Executive summary

It is estimated that as many as one in five women living in Australia experience sexual violence and one in three Australian women experience physical violence at some point in their lives (A Snapshot to Time for Action: The National Council’s Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children, 2009-2021, 2009).

The report published by InTouch in 2006, Refugee Settlement, Safety and Wellbeing: Exploring domestic and family violence in refugee communities, found from a literature review that the incidence of family violence amongst refugee and migrant families is not higher.

However, it did find that being newly settled does expose families to stresses that increase the risk of intimate partner violence. The consequences for women from immigrant and refugee backgrounds can be even more damaging for them and their children because they are likely to face greater obstacles in their struggle to break the cycle of violence.