Refugees

Citation:

Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, Elena. 2014. The Ideal Refugees: Islam, Gender, and the Sahrawi Politics of Survival. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.

Author: Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh

Abstract:

Refugee camps are typically perceived as militarized and patriarchal spaces, and yet the Sahrawi refugee camps and their inhabitants have consistently been represented as ideal in nature: uniquely secular and democratic spaces, and characterized by gender equality. Drawing on extensive research with and about Sahrawi refugees in Algeria, Cuba, Spain, South Africa, and Syria, Fiddian-Qasmiyeh explores how, why, and to what effect such idealized depictions have been projected onto the international arena. In The Ideal Refugees, the author argues that secularism and the empowerment of Sahrawi refugee women have been strategically invoked to secure the humanitarian and political support of Western state and non-state actors who ensure the continued survival of the camps and their inhabitants. This book challenges the reader to reflect critically on who benefits from assertions of good, bad, and ideal refugees, and whose interests are advanced by interwoven discourses about the empowerment of women and secularism in contexts of war and peace.--Publisher Description

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Refugee/IDP Camps, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Religion Regions: Africa, MENA, North Africa, Americas, Caribbean countries, Asia, Middle East, Europe, Southern Europe Countries: Algeria, Cuba, Spain, Syria, Western Sahara

Year: 2014

Citation:

Ezard, Nadine. 2014. “It’s Not Just the Alcohol: Gender, Alcohol Use, and Intimate Partner Violence in Mae La Refugee Camp, Thailand, 2009.” Substance Use & Misuse 49 (6): 684–93

Author: Nadine Ezard

Abstract:

Keywords: Intimate partner violence, refugee, displaced populations, alcohol, conflict, violence against women, Thailand-Burma border, substance use, qualitative research, Gender

Topics: Armed Conflict, Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Refugee/IDP Camps, Domestic Violence, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Health, Violence Regions: Asia, Southeast Asia Countries: Thailand

Year: 2014

Citation:

Olivius, Elisabeth. 2016. “Refugee Men as Perpetrators, Allies or Troublemakers? Emerging Discourses on Men and Masculinities in Humanitarian Aid.” Women’s Studies International Forum 56: 56–65.

Author: Elisabeth Olivius

Annotation:

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Humanitarian Assistance

Year: 2016

Citation:

Freedman, Jane. 2007. Gendering the International Asylum and Refugee Debate. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK. http://link.springer.com/10.1057/9780230592544.

Author: Jane Freedman

Abstract:

Keywords: political science, gender studies, political sociology, develpoment studies, migration, political economy

Topics: Development, Forced Migration, IDPs, Refugees, Economies, Gender, Women, Gender Analysis, International Law

Year: 2007

Citation:

Parmar, Parveen Kaur, Pooja Agrawal, Ravi Goyal, Jennifer Scott, and P. Gregg Greenough. 2014. “Need for a Gender-Sensitive Human Security Framework: Results of a Quantitative Study of Human Security and Sexual Violence in Djohong District, Cameroon.” Conflict and Health 8 (1): 6.

Authors: P. Gregg Greenough, Jennifer Scott, Ravi Goyal, Pooja Agrawal, Parveen Kaur Parmar

Abstract:

Background: Human security shifts traditional concepts of security from interstate conflict and the absence of war to the security of the individual. Broad definitions of human security include livelihoods and food security, health, psychosocial well-being, enjoyment of civil and political rights and freedom from oppression, and personal safety, in addition to absence of conflict. Methods: In March 2010, we undertook a population-based health and livelihood study of female refugees from conflict-affected Central African Republic living in Djohong District, Cameroon and their female counterparts within the Cameroonian host community. Embedded within the survey instrument were indicators of human security derived from the Leaning-Arie model that defined three domains of psychosocial stability suggesting individuals and communities are most stable when their core attachments to home, community and the future are intact. Results: While the female refugee human security outcomes describe a population successfully assimilated and thriving in their new environments based on these three domains, the ability of human security indicators to predict the presence or absence of lifetime and six-month sexual violence was inadequate. Using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis, the study demonstrates that common human security indicators do not uncover either lifetime or recent prevalence of sexual violence. Conclusions: These data suggest that current gender-blind approaches of describing human security are missing serious threats to the safety of one half of the population and that efforts to develop robust human security indicators should include those that specifically measure violence against women.

Keywords: sexual violence, human security, women's health, Cameroon, Central African Republic, refugee

Topics: Armed Conflict, Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Gender, Women, Health, Livelihoods, Human Rights, Security, SV against Women Regions: Africa, Central Africa Countries: Cameroon, Central African Republic

Year: 2014

Citation:

Author: Megan H. MacKenzie

Abstract:

Topics: Civil Wars, Female Combatants, Development, Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Rape, SV against Women Regions: Africa, West Africa Countries: Sierra Leone

Year: 2012

Citation:

Schultz, C. M. 1994. "Promoting Economic Self-Reliance: A Case Study of Afghan Refugee Women in Pakistan." Journal of International Affairs 47 (2): 557.

Author: C. M. Schultz

Abstract:

"Presents a case study of Afghan refugee women in Pakistan. Approximates number of refugees in the world and percentage of whom are women and children; discusses how the majority of refugee women are the heads of their households, responsible for providing basic needs for their families while in exile and seeking durable solutions, despite facing many problems with limited options; Evaluation of the progress made in promoting economic self-sufficiency for refugee women." -Ebscohost

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Gender, Women Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan, Pakistan

Year: 1994

Citation:

Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, Elena. 2014. “Transnational Abductions and Transnational Responsibilities? The Politics of ‘protecting’ Female Muslim Refugees Abducted from Spain.” Gender, Place & Culture 21 (2): 174–94.

Author: Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh

Abstract:

This article examines evolving gendered protection narratives surrounding four ‘abduction’ cases in which Sahrawi refugee girls and young women living in Spain were ‘abducted’ by their birth-families and forcibly returned to the Algerian-based Sahrawi refugee camps between 2002 and 2009. By exploring Spanish state and civil society responses to these girls' ‘abductions’, I argue that there has been a major shift in the ways in which legitimate responsibility and authority over Sahrawi refugee women as Muslim female forced migrants have been conceptualised and invoked by Spanish actors. I therefore assess the gendered nature of competing claims of responsibility to ‘protect’ Sahrawi refugee women both within and outside of the Algerian-based Sahrawi refugee camps, exploring the motivations and implications of different actors' in/actions towards these girls and women. With Polisario claiming to represent and act as a liberal ‘state’ committed to protecting the rights of its ‘refugee-citizens’ in some instances, while denying politico-legal responsibility in others, the question of ‘who’ or ‘what’ claims the legitimate authority to ‘protect’ Sahrawi refugee women and girls is thus accentuated by such cases. By exploring shifts in Spanish public and political discourses of responsibility over the past decade on the one hand, and the accentuation of competing discourses as presented by Spanish, Polisario and Algerian actors on the other, this article highlights the complex nature and implications of the ‘intimate’ Spanish civil society networks that ensure the physical and political survival of the Sahrawi refugee camps. Ultimately, I argue that Sahrawi girls and women have become hypervisible in Spain, being conceptualised as women who ‘belong’ to the Spanish nation that in turn has a responsibility to ‘protect’ ‘our’ Sahrawi women from ‘their’ culture.

Keywords: abduction, contested sovereignty, orientalism, protection scenarios, refugee women, Sahrawi refugees

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Gender, Women, Religion Regions: Africa, MENA, North Africa, Europe, Southern Europe Countries: Algeria, Spain

Year: 2014

Citation:

Stephan, Rita. 2014. “War and Gender Performance.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 16 (2): 297–316. doi:10.1080/14616742.2013.849969.

Author: Rita Stephan

Abstract:

The 2006 war in Lebanon that erupted between Hezbollah and Israel marked the largest evacuation of Americans abroad since World War II. This article captures the experiences of Lebanese-American women and investigates how gender identity was expressed during these evacuations. Presented from the point of view of a participant-observer and personal interviews, findings show that gender became a master identity that influenced these women's choices regarding how to escape the country and return to the United States. Some embraced dependency upon masculinist exercises of power while others claimed agency as they determined their own fate and carried out their own evacuation without waiting to be rescued by the state or male kin members. The evacuation stories in this article confirm and illuminate the complexity of ethnic citizenship and gendered agency.

Keywords: Lebanon, 2006 Lebanon Israeli war, women's agency, evacuation, gender identity, women and children, feminine vulnerability, patriarchy and militarism, kinship, gender performance

Topics: Citizenship, Displacement & Migration, Forced Migration, Refugees, Ethnicity, Gender, Women, Girls, Masculinity/ies, Femininity/ies, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarism, Post-Conflict Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Lebanon

Year: 2014

Citation:

Author: Rose Jaji

Abstract:

This article discusses femininities among East and Central African refugee women self-settled in Nairobi, Kenya. It argues that while normative approaches to refugee studies depict a homogeneous refugee femininity inherently synonymous with vulnerability and ‘victimhood,’ femininity among refugee women in Nairobi is heterogeneous, fluid, and complex. It is premised on individual refugee women's marital statuses in relation to economic situation. The article argues that femininity is a constraint in some instances and a resource in others, such that what exists among the refugee women is not a single femininity but a continuum of femininities. Specifically, the article conceptualizes femininity under three categories, namely: normative, agitated, and rebellious femininities.

Keywords: femininity, refugee women, vulnerability, self-policing, resistance, opportunities

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Gender, Femininity/ies Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa Countries: Kenya

Year: 2015