They Only Focus on Violence and Nothing Else

Questioning the Idea of 'Refugee Women's' General Vulnerability to Violence

Bibliographic Data

ID3948819
AuthorsBeatrice Odierna (0009-0001-8078-8381, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Cultural Studies, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume31
Issue2
Pages1-22
Publication date2025-02-26
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeopolitics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1465-0045 • E-ISSN: 1557-3028
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14650045.2025.2454913
OpenAlexW4407966683
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited47

In Germany, women categorised as refugees are often depicted homogenously, as potential victims of (sexual) violence. However, many of these women strongly criticise their collective representation as victims. Drawing on interviews, informal conversations, and observations from my fieldwork (2020-22), I will argue that vulnerability cannot be regarded as a ‘characteristic’ of so-called ‘refugee women’; rather, its rhetorical utilisation in the German public should be carefully examined. Using the example of the local discourse on violence prevention in Munich and Bavaria after 2015, I will examine how the construction of ‘refugee women’ as being particularly at risk of violence can pose a challenge to social workers’ efforts to prevent violence in municipal reception centres. Finally, I will argue that both the ascription of vulnerability to so-called ‘refugee women’, and their experiences of structural violence contradict established portrayals of German society as a social and geographical safe haven for people living through, and living after, the asylum process

Computer security · Criminology · Epistemology · Nothing · Political science · Refugee · Sociology · Computer Science · Gender Studies · Gender, Security, and Conflict · Law · Migration, Health and Trauma · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Philosophy

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