Accounting for inequities in accessing support following sexual abuse: a case analysis of a family with a migration background

Migration to Chile has risen in recent years, especially from Venezuela, reflecting that country’s context of enduring socio-economic and political crisis. Within a larger research project about children who have been sexually abused and are undergoing psychotherapy in specialized public programs in Chile, this paper aims to explore the intersecting needs of families and the challenges faced by child services when families with insecure migration status access to support related to specialized interventions following sexual abuse. Through an individual case analysis, the paper illuminates why intervention needs to engage with the intersectional inequities experienced by families from migration backgrounds. The analysis focuses on a of a Venezuelan family (of black African origin) who have insecure migration status in Chile: a six-year-old girl (who was subjected to intra-familial sexual abuse) and her grandmother. Qualitative longitudinal interviews with the child (complemented by arts-based methods) and grandmother were conducted: (i) within 2–3 months of the beginning of therapy; (ii) about nine months later; (iii) within two weeks of the end of therapy; and (iv) approximately 4–5 months after therapy ended. The analysis of these eight interviews through this longitudinal and multi-perspective lens sheds light on the implications of the family’s insecure migration status for the child’s access to support, documenting corresponding complexities in the legal process, which pose barriers to establishing a stable formal custody agreement. In turn, these structural factors intersect with the child and grandmother’s needs and concerns, shaping possibilities for specialist psychotherapeutic intervention. As a whole, this exemplar case illuminates the social and relational vulnerabilities that may be generated for families from migration backgrounds in child welfare interventions, demonstrating the need for a different approach to tackle inequity in access to services and security in children’s lives.