Punishable victims: Interrogating intersections between gender-based violence and punitive migration policies in Australia

Abstract

This article explores how punitive Australian migration policies affect women on temporary visas who are victim-survivors of domestic and family violence (DFV). Drawing on interviews with 12 practitioners and one woman with lived experience, the study examines how mechanisms such as visa cancellations, immigration detention, and deportation create additional layers of harm for migrant and refugee women. The author identifies five intersecting harms: immigration detention as gendered punishment, the prioritisation of criminalisation over victimisation, hidden harms, ‘undeserving victim’ narratives, and the impact of consequential visa cancellation. The article argues that these policies result in a convergence of state and perpetrator interests, punishing women for their own victimisation. Through the framing of “victim punishability,” the study challenges state rhetoric around DFV protections in migration law, calling for reforms that recognise and address the structural injustices facing migrant women.