Protecting our non-citizens: Iraqi women on Australian temporary spouse visas.

Migration is a complex experience that differs from one migrant group to the other. Migrants have often been mistakenly seen as one homogenous group with shared experience, overlooking the diversity that exists within their visa conditions, cultural backgrounds and gender category. The generalization of the migration experience among all migrant groups usually overlooks the very specific issues arising within different types of migration and within different migrant groups. Generally, research on migrant women often portrays a victim image of them and neglects their strength and resilience. This paper addresses some of the gaps in the literature concerned with generalization and concepts of resilience. Utilizing a qualitative feminist methodology, conversations were made with eight Iraqi sponsored women living in Adelaide who arrived in Australia holding a Temporary Spouse Visa (TSV), with no specified period of entry. Within the focus on Iraqi women, the paper explores two concepts: challenges of a TSV within marriage migration and patterns of resilience amongst Iraqi sponsored women. The core argument of this paper is that the Australian TSV category which facilitates marriage migration is politically discriminative against women and significantly contributes to women's vulnerability to abuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]