| This dissertation examines the role of US legal and administrative institutions in intimate partner violence (IPV) against immigrant women in two instances treated as separate in policy and scholarship: 1) women seeking asylum in the US on account of IPV and 2) immigrant women facing IPV in the US. Through an analysis of congressional hearings, relevant policies and administration, court cases, and interviews with employees at non-governmental organizations that serve immigrant women, this dissertation analyzes the ways in which immigration law intersects with ameliorative policy intended to address IPV in these contexts. In so doing, I develop a broader understanding of how state institutions, policy frameworks, and policy implementation shape the lives of vulnerable immigrant women. Contrary to scholarship that views relevant policies and institutions in the US as well-meaning though inadequate, this dissertation examines the extent to which the state may be directly implicated in IPV against immigrant women and in fostering institutional conditions under which this violence continues to thrive. |
