Interviews with migrant women reveal defects within the UK immigration system

Diana, a 23-year-old Mexican woman, lived in a small town in England with her

husband. When they had gotten married, she moved from Mexico to the UK, obtaining a spouse

visa so she could live with him as a legal resident of Britain. However, Diana’s husband began to

abuse her almost immediately after she arrived in England. He threatened her with deportation,

saying things such as “if you don’t behave well, I’m going to put you in a plane and send you

back to your country,” according to Diana. Because she was in the country on a spouse visa,

Diana felt that there was nothing she could do to seek help, believing her husband could

completely control her immigration status. It wasn’t until he attempted to strangle her that she

gathered up the courage to call the police, and even then, he claimed that Diana was lying in

order to secure a more permanent immigration status. He was arrested on charges of domestic

violence, but was acquitted during the trial.

Unfortunately, this is a story that is all too common among Latin American migrant

women in the UK– their spouses use their immigration status as a method of control, and the

immigration system lets them.

Rosa dos Ventos Lopes Heimer has conducted research into the effects of the UK

immigration system on Latin American women. Through countless interviews, including with

Diana, she has put together a picture of struggles faced by many who migrate to the UK. Many

are a direct result of policies and actions of the UK immigration system.

The women interviewed were all survivors of abuse by their partners, and this study

shows how those partners were able to manipulate the immigration system to support their abuse.

The most common way this was done was through threats of deportation in order to prevent the

women from leaving them. One example of this, similar to Diana, was Lorena’s situation. When
she threatened to leave her British husband, he threatened to evict her and call the Home Office

to have her deported.

The system also enabled their abuse indirectly. When many of these women reached out

for help, they were either not believed or refused assistance because of their undocumented or

portrayed undocumented status. One interviewee, Tainara, spent years living in poverty being

harassed by her abusive ex-husband, and was brushed off whenever she tried to report it. She

was told that a few bruises was not enough evidence for them to do anything, and was denied

access to welfare support for her and her daughter. Because she was ignored, her ex-husband

continued to break into her house and harass her in other ways without fear of consequence. This

was not just a result of the workers’ bias, it is a greater issue with the whole system. There are

even specific written policies that say to deny migrant women experiencing abuse access to

support, such as welfare, housing, and placement in a refuge. In fact, the 2014 Immigration Act

enacted “hostile environment” policies, which were intended to make conditions for migrants

bad enough that they would return to their previous countries.

The experiences of the women interviewed by Heimer expose many deficiencies with the

UK immigration system, especially in regards to protecting migrant women from abuse. Policies

need to change and safeguards must be put in place in order to rectify this.