Gendered dimensions of Accessing Asylum in the EU

Under current policies seeking asylum in the European Union is dependent on the asylum seeker’s physical presence in the territory or at the border of a European Union Member State – making access to asylum in the EU intertwined with access to territory. In international human rights and refugee law the right to seek asylum and the right to leave a country is explicit, but there is no corresponding right to enter a country in order to use the right to seek asylum. This asymmetry of rights has been institutionalized within the EU regulatory framework on asylum, creating a “non-entry” system which only a few can break through.

Of those who have applied for asylum in the EU over the last five years, only 30 percent were women. This figure does not correspond to the overall gender balance in terms of the global refugee population, which according to the UNHCR consists of approximately 50 percent women.

What does these statistics say about current policies and gender relations? Is access to asylum in the EU dependent on certain gendered conditions and are gender structures possibly being (re)produced by the EU regulatory framework on asylum?

With the help from feminist theory, my presentation will reflect on access to protection through asylum and family reunification, giving a brief insight into how law operates in and is constructed in a gendered context.

Kristina Wejstål
Doctoral candidate in international law
Centre for European Research (CERGU)
Department of Law, School of Business, Economics and Law University of Gothenburg

Kristina Wejstål is a doctoral candidate in international law at the Centre for European Research (CERGU) and the Department of Law, School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg.

Kristina holds a LL.M. from the University of Gothenburg and is currently teaching migration law at the Law Department’s law clinic (the first law clinic in Sweden), and works with her dissertation “Gendered Dimensions of Accessing Asylum in the European Union”.

Kristina is also the initiator of a non-profit organisation working with issues on gender and sexuality, and is the artistic director of a theatre company in Gothenburg and has as a trained actress directed and acted for several years.

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