IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v22y2025i4p627-d1636136.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

“Stuck Due to COVID”: Applying the Power and Control Model to Migrant and Refugee Women’s Experiences of Family Domestic Violence in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Azriel Lo

    (Curtin School of Population Health, Curtin University, Bentley 6102, Australia)

  • Georgia Griffin

    (Curtin School of Population Health, Curtin University, Bentley 6102, Australia)

  • Hana Byambadash

    (Curtin School of Population Health, Curtin University, Bentley 6102, Australia)

  • Erin Mitchell

    (Curtin School of Population Health, Curtin University, Bentley 6102, Australia)

  • Jaya A. R. Dantas

    (Curtin School of Population Health, Curtin University, Bentley 6102, Australia)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic had acute and lasting gendered impacts around the world, with UN Women declaring a shadow pandemic of violence against women. This study aimed to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on migrant and refugee women’s experiences of family domestic violence (FDV) in Western Australia (WA) using a community-based participatory research approach. Thirty-eight interviews and two qualitative surveys conducted with 27 women were included in the analysis. Interview and survey data underwent reflexive thematic analysis informed by the Power and Control Wheel, generating three themes and ten subthemes: (1) the facets of violence women experienced (isolation; economic violence; emotional violence; visa vulnerabilities; fear and uncertainty), (2) the systemic enablers of FDV and barriers to seeking help (FDV service provision; the immigration system), and (3) the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and government measures on women and family (enabling FDV; reducing the impact of FDV; COVID-19 paled into insignificance). While for some migrant and refugee women, government measures facilitated access to support for FDV, our findings show that for others, the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated and became part of the violence they had already experienced. Recommendations for tailored FDV and other support during the COVID-19 pandemic are discussed, including the expansion of family violence provisions for all visa types.

Suggested Citation

  • Azriel Lo & Georgia Griffin & Hana Byambadash & Erin Mitchell & Jaya A. R. Dantas, 2025. "“Stuck Due to COVID”: Applying the Power and Control Model to Migrant and Refugee Women’s Experiences of Family Domestic Violence in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 22(4), pages 1-29, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:22:y:2025:i:4:p:627-:d:1636136
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/4/627/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/4/627/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Liudmila Rozanova & Alexander Temerev & Antoine Flahault, 2020. "Comparing the Scope and Efficacy of COVID-19 Response Strategies in 16 Countries: An Overview," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(24), pages 1-17, December.
    2. William Msemburi & Ariel Karlinsky & Victoria Knutson & Serge Aleshin-Guendel & Somnath Chatterji & Jon Wakefield, 2023. "The WHO estimates of excess mortality associated with the COVID-19 pandemic," Nature, Nature, vol. 613(7942), pages 130-137, January.
    3. Thi Thu Le Pham & Janneke Berecki-Gisolf & Angela Clapperton & Kerry S. O’Brien & Sara Liu & Katharine Gibson, 2021. "Definitions of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) : A Literature Review of Epidemiological Research in Australia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(2), pages 1-23, January.
    4. Matthew James Cook & Gabriela Guizzo Dri & Prishanee Logan & Jia Bin Tan & Antoine Flahault, 2020. "COVID-19 Down Under: Australia’s Initial Pandemic Experience," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(23), pages 1-19, December.
    5. Shubhda Arora & Mrinmoy Majumder, 2021. "Where is my home?: Gendered precarity and the experience of COVID‐19 among women migrant workers from Delhi and National Capital Region, India," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(S2), pages 307-320, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Uxue Alfonso Viguria & Núria Casamitjana, 2021. "Early Interventions and Impact of COVID-19 in Spain," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(8), pages 1-15, April.
    2. Wang, Peipei & Zheng, Xinqi & Chen, Yuanming & Xu, Yazhou, 2024. "A novel spatio-temporal prediction model of epidemic spread integrating cellular automata with agent-based modeling," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 189(P1).
    3. Nadia Singh & Areet Kaur, 2022. "The COVID‐19 pandemic: Narratives of informal women workers in Indian Punjab," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 388-407, March.
    4. Bhorat, Haroon & Köhler, Timothy, 2025. "The labour market effects of cash transfers to the unemployed: Evidence from South Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    5. Isabella Marinetti & Dmitri Jdanov & Pavel Grigoriev & Sebastian Klüsener & Fanny Janssen, 2023. "Effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on life expectancy and premature mortality in the German federal states in 2020 and 2021," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 18(12), pages 1-13, December.
    6. Krushna Chandra Sahoo & Shubhankar Dubey & Girish Chandra Dash & Rakesh Kumar Sahoo & Mili Roopchand Sahay & Sapna Negi & Pranab Mahapatra & Debdutta Bhattacharya & Banamber Sahoo & Subhada Prasad Pan, 2022. "A Systematic Review of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene for Urban Poor in Low- and Middle-Income Countries during the COVID-19 Pandemic through a Gendered Lens," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-18, September.
    7. Martini, Christina A. & Bos, Björn & Drupp, Moritz A. & Meya, Jasper N. & Quaas, Martin F., 2024. "Dishonesty is linked with the spread of infectious diseases," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    8. Kozlov Vladimir & Pahomii Irina & Gagauz Olga & Šmit Jelena, 2024. "Covid-19 Mortality Shock: Demographic and Economic Losses in Moldova," Comparative Southeast European Studies, De Gruyter, vol. 72(1), pages 135-148, March.
    9. Karine Bertin & Johanna Garzón & Jaime San Martín & Soledad Torres, 2022. "COVID-19: A Comparative Study of Contagions Peaks in Cities from Europe and the Americas," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-35, December.
    10. Tamás Hajdu & Judit Krekó & Csaba G. Tóth, 2023. "Inequalities in regional excess mortality and life expectancy during the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 2316, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    11. Doran, Áine & Colvin, Christopher L. & McLaughlin, Eoin, 2024. "What can we learn from historical pandemics? A systematic review of the literature," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 342(C).
    12. Pedro Francke & Josue Benites G., 2024. "'Bonos’: Lecciones de las transferencias monetarias no condicionadas durante la pandemia de COVID-19 en Perú," Documentos de Trabajo / Working Papers 2024-534, Departamento de Economía - Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.
    13. Matthew J. Cummings & Barnabas Bakamutumaho & Julius J. Lutwama & Nicholas Owor & Xiaoyu Che & Maider Astorkia & Thomas S. Postler & John Kayiwa & Jocelyn Kiconco & Moses Muwanga & Christopher Nsereko, 2024. "COVID-19 immune signatures in Uganda persist in HIV co-infection and diverge by pandemic phase," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-18, December.
    14. Francisco G. Emmerich, 2021. "Comparisons between the Neighboring States of Amazonas and Pará in Brazil in the Second Wave of COVID-19 Outbreak and a Possible Role of Early Ambulatory Treatment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-18, March.
    15. Barrot, Jean-Noël & Bonelli, Maxime & Grassi, Basile & Sauvagnat, Julien, 2024. "Causal effects of closing businesses in a pandemic," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    16. Yao, Xuan & Xu, Zeshui & Škare, Marinko & Wang, Xindi, 2024. "Aftermath on COVID-19 technological and socioeconomic changes: A meta-analytic review," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 202(C).
    17. Narelle Campbell & Sandra C. Thompson & Anna Tynan & Louise Townsin & Lauren A. Booker & Geoff Argus, 2021. "Silver Linings Reported by Australians Experiencing Public Health Restrictions during the First Phase of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Report," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-10, October.
    18. Ritoban Kundu & Jyotishka Datta & Debashree Ray & Swapnil Mishra & Rupam Bhattacharyya & Lauren Zimmermann & Bhramar Mukherjee, 2023. "Comparative impact assessment of COVID-19 policy interventions in five South Asian countries using reported and estimated unreported death counts during 2020-2021," PLOS Global Public Health, Public Library of Science, vol. 3(12), pages 1-29, December.
    19. Yu Lu & Shaochong Lin & Zuo-Jun Max Shen & Junlong Zhang, 2025. "Location planning, resource reallocation and patient assignment during a pandemic considering the needs of ordinary patients," Health Care Management Science, Springer, vol. 28(2), pages 234-258, June.
    20. Tamaryn Menneer & Zening Qi & Timothy Taylor & Cheryl Paterson & Gengyang Tu & Lewis R. Elliott & Karyn Morrissey & Markus Mueller, 2021. "Changes in Domestic Energy and Water Usage during the UK COVID-19 Lockdown Using High-Resolution Temporal Data," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-21, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:22:y:2025:i:4:p:627-:d:1636136. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.