Immigrant Women, Violence, and U.S. Public Policy Dramas: Toward an Understanding of “Intersectional Relativity”

• In Event: 549 - Section on International Migration Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 05. Central American Migration

Abstract

This article interrogates how the social locations of gender and nativity intersect for immigrant women in the midst of contentious political battles in U.S. political culture. I compare two political dramas that implicate the realities of this intersection: the 2012 debates over the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act and the 2014 arrivals of Central American women and children who had crossed the Rio Grande seeking safe haven. I introduce the concept of “intersectional relativity” to name the dynamic fluidity of the intersectional experience, in relation to the waxing and waning of public policies, as they relate to these two dramas.

Authors

• Susan C. Pearce, East Carolina University

• Natalie J. Sokoloff, John Jay College of Criminal Justice-CUNY