Presentation given by Paula Mayock, Sarah Sheridan, Ireland, at a FEANTSA Research Conference on "Homelessness, Migration and Demographic Change in Europe", Pisa, Italy, 2011

1. Insert your logo here
Migrant Women and Homelessness in
Ireland:
The Role of Gender-based Violence
Paula Mayock and Sarah Sheridan
Trinity College Dublin
Interdisciplinary
Center 'Sciences
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Homelessness, Migration and Demographic Change in Europe
Pisa, 16th September 2011

2. Acknowledgments
 Homeless women participants and service
providers.
 Funders:
 Irish Research Council for the Humanities
and Social Sciences (IRCHSS) Research
Fellowship Scheme (2009-10)
 Health Service Executive, Ireland (2010-11)
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3. Contextualising Immigration into Ireland
 Ireland traditionally has a history of emigration.
 ‘Celtic Tiger’ economic boom saw reversal of migration flows
 Percentage of non-national residents, according Central Statistics Office:
 1996 – 7% non-nationals
 2002 – 10%
 2006 – 15%
 2011 – Figures forthcoming.
 Countries of origin [source: Census 2006]:
 UK
 EU25 states – in particular Eastern Europe (Poland , Lithuania,
Romania…)
 Africa (in particular Nigeria)
 Asia (China, The Philippines…)
 United States of America
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4. Ireland’s Homeless Population
 Counted In (2008): 407 non-nationals, asylum seeker
and refugees using homeless services in Dublin.
 The most recently published survey figures suggest that
women make up approximately 32% of the homeless
population (Homeless Agency, 2008).
 Immigrant women may be ‘hidden’ or ‘concealed’
because of their preference for relying on family or other
unofficial networks of support (Nicholls & Quilgars,
2009).
 Women are in general a poorly researched sub-group of
the homeless population (Baptista, 2010).
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5. Women and Homelessness in Ireland:
A Biographical Pathways Analysis
 Biographical Interviews with 60 Homeless
Women:
 ‘Life Story’ – open invitation; women take control of
the interview
 Time Line – chronology of life events/housing and
homelessness
 Survey Instrument: administered after LH
interview
 Ethnographic Observation (at 4 sites; 3 key
informants)
 Photography Project : 10 participants
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6. Age of Homeless Women (n=60)
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7. Living Situations of the Women (n=60)
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8. Violence during Childhood (n=60)
46 of the women (76%physical, sexual or emotional abuse )
either witnessed or directly experienced during childhood
Of this sub-group of women:
 38 women (63% of the sample) experienced physical abuse
as a child
 Perpetrator usually a close family member
 5 experienced violence in a care/institutional setting
 In addition to this, 3 women reported having witnessed DV in their
family home
 31 women (52%) reported child sexual abuse
 Three-quarters of these were abused by an immediate family
member
 2 women was coerced into prostitution at the age of 13
 7 women reported rape during adolescence.
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9. Violence during Adulthood (n=60)
 50 women (83%) had experienced some form of violence during
adulthood.
 27 women (45%) reported some form of sexual violence as an
adult (including in the context of an intimate relationship)
 43 women (72%) experienced intimate partner violence
or abuse.
 9 women experienced intimate partner violence in more than one
relationship.
 34 women (57%) suffered violence during BOTH childhood and
adulthood.
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10. Immigrant Women in the Sample (n=17)
17 Immigrant Women Interviewed (28% of
sample)
Countries of Origin:
Eastern Europe n= 10
Southern Europe n= 1
Asia n= 4
Africa n= 1
Americas n= 1
(11 different nationalities)
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11. Profile of the Migrant Women
 Ranged in age from 25-52 years (mean 33 years).
 Living in Ireland from between 1 and 10 years (mean 4
years).
 The duration of their homelessness ranged from
between 2 weeks and 10 years.
 The majority (n=14) were mothers with children in their
care.
 Relatively well educated.
 Fifteen of the seventeen women were unemployed.
 Fourteen of the women held official residency rights.
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12. Migrant Women:
Living Situations at Time of Interview
Rough Sleeping
Friends 1
1 Migrant
Women
Temporary n=17
emergency
Transitional accommodation
housing 5
3
Domestic
Private-rented
violence refuge
accommodation
3
4
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13. Photo taken by Delilah (Age 30) of her shared living quarter
in temporary emergency accommodation, where she lives
with her child. At time of interview, she had been living here
for 19 months.
Delilah has no immigrant status, which significantly
restricted her move-on options.
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14. Migrant Women’s
Experiences of Violence
 15 of the 17 migrant women had experienced violence.
 14 of the 17 migrant women had experienced violence in the
context of an intimate partner relationship.
Of these 14 women:
 All reported emotional abuse from an intimate partner.
 All reported at least one incident of physical violence; 11 had
experienced violence on a frequent basis.
 6 /14 reported sexual violence in the context of an intimate
partner relationship.
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15. Migrant Women’s Pathways to
Homelessness
 10 of the migrant women attributed their
homelessness directly to intimate partner violence .
 Nature and duration of reported violence varied between participants
but usually involved a combination of physical abuse (hitting, slapping,
punching or choking), emotional/verbal abuse (intimidation, name
calling, manipulation, controlling threats and/or focusing women to act
against their religious beliefs), financial manipulation or economic
abuses (e.g. controlling finances, tampering with women’s immigration
documentation), and sexual abuse (e.g. sexual assault, rape).
 Negative impact of abuse:
“I was really weak, like powerless and without my will and
anything. I was just totally beaten dow n …” [Tereska, 25].
“I was down and depressed. My smile look like I am crying”
[Aisha, 31]
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16. Migrant Women’s Pathways to
Homelessness
Other Reasons for Homelessness (n=7) :
 Financial difficulties (n=5; 1 of whom had no immigration
status)
+ Violence from landlord
 Drug addiction (n=2)
Four of the women who have attributed homelessness to
‘causes’ other than domestic violence had also
experienced violence in the past (two of them from an
intimate partner).
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17. Case Study: Bina’s Story (32 years)
 Born in Asian country; Hindu origin
 Highly educated – third level qualification
 Married Muslim man at 23 years – disowned by her Hindu family.
 DOMESTIC ABUSE shortly after marriage:
 Physical abuse (punching, slapping, cutting hair…)
 Emotional abuse (intimidation, death threats, blackmailing…)
 Gave birth to two children during her 20s.
 30 years: Husband migrated to Ireland and continually encouraged
her to join; promising her that he would change his behaviour
 31 years – MIGRATION TO IRELAND:
She and her two children followed husband to Ireland. He
immediately confiscated their immigration papers and passports;
domestic abuse ensued.
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18. Bina’s Homeless Journey (31-32 years
old)
 Domestic violence and abuse escalated after migrating to Ireland
 Cultural shame and stigma of violence
“I don’t have the words but they have to, they are told to you have to endure
and they just keep enduring and they like….uh, seeking help from the refuge is like
a stigma for our community and people are too ashamed to say all these things.”
 Parents at her children’s school grew concerned for her safety
 She called Women’s Aid helpline (for victims of gender-based violence)
 Women’s Aid referred her to Domestic Violence refuge in Dublin. She took a
taxi later that evening.
 At time of interview, had been living in an emergency refuge for 9
months.
 No immigration status
 No right to work
 No welfare entitlements; surviving on emergency payments and charity hand-
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 Eventually returned to country of Demographic Change in SUPPORT IN
Homelessness, Migration and origin – NO FAMILY
Europe

19. Women Negotiating Violence in their
Homes
Barriers to Exiting Violent Home Situations
 High level of economic dependence on abusive partner
 High level of dependence on partner in a social sense
 Fear of “revenge”/escalation of violence
 Low family/other social supports
 Fear of exposing their violent home situations to the
outside world:
“So it [DV] started when I was 6 months pregnant and
then was very, very often because he know that I
don’t tell anybody this. I was so scared talking, I
never go to doctor to show my bruises”
[Immanuela, 29]
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20. Women’s Narratives on Help Seeking
 No/little knowledge about services: “didn’t know the system”.
“I had no idea a place like this (refuge) exist … I had no idea about
anything. I felt alone and just because of that I didn’t leave him
earlier” [Alexandra, 30].
 Supported escape from abusive home situations a dominant: support from the
police (n=3), social worker (n=2), GP (n=2) or a friend/neighbour (n=2).
 Three of the women approached a stranger on the street for help.
“I just found him in the street, you know, we aree the same Filipino …
he know I was really scared, I didn’t know where to go, I don’t
know the system in Ireland … I was just living with him two days
because he just offered me … he gave me information about that
(refuge) and that made me go to that emergency accommodation”
[Maria, 29].
 Anxiety of approaching services linkedCONFERENCE shame.
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Homelessness, Migration and Demographic Change in
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21. Barriers to Exiting Homelessness
 Lack of affordable housing: ‘stuck’ or ‘trapped’ in
emergency homeless/DV accommodation.
 Low/no income
 Unemployment.
 Inadequate or poor English language skills.
 Challenges associated with balancing childcare
responsibilities with the demands of seeking and/or
maintaining employment.
 No immigration status or entitlement to welfare
payments.
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22. Conclusion
 Violence a prominent theme in the life stories of migrant women; many
attrtibuted their homelessness to the experience of DV.
 Migrant women’s pathways to homelessness were nonetheless
complex.
 Economic dependence on partners/income poverty: ‘trapped’ in contexts
of domestic abuse --- becoming what Wardhaugh (1999) dscribes as
women ‘homeless at home’, where they continued to ‘suffer abuse,
violence and the suppression of self withing the supposed safe haven of
the domistic home’ (O’Sullivan & Higgins, 2001).
 Findings reveal an intersection between gender and their immigration
status (Pleace, 2010). This subordination, coupled with women’s
economic insecurity, was strongly implicated in the processess leading
to their homelessness and also limited the women’s ability to secure and
maintain housing.
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23. Photo taken
by Delilah
(Age 30)
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