As habitantes da fronteira: as deficiências das políticas públicas de acolhimento a refugiados na União Europeia e seus impactos para mulheres refugiadas

Abstract

The gender perspective is neglected in the analysis of International Relations in most studies on the Human Rights of Refugees. In the midst of the so-called “crisis” of refugees in the second half of the 2010s in Europe, it is imperative to identify the particular challenges faced by refugee women and girls, in order to assess the effectiveness of public policies implemented for this social group. Assuming that there is specific violence suffered by refugee women, this dissertation aims to identify whether the policies of refugee reception from European Union countries have contributed to the protection of the Human Rights of refugee women. The methodology used will be a hypothetical-deductive analysis applied to a case study of refugee reception policies by European Union States between 2015 and 2021, in order to verify if policies related to gender have been sufficiently implemented in public reception policies by the responsible migration authorities. Mobilizing Feminist and Decolonial theoretical approaches to International Relations and Subaltern Studies, it is concluded that direct and indirect violence is being perpetrated against refugees in EU countries. These violences are practiced by agents that are present in the daily lives of refugees. Thus, this work argues that public policies for refugees in the EU do not sufficiently reduce this situation of violence, contrary to the normative ideals of the regional institution. The regional norms for the reception of refugees from the European Union, however, grant wide discretion to the Member States to implement public policies of this nature, which results in dissonances between the reception standards in each State. The reality of insufficiency and inefficiency of reception policies carried out by EU Member States, especially on issues of gender-based violence, consists of a type of institutional silencing and the reproduction of subalternity.