Peer-reviewed article
Abducting Children Abroad: Gender, Power, and Transnational Mobility in Immigrant Family Conflicts
Anika Liversage ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-sonnet-5-5This article draws on life story interviews with immigrant women in Denmark whose children were abducted abroad by abusive (ex-)husbands. It describes a three-part pattern: husbands use coercive control, wives use Danish state support to seek divorce, and husbands then abduct the children to the Middle East to pressure the mothers. Some mothers give in to the demands, while others manage to bring the children back to Denmark.
Key points
- Husbands apply strategies of coercive control to dominate their wives in Denmark.
- Wives draw on Scandinavian 'woman-friendly' state support to challenge their husbands and seek divorce.
- Men try to regain control by abducting children to the Middle East and blackmailing mothers to leave Denmark and submit again to male control.
- Some wives accede to their husbands' demands.
- Other wives 're-abduct' children back to Denmark, which challenges the trope of the victimised immigrant woman.
Limitations
Only the abstract is available, so sample size, selection of participants and methods are not stated. The study is qualitative and centres on mothers' accounts, so it cannot show how common these cases are or give the children's own views.
Abstract
Utilizing life story interviews of immigrant women whose children were abducted by abusive (ex-)husbands, the article unpacks a three-part pattern of transnational mobility: first, husbands apply strategies of coercive control to dominate wives in Denmark; second, wives draw on Scandinavian “woman-friendly” state support to challenge men and seek divorce; and third, men try to regain control through abducting children to the Middle East, seeking to blackmail mothers into leaving Denmark and resubmitting themselves to male control. While some wives accede to their husband’s demands, others skillfully manage to “re-abduct” children back to Denmark, thereby belying the trope of the victimized immigrant woman.