Sexual and
gender-based violence
THE CRISIS
Across crisis contexts, survivors of sexual and gender-based violence are rendered both uniquely vulnerable and invisible by immigration systems. To be eligible for asylum in the United States, one must prove that they were “persecuted” in their home country.
And, while sexual and gender-based violence is in and of itself a form of persecution that forces millions to flee their homes each year and affecting many who are also experiencing other environmental and political crises, sexual and gender identity are not considered explicitly protected grounds under United States asylum law.
The success of an asylum or other immigration claim often depends on the words used to tell a story, and whether those words have legalistic legitimacy. This means that language justice and access are especially important for queer people, women, and others who have been pushed to migrate due to sexual and gender-based violence.
OUR INTERVENTIONS
Respond’s translators and interpreters on every language and regional team have intervened to provide critical language access in hundreds of cases of sexual and gender-based violence.
We have provided interpretation for hundreds of children, women, and queer and trans people who are survivors of gender-based and sexual violence and who are seeking asylum in the United States. Our interpreters work to facilitate communication with their attorneys, social workers, activists, and other practitioners.
We train all interpreters and translators in our network on trauma-informed language work for victims and survivors of sexual and gender-based violence.
Some of the hundreds of cases we have supported in this area include:
We translated a landmark legal case of an Italian woman who had fled with her 6-year-old son from their home due to domestic violence, including physical abuse and threats. The U.S. Supreme Court in June unanimously decided in the woman’s favor that a lower court did not have to force the woman back to Italy. (read more)
We provided language support in the case of a woman who, after arriving at the United States with her husband from Pakistan, suffered from domestic violence perpetrated by him and her in-laws. They forced her to work and abused her. She was not allowed to do anything on her own. Respond Crisis Translation’s Urdu team translated her declaration from Urdu to English so that she could file a complaint against her husband.
We interpreted for a woman who suffered from extreme domestic violence and speaks Gujarati, ensuring access to the asylum process and to therapeutic support.
We provided interpretation from Spanish to K’iche’ (an Indigenous Mayan language) for a child who went through extreme family abuse. Our interpreter interpreted for her psychological evaluation and throughout the asylum process.