City ID Cards and their Potential for Irregular Migrants Affected by Domestic Violence

Authors

  • Irina Fehr
https://doi.org/10.24437/globaleurope.i121.521

Keywords:

irregular migration, city ID cards, urban citizenship, access to justice, domestic violence

Abstract

Although migrants without regular status are entitled to numerous rights, they are rarely able to assert them in practice. This paper analyzes the challenges that irregular migrants face when enforcing their rights in Switzerland, while focusing on situations of domestic violence and the right to victim support. Furthermore, the paper discusses a potential remedy to the limited access to the respective support services: the introduction of a city ID card. The paper focuses on the city of Bern and follows a multidisciplinary approach, combining the disciplines of law and sociology. The analysis draws on a literature review and five semi-structured expert interviews. The results show that many irregular migrants refrain from claiming the protections they are legally entitled to, and while the interviewees consider a city ID card as a valuable remedy, much of its potential seems to depend on whether third parties would officially recognize the card.

Author Biography

Irina Fehr

After completing her MA in European Global Studies in 2020, Irina Fehr worked as a junior researcher at Tilburg University (Netherlands), where she analyzed migration trajectories and experiences of victimization along the journey. In September 2021, she started her PhD at Tilburg Law School, in which she conducts research on the EU migration control regime and practices of human trafficking and human smuggling at external EU borders.

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Published

2021-12-13