Navigating Law and Vulnerability: African Women, Legal Consciousness and Intimate Partner Violence in the UK.

Abstract

Feminist migratory research has highlighted the gendered dimensions of migration, drawing attention to the compounded challenges migrant women face due to both gender and exclusionism in the migration process. Drawing on research that conceptualises legal consciousness and understanding of the law as both cognitive and behavioural, this study examines the gendered relationship between UK immigration regulations and African migrant women’s experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV) in the UK. Through qualitative interviews focusing on Nigerian migrant women on spouse visas, it explores survivors' informal understandings of their rights, duties, and justice in the face of violence and abuse. This paper identifies two key dynamics: first, the patriarchal inheritance of the law and its intersection with existing social contexts through its hegemonic and institutional power, shaping the women’s experiences; and second, the ways survivors exercise agency and show resistance by using the law to reduce or mitigate their vulnerabilities. It is argued that the UK immigration law within this context operates simultaneously both as a tool of oppression and as a legal pathway to safety and empowerment, with the women’s legal consciousness emerging at the intersection of these socio-legal structures.