Alexia spoke with conviction about some women in Australia and Hong Kong who are on spouse visas and, experiencing relationship breakdown, are subjected to horrific constrains on their life.
The male spouse, who may be a student or vising worker holding the controlling visa can exercise coercive power over his partner such as restricting or even prohibiting contact with family, control social interaction or threaten with physical violence.
Alexia researched many cases with in depth discussions for her 4 years of Ph D research at Hong Kong University.
On Monday last, Alexia defended her thesis and was delighted to then be told she had passed. We shared her joy in congratulating her.
