Violence Against Women: The Case of Immigrant Nigerian Women in the United States

• In Event: Intimate Partner Violence Re/Victimization

Abstract

Nigerian immigrants contribute significantly to the African immigrant population in the United States. In recent years, there have been growing concerns in the Nigerian immigrant community about gender-based violence against Nigerian women in intimate partner relationships. However, similar to other African immigrant communities, the Nigerian immigrant community remains largely untapped in intimate partner violence (IPV) research. Anecdotal accounts of spousal abuse of immigrant Nigerian women present a social context of gender-based violence that is grounded on the customary patriarchal arrangement that defines gender relations in Nigeria. This paper is a discussion of possible causes of IPV against Nigerian immigrant women when the Nigerian-type patriarchal mindset is transposed onto a different society (in this case, the United States) where gender relations in marital relationships are defined in ways that are in conflict with the Nigerian patriarchal structure.

Author

• Anita Kalunta-Crumpton, Texas Southern University