Foreign women victims of violence. A study on the evolution of immigration law and international protection in the last decade

Abstract

Foreign women residing in Spain present a profile of special vulnerability to violence due to a number of factors related to their own migratory project, so that they deserve a differentiated legal treatment in Spanish legislation, including the scope of Immigration Law and the International protection regime. The Spanish legislator has not always been aware of this need, but in recent years regulations with a gender perspective have been adopted in this field. They will be studied in this paper distinguishing three different scenarios: the European citizens regime, the general immigration regime and the international protection system. We will carry out a critical analysis of the most notable regulations aimed at protecting foreign women victims of violence, focusing the time period on the possible developments that have occurred in the last decade. The last epigraph will tackle the positive and negative assessment of the main solutions and some proposals for improvement.