Coalition, Cross-Cultural Lawyering, and Intersectionality: Immigrant Identity as a Barrier to Effective Legal Counseling for Domestic Violence Victims

Jessica H. Stein, University of Connecticut School of Law

Abstract

Cultural differences can be the most difficult barrier to overcome and the hardest to define when working with immigrant victims of domestic violence. This issue also seems to be the most puzzling and frustrating to attorneys, with answers that can be uncomfortable and that offend a progressive, liberal sense of lawyering. Drawing on critical race theory, I argue that the problems faced by immigrant victims in seeking help can only be solved by the recognition of the intersectionalities apparent in immigrant domestic violence cases, by the use and encouragement of cross-cultural lawyering, requiring a sincere effort by attorneys to be culturally competent, and by the forceful coming together of a coalition of advocates ready to tackle and solve this problem. Integral to my solution is Mari Matsuda's idea of coalition, a deepened and expanded view of the traditional coalition-building, which requires us to acknowledge the struggle of others while we struggle to end our own subordination and to recognize that our own subordination cannot end while others are still subordinated.