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Sexual Violence Among Refugees and Asylum Seekers who come to the United States

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Women, War, and Violence

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Abstract

Each year, thousands of people flee to the United States and other countries as they are forced into exile, many having experienced sexual violence or torture. At the end of 2008, there were 34.4 million people of concern to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which include refugees, asylum seekers, returned refugees, internally displaced, and stateless persons (UNHCR, 2009). A refugee is someone who has crossed his or her national border, and is petitioning a third country to accept them (United Nations, 1951), whereas an asylum seeker has already arrived in the host country when she/he requests protection (United Nations, 1967; U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services).

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Authors
  1. Linda Piwowarczyk
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of African American Studies, Northeastern University, USA

    Robin M. Chandler

  2. Northeastern University, Boston, USA

    Lihua Wang Ph.D. (Coordinator of the Women’s Studies Program) (Coordinator of the Women’s Studies Program)

  3. Worcester (MA) State College, USA

    Linda K. Fuller Ph.D. (Professor of Communications) (Professor of Communications)

Copyright information

© 2010 Robin M. Chandler, Lihua Wang, and Linda K. Fuller

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Piwowarczyk, L. (2010). Sexual Violence Among Refugees and Asylum Seekers who come to the United States. In: Chandler, R.M., Wang, L., Fuller, L.K. (eds) Women, War, and Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230111974_4

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