Gender in Waiting : Men and Women Asylum Seekers in European Reception Facilities
This paper explores how men and women experience their time waiting for a response to applications for international protection, in asylum seekers’ reception centers in Italy and Greece. The experience of waiting in camps can be characterized as on...
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| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2019
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/532181547235243643/Gender-in-Waiting-Men-and-Women-Asylum-Seekers-in-European-Reception-Facilities http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31209 |
| Summary: | This paper explores how men and women
experience their time waiting for a response to applications
for international protection, in asylum seekers’ reception
centers in Italy and Greece. The experience of waiting in
camps can be characterized as one of extended uncertainty,
during which women and men live lives in a new environment,
with limited physical and social interactions with local
communities. Qualitative data collected in early 2017
reveals that these prolonged waits generate various
vulnerabilities, some compounding those already caused by
trying journeys, which include gender-specific
vulnerabilities. In addition, the paper provides an overview
of the aspirations men and women asylum seekers hold as they
look at the future. These aspirations are informed by
pre-existing gender and social norms, but their development
appears to be influenced also by the time in waiting.
Specifically, aspirations seem constrained for all by the
high levels of uncertainty and duration of the legal
process, as well as by limited information, and barriers to
interactions with local communities. Thus, men and women
miss out on opportunities to qualify or broaden their
aspirations, as they wait. Taking into account the different
challenges and opportunities men and women asylum seekers
face may be helpful in devising more targeted and thus
effective policies with regards to asylum seekers during
this period in waiting. |
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