Refugee Women and the Imperative of Categories

Macklin, Audrey

doi:10.1353/hrq.1995.0019

Cited by 91 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 13 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…16 Further, representations of gender equality in humanitarian policy and practice do not only sustain power asymmetries in the encounter between refugees and humanitarian workers, they also feed into, and reproduce, more general global relations of power. The portrayal of refugee women as victims of barbaric, underdeveloped cultures sustains a binary between dysfunctional, illegitimate and persecutory non-western states and well-functioning, legitimate and human rights-abiding western states that allows western states to appear as superior (Macklin 1995;Oswin 2001). Gender inequality in refugee communities is constructed as a symbol of the inferiority of 'less developed' societies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Constructing Humanitarian Selves and Refugee Others

Olivius

2015

International Feminist Journal of Politics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Contributing to ongoing debates about what happens when feminism is institutionalized in global governance, this article examines how gender equality is given meaning and applied in humanitarian aid to refugees, and what the implications are with regards to the production of subjectivities and their positioning in relations of power. Drawing on postcolonial feminist and Foucauldian perspectives, the analysis identifies two main representations of what it means to promote gender equality in refugee situations. Gender equality is represented as a means to aid effectiveness through the strategic mobilization of refugee women's participation, and as a project of development, involving the transformation of 'traditional' or 'backward' refugee cultures into modern societies. The subject positions that are produced categorically cast refugees as either passive or problematic subjects who need to be rescued, protected, assisted, activated, controlled and reformed through humanitarian interventions, while humanitarian workers are positioned as rational administrators and progressive agents of social transformation. In effect, gender equality is used to sustain power asymmetries in refugee situations and to reproduce global hierarchies.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Constructing Humanitarian Selves and Refugee Others

Olivius

2015

International Feminist Journal of Politics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…All asylum seekers must demonstrate that they were persecuted or fear persecution to gain asylum. This means that the harm itself cannot be merely discrimination or harassment but must rise to the legal definition of persecution (Macklin 1999).…”

Section: Major Issues In Asylum Adjudicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coercive Population Control and Asylum in the U.S.

Oxford

2017

Social Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:In 1980, China implemented one of the most controversial population policies in modern times. China's one-child policy shaped population politics for thirty-five years until its dissolution in 2015. During this time, many women were subjected to routine gynecological examinations, pregnancy testing, abortions, and sterilizations, which were often forced upon them by family planning officials. Some women fled China and sought refuge in the United States after having experienced a forced abortion or forced sterilization or feared that they would be subjected to a forced abortion or forced sterilization. This article focuses on how the U.S. government responded to China's one-child policy through the passage of immigration laws and policies that made asylum a viable option for Chinese nationals who had been persecuted or feared persecution because of coercive population control policies. Based on observations of asylum hearings and interviews with immigration judges and immigration attorneys, this article uses feminist ethnographic methods to show how China's one-child policy and U.S. asylum laws shape the gender politics of reproduction and migration.

show abstract

“…Unlike the United States (Simon, 1998), Canadian Immigration has not typically imprisoned undocumented migrants awaiting refugee determination (Pratt, 2001). As well, refugee women escaping persecution and abuse have been more likely to receive status in Canada than in the United States because of gender guidelines (see Macklin, 1995). Canada also has developed more progressive policies for acceptance of migrants fleeing 'generalized violence' -usually civilians caught in civil war zoneswho have had difficulty fitting the United Nations refugee definition.…”

Section: In Another Incidentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…But sanctuary is not new. An extensive historical tradition is evident from references in the Old Testament to cities of refuge and accounts of ancient Greece, Rome and Byzantium (Bellamy, 1973;Bau, 1985;Stastny, 1987;Macrides, 1988). Perhaps most developed in Medieval Europe, sanctuary gradually declined in the face of the growth in the power of states (Stastny, 1987).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Rethinking Sanctuary: The Canadian Context, 1983–2003

Lippert

2005

International Migration Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The first comprehensive study of sanctuary in Canada identifies 36 sanctuary incidents since 1983. Through 46 personal interviews with sanctuary providers and examination of some 1,600 documents, sanctuary in the Canadian context is revealed to be less a national religious movement or network and more an array of temporary local incidents occurring largely independent of one another and of the now expired U.S. sanctuary movement. These sanctuary incidents have resulted as much from local community as church‐based efforts, have mostly yielded positive outcomes for migrants involved, and are increasing in prevalence. Implications of these findings for understanding sanctuary are discussed.

show abstract

Refugee Women and the Imperative of Categories

Cited by 91 publications

References 13 publications

Constructing Humanitarian Selves and Refugee Others

Constructing Humanitarian Selves and Refugee Others

Coercive Population Control and Asylum in the U.S.

Rethinking Sanctuary: The Canadian Context, 1983–2003

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About