Ruba SalihGendering Migration & Diasporas

Lecture 3

Refugees Asylum & Exile Voluntary & Forced Migration Migration/Asylum Nexus Refugee Studies Women in Forced Migration Gender & Forced Migration Readings Proposed Questions

1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees: a refugee is “a person who flees to a foreign country or power to escape danger or persecution”

1967 Protocol: “include persons who have fled war or other violence in their home country”

Environmental refugees (people displaced because of environmental problems such as drought) are not included in the definition of "refugee" under international law, neither are

Internally displaced people (IDP)

Right of asylum (or political asylum) is an ancient judicial notion, under which a person persecuted for political opinions or religious beliefs in his or her own country may be protected by another sovereign authority, a foreign country, or Church sanctuaries (as in medieval times).

Asylum seeker Increased vilification of asylum seekers:

“illegal alien”, “undocumented” or “irregular” migrants

To be away from one’s home & being unable to return

Internal exile External exile Deportation Government in Exile “State of mind” “Cultures of exile”, see, for example: http://www.exiledwriters.co.uk/

Refugees (1951 Convention definition)

9.7 million (recognised by UNHCR) Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)

25 m (13 m of them in Africa) Development Induced Displacement

10 million a year (World Bank) Environmental change and disasters

Numbers unknown

Voluntary migration (choice, agency): labour, education, family unification

Forced Migration (no choice, no agency): persecution, war, conflict, violence, environmental disaster

Mixed migration : new forms blurring the boundaries?

1. Forced migrants distinctive experience & needs?

2. Focus on the great and increasing numbers of forced migrants

3. Distinction more based in our needs rather than reflecting complex empirical realities

Anthony Richmond (1994) Nicholas van Hear (1998)

Growing difficulty in separating between forced and economic migration

Closely related causes of forced and economic migration

Increasing similarities in the migratory process for both categories

Common responses: lack of differentiation between asylum seekers and irregular migrants

Homogenization & Generalization Refugee as male Emphasis on legal & political dimension Tension between research & practice Macro-level analysis Neglect of ‘experience’ Invisibility of women “Gender” marginalized analytical

categories No intersectional analyses (class, gender,

ethnicity, race, sexuality etc.)

Women in Forced Migration (WIFM) Recognition of special experiences of

women Disadvantages in situations of forced

migration Topics include: women’s experiences of

causes for forced migration (war, conflict, political repression, natural disasters); experiences of flight & refugee camps; livelihoods; entry into labour markets

women seeking asylum

Gender and Forced Migration (GAFM)1. “Engendering Knowledge” in the study and

practice of forced migration 2. Relations of power, privilege and prestige

informed by situated notions of maleness and femaleness

3. Topics include motivations/reasons for migration, migration flows, gender-specific violence before, during and after flight, experiences within refugee camps, receiving countries, legal dimensions, impact on identities & sense of self; gender ideologies roles & relations

Developments in law Impact of major international conferences Women’s rights as human rights CEDAW (1979) UN Special Rapporteur on Violence

against Women Sexual abuse and rape recognized as war

crime UNHCR adoption of guidelines for the

protection of women

http://www.forcedmigration.org/

For short videos, see http://www.forcedmigration.org/video/