A Gendered Approach to Refugee and Asylum Studies

Abstract

In recent years, asylum seekers have made headlines of many newspaper and television reports in European countries and other richer nations around the world, like Canada, the US or Australia. These asylum seekers and refugees are often seen as a problem and a threat to these societies. Reports express fears of huge masses of asylum seekers flooding into countries of the West with governments powerless to stop them. These asylum seekers, they say, are not ‘real’ refugees fleeing violence and persecution, but ‘bogus asylum seekers’ or ‘false refugees’ coming to benefit from the economic and material benefits available in Western states. And particularly since the attacks of 11 September 2001 in the US, and subsequent terrorist attacks in Madrid and London, fears have been raised about the connections that might exist between asylum seekers and terrorists. All of these fears can be argued to be without foundation in fact but they have become part of the everyday understandings of what an asylum seeker is. And at the same time, our televisions and newspapers show us images of refugees massed in camps in Africa, the Middle East or Asia, living in tents, or makeshift shelters, lacking sufficient food supplies, drinking water or basic washing facilities. The people in these camps have fled conflicts, massacres or natural disasters and find themselves still vulnerable and dependent on foreign aid.¹