoc on households, and women are bearing the brunt of it”. Disease outbreaks have traditionally exacerbated gender inequality and increased vulnerabilities borne by women, besides derailing hard-won progress. During lockdowns necessitated by the pandemic, women are at greater risk of domestic violence perpetrated by intimate partners and family members. Concurrently, women also suffer from decreased access to violence prevention and support services. Additionally, they are also disproportionately disadvantaged by reduced access to sexual and reproductive health services. Hard-fought gains for women’s rights are also under threat across the globe.

Intimate partner violence (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. Among immigrant victims of IPV in US, disclosure, support-seeking behavior, and resource uptake were remarkably low in pre-COVID-19 times. Yet, the impact of COVID-19 on intimate partner violence (IPV) support services programs catering to immigrant groups in US is a topic that remains largely unexplored. The current paper delineates the impact of COVID-19 on the support-seeking and service utilization among immigrant victims of IPV living in the US. It incorporates the conceptual framework of intersectionality, which recognizes that women of color experience life and negotiate a pandemic through multiple systems of oppression.

Immigrant women experience the same stressors and trauma of IPV as women born in the US, 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 US during COVID-19 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 and 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 US.

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic can reverse the limited progress made on gender equality and women’s rights globally. For immigrant women in the US the coronavirus outbreak can aggravate existing inequalities besides restricting an already limited access to essential support services across every sphere—from health to economy, to security and social protection. It is essential to create targeted responses to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on immigrant women and to ensure that the long-term recovery benefits them and creates a path toward achievement of Goal 5. The chapter expects to add to research on a proposed SDG 18 which will create a framework of accessible communication strategies for all. The latter in turn can precipitate a reimagined IPV service delivery—rooted not only in the traditionalist feminist paradigm but also in the context of intersectionality that strives to address the unique experiences of immigrant battered women. The proposed SDG 18 (Communication for all) can play an important role in overcoming barriers toward attainment of Goal 5 among immigrant women in the US, by highlighting on intersecting issues of displacement and marginalization during and after the pandemic.