CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2007
| Author | Matesic, Marina |
|---|---|
| Title | The Politics of Gender Asylum in the U.S.: Protection of Women Asylum Seekers in the Context of Global Inequalities |
| Summary | This thesis examines the recent development towards more gender-sensitive interpretations of refugee status in international and national asylum laws and policies within the context of contemporary and historical global power relations. I analyze the changes in the language that can be found in the international UNHCR guidelines for the protection of women asylum seekers, U.S. national guidelines for assessing gender-related asylum claims, and recent U.S. court decisions assessing the gendered claims of women. Among the court cases that I analyze, I focus on the 2005 Mohammed case due to its problematic court decision and legal interpretations. Finding the Western countries’ instrumentalization of the international refugee protection system crucial for understanding the contemporary asylum system and women asylum seekers, the thesis connects the historical conditions with the way in which the protection of women refugees from “cultural” gendered violence has been articulated in asylum politics in the U.S. My overall findings are that the international law, governmental organizations and liberal women’s human rights NGOs have shaped the international and national legal protection of (women) asylum seekers in such a way that it reproduces the global inequalities in its representation of “Third World” women and their culture; that it uses women asylum seekers fleeing from violence for the purpose of exercising Western cultural superiority; and that it covers up still the restrictive and racist Western asylum politics towards immigrants and asylum seekers. |
| Supervisor | Francisca de Hann |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2007/matesic_marina.pdf |
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