Mobilizing Knowledge : Framing Gender-based Violence and Negotiating Social Protection for Migrant Women with Precarious Legal Status

In advanced welfare societies, traditional welfare programs are failing to recognize and respond to new social risks faced by groups in precarious life situations, including migrant women. This research explore how actors in academic and civil society settings recognize and frame the struggles of migrant women with precarious legal status, particularly in terms of gender-based violence (GBV) and access to social protection. In doing so, this study aims to gain a deeper understanding of how academia and civil society produce knowledge to frame social problems, increasingly acknowledging the GBV experienced by migrant women with precarious legal status in welfare terms. Inspired by practice theory approaches, the research design comprises two sub- studies, each presented in scientific articles that have been published or submitted for publication.The first study, based on a systematic literature review methodology, focuses on knowledge produced within academia, aiming to understand how research centered on everyday professional practices frames the problem of GBV and its solutions. The second study examines knowledge produced by civil society actors (CSAs) in Sweden and Italy. Those two countries were chosen to explore knowledge production within civil society settings while examining variations among local protection systems in the EU. A vignette method with three scenarios was developed, and interviews were conducted with activists and practitioners operating in Sweden and Italy. The findings discuss how academic and civil society actors produce and mobilize knowledge through processes that define migrant women as recognized welfare subjects. Despite operating in a highly politicized environment, professionals in both fields maintain dynamic interactions with each other´s ideas, creating micro- spaces where knowledge is produced, contested, and refined. These efforts aim to make the precarious situations of migrant women visible and recognizable in welfare terms, emphasizing the strategic mobilization of knowledge to advocate for social protection and change.