Invisible Forms of Violence: Where Health, Gender and Migration Intersect

Migrant women face invisible forms of violence at the intersection of health, gender, and migration. An analysis by ISGlobal and Women in Global Health Spain (WGH Spain).

[This article was jointly written by Julia Pedreira (ISGlobal and WGH Spain), Silvia Gómez (ISGlobal and WGH Spain), and Anne Thompson (ISGlobal).]

No woman should fear for her life in the search for a more dignified existence. Yet thousands of migrant women cross borders hoping to find safety, only to face new forms of violence—quieter, but just as devastating.

Violence against women crosses borders

Every 25 November, we are reminded that violence against women remains a hidden pandemic in the 21st century. According to UN Women, this violence and insecurity disproportionately affect women and girls, especially in contexts of migration, conflict, or humanitarian crises.

Beyond global figures lie realities that remain outside media and political focus: those of migrant women. Their experience is marked by displacement, ruptures, loss of support networks, and the collision with systems that were not designed for them. At this intersection of gender, migration, and health emerges a double vulnerability: being a woman and a migrant, which means facing forms of structural violence that are often normalized.

Invisible violence, lives in movement

In Europe, 31% of women over 15 have been victims of physical or sexual violence at some point in their lives. Systems often lack the resources and protocols needed to respond to their needs, leaving many women unprotected. This situation worsens for migrant women, for whom the healthcare system reproduces language, administrative, and/or cultural barriers. Institutional violence becomes tangible when a woman fears going to a health centre because of her migration status, when protocols fail to consider cultural diversity, or when support gets lost in bureaucracy.

Migrant women face a particularly high risk of gender-based violence throughout the entire migration process, due to unsafe routes, discrimination, socioeconomic insecurity, and barriers to accessing support services.

These forms of violence—silent but constant—add to labour precarity, racial discrimination, and social isolation. The lack of family networks and the fear of losing economic stability lead many women to remain in abusive situations, without access to protection mechanisms.

Gender-based violence: a wound in public health

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), gender-based violence is a global public health emergency that affects one in three women over the course of their lives. In humanitarian contexts, the figure is even higher: one in five displaced women experiences sexual violence and more than half of migrants arriving in Europe have experienced gender-based violence, the majority of them (69%) women.

Addressing violence against migrant women requires strengthening health systems with a gender and cultural diversity perspective, training professionals to see beyond what is visible, and creating safe spaces where silenced voices can be heard.

These figures show that migrant women face a particularly elevated risk of gender-based violence throughout the migration journey, due to unsafe routes, discrimination, socioeconomic precarity, and barriers to support services. Intersectional discrimination—based on gender, race, ethnicity, or other factors—further increases the risks and severity of the violence they endure.

Injuries, unwanted pregnancies, chronic illnesses, depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress are just some of the consequences. If health is a universal right, we cannot continue to ignore how social determinants, violence, migration, and gender profoundly shape it.

Addressing violence through intersection and action

Addressing violence against migrant women requires intersectional approaches and coordinated responses. It means recognising that not all women start from the same place, nor experience the same forms of violence. It implies strengthening health systems with a gender and cultural diversity lens, training professionals to recognise more than what is visible, and creating safe spaces where silenced voices can be heard.

At WGH, we affirm that a more just and healthy society will only be possible if we make these forms of violence visible and work together to transform them. Make visible, listen, and act. Because without health, without equality, and without protection for all women—including migrants—there can be no global justice.

In memory and with hope

This 25N, we raise our voices for those who migrated in search of a better life, for those who endure in silence, and for those who are no longer here. May their strength inspire us to build, starting today, a world free from violence.

The heat of the moment: a poem by Anne Thompson

We share a poem by our ISGlobal colleague Anne Thompson. Her current research project (EARLY-ADAPT) analyses the effects of temperature and air pollution on gender-based violence in Spain. Her text invites us to reflect on the visible and invisible wounds of violence, possible environmental factors that may contribute to that violence, and the collective strength that emerges from sisterhood and care.

Worldwide, one in three women are assaulted

With violence fueled by hatred, by rage, by insecurity,

Armed with weapons of words, of actions, of bodies.

"Look at what you made me do."

"Did you see what she was wearing?"

"She definitely wanted it."

How many times must we hear the words,

"I'm sorry,"

"Forgive me,"

"It won't happen anymore."

Only, it happens

Over

And over

And over again.

A cruel comment today,

A strong, swift fist tomorrow.

Every 10 minutes, one woman is murdered

By a loved one, a partner, a relative.

140 women every day.

No setting is immune from this brutality.

Not a street,

Not a train,

Not a school,

Not a household.

Temperatures and tempers continue to rise.

He says it was just the heat of the moment but

just how often does the heat impact the moment?

The air we breathe is hazy and contaminated but,

just how often does that pollute a man's ability to self-regulate?

In Spain, the numbers 0-1-6 offer support.

A lifeline.

Calls for help continue to rise

As do the numbers of heatwaves

Drops of tears

Beads of sweat

How much worse will this get?

A planet, a home, a body, a woman

Cannot thrive or flourish

In a place that continues to melt

From the oppressive violence of man

And the oppressive heat in the air

Both of which suffocate

And exhaust

And leave one thirsting for safety

For change

For relief

Is it any wonder that

in our androcentric world,

we call our earth a mother,

Yet so many sit back and watch her burn as well?