Harm Made Invisible: Gender-Based Violence, Migrant Women, and Climate-Induced Hazards

Disasters intensify gender-based violence (GBV). GBV is often described as ‘the second disaster’ that continues in homes and communities long after the disaster event. Research shows that such violence is not just driven by stress; it reflects gendered power relations compounded by disaster induced institutional disruption, and displacement. In Australia, the disaster−GBV nexus is widely recognised. Yet, less attention has been given to how migration governance and racialised citizenship shape who is rendered invisible. This reflective commentary draws on intersectional and feminist frameworks, and repositions ‘migrant women's vulnerability’ as a precarity that is produced through visa dependence, language barriers, limited access to services, and emergency systems built around an assumed assimilated, English-speaking public. The consequence is not only a heightened risk, but a structured invisibility, where harms are less likely to be recorded, recognised, resourced, or prevented.