The rates of domestic violence and femicide in various European countries tend to be higher among migrant women, as well as among women from cultural minorities. This led to the development of a culture and gender-sensitive in-depth interview guide aimed at better understanding this phenomenon, as well as identifying specific aspects of the experience of violence in a foreign scenario. The first stage was developing a draft interview guide based on the most important issues addressed in the professional literature, relating both to victims of domestic violence and to survivors of femicide and their families. This has allowed others to “hear their voices” and to understand their own perspectives, which are especially important considering the steady increase of this phenomenon around the world. The second phase was a pilot study among immigrant femicide survivors: first in Spain, later in Romania, and finally in Georgia, focusing on internally displaced people. The last step was analyzing the feedback from the different countries, which led to a refined and improved version of the interview guide. Thus, the current paper presents an ongoing process leading to a standardized interview guide, which could be adapted to local socio-cultural contexts, enabling comparative studies across Europe.

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Background. The vulnerability of migrant women, especially those coming from patriarchal societies, leads to the increase of gender violence. This is incremented by a myriad of socioecological determinants related to the immigration process and to the nature of male-female relationships. Objectives. The main objective is to conduct a preliminary analysis of recent publications dealing with the relations between gender violence and migrant populations in the European Union, including internally displaced people. Materials and methods. This paper is based on a revision of scientific publications from SCOPUS that relate to migrant women who are victims of gender violence in the European Union. The qualitative thematic analysis was used in order to identify the main issues targeted in the articles. Results. The thematic analysis of the studies reviewed dealing with migration and gender violence highlighted several important themes, including prevalence of violence against migrant women; the forms and contexts of gender violence; the impact of legal, economic environments and sociocultural barriers; the influence of conflict and war; the impact and consequences of violence, especially on women's mental health, as well as strategies and suggestions for interventions. Conclusions. Increasing the awareness of migration, regarding the conflicts and problems experienced by migrants (of both genders), could enable health and legal authorities to offer more significant culture and gender sensitive services, thus reducing gender violence.

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