Coercive control of money, dowry and remittances among Indian migrant women in Australia

ABSTRACT

This paper examines how coercive control underlies financial abuse as men re-interpret the gender of money, stripping it of its moral safeguards. Financial abuse denies women access and agency over money. It works through male reinterpretation of how money is gendered – that is the way men and women own, inherit, use, manage and control money. Recent Indian migrant women experience coercive control when the male control of money is exercised without responsibility for the welfare of the wife and children. The family boundary of money becomes a way of extorting money from the wife’s family. Sending money home, a sign of filial responsibility, becomes abusive when the wife is not consulted, leaving the family in Australia without sufficient money for their settlement needs. This paper extends the theoretical and geographic breadth of studies of family violence among Indian women in the diaspora.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• money
• financial abuse
• coercive control
• India
• Australia
• dowry

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Professor Supriya Singh is Professor, Sociology of Communications at RMIT University. Her research interests centre around the sociology of money, gender, migration and economic abuse. Among her latest books are ‘Money, Migration and Family: India to Australia’ (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), ‘Globalization and Money: A Global South Perspective’ (Rowman & Littlefield, 2013) and ‘The Girls Ate Last’ (Angsana Publications, 2013).

Dr Jasvinder Sidhu is a lecturer at Federation University Australia. He has worked at both regional and city based universities over the last 12 years. He has worked with survivors of family violence and been involved in political advocacy for changes and enhanced funding for support services for survivors from migrant communities.

ORCID

Supriya Singh http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3555-5447

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.