Diversity Matters: An interdisciplinary Webinar Series

Beyond culture/ethnicity: shifting debates on gender-based violence in migration: A dialogue with Giacomo Orsini and Marina Della Rocca

28 May 2026

11:00 (UTC+01:00)

Please register here: https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/4172ff1a-6ff7-4d0c-885d-912c462ead5e@92513267-03e3-401a-80d4-c58ed6674e3b

Abstract

In this webinar, which is co-organized by the Center for Migration and Societal Change and the Gender Dynamics group of Eurac Research, Dr Giacomo Orsini (Eurac Research) and Dr Marina Della Rocca (Competence Centre for Social Work, Social Pedagogy and Social Policy -UNIBZ) critically approach gender-based violence in the context of migration.

Drawing on several studies they have conducted in diverse European contexts (e.g., Belgium and Italy), Giacomo and Marina provide alternative perspectives on the occurrence of violence within migrants’ couples and families. As gender-based violence within migration attracts growing academic and public attention, scholarly, media and political debates tend to concentrate on the culture or ethnicity of the migrants to explain the seemingly high(er) frequency of such form of abuse in migrants’ households. The webinar critically engages with these debates which culturalize/ethnicize gender-based violence in migration, to look instead at those structural constraints operating in the so-called “country of destination” to produce the conditions for such violence to happen. Administrative/bureaucratic and legal hurdles hit on migrants since they decide to emigrate up until they cross the border of the EU and (try to) settle in Europe. As showed in this webinar, by operating as in/tangible boundaries, migration policies and procedures shape profoundly the intimate love life of (racialised) migrants, increasing the sources of everyday stress and trauma and, with them, the likelihood of domestic/gender-based violence to happen. Drawing on the Personal Aspirations and Processes of Adaptation: How the Legal framework Impacts on Migrants’ Agency (LIMA) project he joined between 2018 and 2020, Dr Giacomo Orsini will discuss how (securitized/racist) migration policies operating within but also outside of family reunification in Belgium contribute (re)producing gender-based violence. Concurrently, by focusing on the everyday experience of the same policies, he also shows how migration governance operates to hinder battered migrants’ access to the available formal and informal protection services. Dr Marina Della Rocca will address the intersection between violence against women and migration from the perspective of support policies and practices. The presentation will examine the dynamics that reproduce structural barriers hindering migrant women’s efforts to leave situations of violence and will offer a critical reflection on processes of culturalization. The discussion draws on her ethnographic research in an anti-violence centre and on a study exploring understandings of violence against women and women’s empowerment from the perspective of women of different ages and backgrounds. The webinar series Diversity Matters explores the impact of migrations, diversities and mobilities on increasingly superdiverse territorial realities. Hosted by the Center for Migration and Societal Change of Eurac Research, the series is a forum for experts to share their work and expertise with an audience of fellow academics, students, decision-makers and practitioners.