Migrant Women's Transnational Experiences of Seeking Support and Navigating Domestic and Family Violence: The Case of the Korean Australian Community

Rather than view domestic and family violence (DFV) as occurring within the borders of a single nation-state, this work approaches DFV as a transnational phenomenon subject to the social and cultural understandings, bureaucracies, policing and justice systems, media representations and information shared between origin countries and destinations. Transnationality can create opportunities for some women; however, other women may experience a lack of support and increased vulnerability due to their unclear legal and citizen rights, visa status or ineligibility for support due to non-residence. By amplifying the lived experiences of Korean Australian women and some theorisations of power throughout the work, this paper provides detailed insight into how a lack of structured support from both states and diasporic communities influences women’s decisions to seek support and enables perpetrators to continue to exercise violence against victim-survivors. In doing so, I aim to address the following question: What does it mean for the state to enact violence and add to the situation of DFV for diasporic women in particular? By addressing this important question, I argue that visa arrangements can be seen as a form of violence enacted by the state. This work adds to the current knowledge about how gender-based violence intersects with diasporic women victim-survivors' transnational experiences of migration and seeking support.