Circularity of violence and institutionalisation: understanding women’s (im)mobility across borders

Women's experiences of border crossing in the context of any form of forced mobility are significantly different to those of men, often leading to their death. Despite this, women have historically been at the margins of literature on international migration. However, in the last four decades, due to the feminist focus on inclusion of women in migration studies, there has been focus on the experiences of women during, before and after forced migration across borders. This body of literature has been limited by its focus on women's experiences of violence in either the home or destination country, with some focus on experiences during the migration journey. The continuity of violence across borders and a succinct focus on violence against women (VAW), particularly domestic violence, as an independent or interrelated factor for forced mobility across political borders remains underexplored. Further, there seems to be a dearth of discussions on how the precarities shaped by VAW induced migration paves women's pathways to different kinds of institutions, including women's refuges, detention centres, protection homes, prisons in destination countries. Drawing on narratives of migrant and refugee women in prisons in India and Australia, the article connects the missing links between literature on VAW, women's mobility across political borders and their consequent containment in institutions.