This collection addresses some of the problems faced by immigrant women survivors of sexual violence in the United States. Additionally, this collection provides resources and tools for immigrant women and service providers who assist them, such as advocates, lawyers, and medical professionals. The annotated bibliography includes resources on many immigrant communities to highlight strategies that may be successful in stopping violence against immigrant women.
The immigrant population in the U.S. is diverse, and the barriers and challenges faced by immigrant women who experience sexual violence vary. This special collection is not comprehensive, and the documents included in this collection do not cover all immigrant communities. Rather, this collection highlights the common experiences of immigrant women who are victims of sexual violence, the legal protections and public benefits available, and practices and suggestions for increasing the effectiveness of services provided to immigrant women. This collection is also limited to documents that are freely available online.
We intend to update this special collection regularly and add new documents as they become available. We welcome your comments, suggestions, and information about documents for this special collection. Please submit your comments via VAWnet’s online contact form.
This collection was developed by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (March 2009), updated by ASISTA (October 2013), and complements the parallel collection, Immigrant Women and Domestic Violence.