Community Law Fellow Sarah Croskery-Hewitt
Sarah is one of the inaugural Borrin Foundation – Community Law Fellows. She is exploring the intersection of immigration law and family violence in Aotearoa New Zealand. She hopes to identify current gaps in protections for migrant women and to formulate proposals for reform of immigration policy.
Borrin Foundation - Community Law Fellowship
Sarah’s plan
Building upon her work at Community Law, Sarah’s research will explore the intersection of immigration law and family violence in Aotearoa New Zealand. She will undertake a comparative analysis of New Zealand’s ‘Victims of Family Violence’ visa scheme, highlighting the groups of women and children who are excluded from its protection. Sarah will then undertake a qualitative analysis of Immigration & Protection Tribunal determinations relating to the ‘Victims of Family Violence’ residence category, to assess how immigration policy is functioning in practice. From these analyses, she hopes to identify current gaps in protections for migrant women and to formulate proposals for reform of immigration policy.
About Sarah
Sarah Croskery-Hewitt has five years’ experience as a Rōia Hapori/Community Lawyer with Community Law Wellington & Hutt Valley, as well as holding the role of National Law Reform Coordinator for Community Law Centres o Aotearoa from 2019-2020. Her work with Community Law has focused primarily on access to justice issues facing survivors of family and sexual violence, including establishing a specialist immigration law service for migrant women experiencing violence. She is presently on sabbatical while undertaking PhD research at the University of Wollongong on the use of intoxication evidence in sexual assault trials, an area of research in which she was previously awarded the Rex Mason Prize for Excellence in Legal Writing.
Grant Amount
$14,188 in 2021-2022
“Challenging barriers to access to justice for survivors of gender-based violence is of enormous personal importance to me, and I have focused on this throughout my roles with Community Law as well as in the research projects that I have undertaken.”
– Sarah Croskery-Hewitt