Im/mobility as a form of gender-based violence: The case of transnationally abandoned wives in India

Abstract

This article explores transnational marriage abandonment (TMA) as a gendered form of violence in which husbands residing abroad leverage their immigration status to control and immobilise their wives in India. Drawing on life-history interviews with 35 ‘never-migrant’ women and legal/policy developments in India and the UK, the authors examine how visa delays, legal uncertainty, and patriarchal norms function as tools of coercive control. Women are often left with in-laws in precarious and abusive conditions, dispossessed of marital homes, and served with ex parte divorces from abroad. The study conceptualises im/mobility—women’s forced stasis in place—as a mechanism of gender-based violence and calls for legal recognition of ‘never-migrant’ women as victim-survivors under a gender-based violence framework. The findings argue for intersectional legal reforms that account for immigration regimes, power dynamics, and domestic abuse.