Migration and Class as Constraints in Battered Women's Attempts to Escape Violence in Lima Peru

Abstract

The impact of migration on women's experiences of intimate violence and on their efforts to leave abusive relationships in Latin American states is an important area that has yet to be sufficiently explored. A case study reveals many of the external obstacles that migrant battered women in Lima face in attempting to leave abusive relationships. The experience of Daisy, a 29-year-old indigenous woman and mother of four boys who migrated to Lima with her abusive partner and their children in 1997, shows that migration and class can play an important role in battered women's vulnerability to isolation and poverty, thereby prolonging the violence they experience.