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This research studied the social climate, residential interactions, and mechanisms of peer support within domestic violence (DV) shelters in Germany. The culture within shelters has changed since their beginnings in Europe and the United States in the 1970s, as the peer-assistance movement driven by feminist advocates and grassroots activists became professionalized, introducing hierarchical management and rule-bound interactions. The primary research question concerned whether and how peer support within DV shelters influences emotional recovery for residents. The study explored mutual aid processes as well as potential drawbacks of shelter peer relationships like judgment, annoyance, and loss of privacy.
METHODS
The study used ethnographic methods informed by a feminist intersectional paradigm, including participant observation, artifact/document review, individual/focus group interviews with current and former residents (adults and children), volunteers, staff, and community collaborators, and participant observation (of meals, chores, child activities, office interactions, a house meeting, a state coalition meeting, community meetings with collaborators, a community field trip and presentation by adolescent residents). Individual interviews used a semi-structured format. Data collection was done by a researcher fluent in German and English and recorded using audiotaping, field notes, and journaling. Sites included three emergency shelters in one north German state and various community locations. Analysis of data followed coding procedures described by Charmaz.
RESULTS
Shelter residents were overwhelmingly immigrants, representing diverse countries (Afghanistan, Nigeria, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Poland, Kenya, Turkey). Mutual aid processes identified included emotional support, information sharing, and the all-in-the-same-boat phenomenon. Residents in all three shelters knew names of other residents’ children. No conflicts were observed/described, although several in one shelter described problematic interactions with the same departed family. It became apparent early in data collection that it was impossible to view residents’ peer relationship dynamics within the shelter separate from relationships with family, staff, and volunteers. All three shelters were committed to egalitarian relationships and minimized use of language that distinguished roles; the same term was used for staff, volunteers, and former residents. Relationships between residents and staff/volunteers were characterized by warmth, reciprocity, and humor, with residents directing activities in kitchen, dining, and other common areas. Most data collection occurred during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which revealed residents’ efforts at respectful interactions across differences, and interest in supporting one another, particularly around chores and preparing meals together in community kitchens. Residents and staff also sought reciprocity with the researcher, asking numerous questions about the US. Areas of interest concerned DV shelters, and US policies on immigration (e.g., asylum, birthright citizenship), social welfare, and non-discrimination in housing. Youth asked about US community violence (gangs, access to guns).
CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS
The supportive, primarily positive relationships residents reported invite comparative research with the US, because negative dynamics often described by US shelter residents were not found in this study. Information about German DV shelters is not well-represented in English language scholarship, which otherwise offers around-the-world knowledge exchange about DV, across the US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, England (and Scandinavia).