The purpose of this degree project is to obtain a greater understanding of how the support for abused immigrant women is designed and if these measures respond to the women’s own wishes and needs. I also want to investigate the possible advantages and disadvantages, there are under the social ser­vi­ces and voluntary organizations (NGOs) and women themselves when it comes to spe­cific sup­port measures for immigrant women. On which basis have these support measures been designed and what experience or research starting points are based on? To what extent do they answer to women’s needs according to the staff, and to the women's own view?

The study is based on qualitative data consisting of five interviews and one case report of an abused woman. The participants I interviewed were three social workers from two different de­partments in Kristianstad administrations, one coordinator from the women’s support centre in Kristianstad and one pre-school teacher from the Family house Näsby in Kristianstad and one abused woman. To contextualize the information gathered, the normalization process by Eva Lundgren and stigma theory by Goffman have been used. The empirical material from my five semi-structured interviews and the case report has been analyzed on the basis of the normalization process and stigma theory, as well as literature and expert knowledge on abused immigrant women. Through this study I have come to the conclusion that the support measures to an abused immigrant women was based on her own needs. I have also noticed in my results that the professionals have different work procedures and different ways to refute abused immigrant women depending on their knowledge of other countries’ culture.