Addressing the issue in England and Wales with charity, Rights of Women, Dr Adrienne Yong and Ivanka Karaivanova have publicised the first conference at The City Law School, with further funding secured for a second conference in 2025.

By Dr Shamim Quadir (Senior Communications Officer), Published

In April last year, The City Law School hosted a conference to discuss the challenges that migrant victim-survivors of domestic abuse in England and Wales face, bringing together academics, charities and by-and-for organisations, public and local authorities and practitioners.

Organised by Dr Adrienne Yong, Reader in Law, The City Law School, the conference was supported by the Violence and Society Centre at City St George’s, University of London and funded by the Society of Legal Scholars (SLS) Research Activities Fund and City St George’s, Research Impact Fund.

The proceedings of the conference have now been captured in two documents compiled by Dr Yong and doctoral researcher, Ivanka Karaivanova, together with Jasbindar Bhatoa and Jessye Berkowitz-Werner of the charity, Rights of Women.

The first, an academic policy paper is published as a The City Law School Working Paper 2024/04, and summarises the main legal, practical and social issues that the panel speakers discussed during the first part of the conference, including some recommendations.

The second document, a conference summary, is available on the Rights of Women webpages. It is intended as a short introduction to the challenges facing migrant victim-survivors of domestic abuse, for women navigating the immigration system in England and Wales, and frontline professionals who support them. It recaps the themes considered at the conference with focus on its roundtable discussions.

The conference has successfully paved the way for the establishment of a fully-operational CoP of devoted professionals and academics.

Dr Yong commented:

I am delighted to see our CoP growing with more and more dedicated and promising researchers, academics, practitioners and organisations joining it. It is intended to be a vibrant space for exchange of knowledge, ideas, and expertise on various aspects of domestic abuse and immigration law.

Dr Yong has further secured funding from the Socio-Legal Studies Association’s Impact Grant, and City St George’s Research Award Funding, for a follow-up conference planned for Thursday 19 June 2025.

It will build upon the proceedings from April 2024 conference by spotlighting the experiences of regional organisations and victim-survivors from across England and Wales, with the aim of expanding existing perspectives on domestic abuse in this new immigration landscape.

Further details on the June event will be published in due course.

Get in touch

If you are a researcher, an academic, a practitioner or part of an organisation working in the area of domestic violence and immigration law and you are interested in joining the event or the CoP, please email Dr Adrienne Yong to express your interest.

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