Gender

The RefMig project aims to integrate a gendered perspective throughout, with the aim of revealing and problematising the gendered division of protection in the global refugee regime.

In refugee law, there is a rich scholarship challenging the androcentricity of the refugee definition,generally foregrounding by interpretation, various forms of gender-based harms have been acknowledged as persecution. This means that it appears that at least some headway has been made to make asylum equally accessible to men and women, although this is by no means a done deal.

Part of the motivation for bringing refugee law into conversation with the refugee regime is precisely that asylum (particularly in the EU) is a mode of protection used by men more than women. In contrast, at present, resettlement programmes often employ amorphous ‘vulnerability’ criteria, which are also deeply gendered and need further elaboration. The RefMig project is committed to asking the gender question throughout the research.