Aspects

Gender specific persecution: women are “persecuted” within the meaning of asylum law for many different reasons: for political activity, for membership of an ethnic or religious minority, or simply because of their gender. Gender specific persecution has its causes mostly in rules and laws which serve to uphold a male-dominated social order and which only apply to women. Persecution can take the form of violence, often sexual violence, but also of discrimination in daily life such as rules about clothing and conduct.

Asylum procedure: during their stay in accommodation for asylum seekers, women and girls are frequently subjected to harassment and assault. To enable to be self-determining in their participation in the asylum procedure, women must be involved who act as examiners to take their statements and as interpreters and asylum procedure consultations and hearings should take place for women on their own and not in the presence of (male) family members. Gender competence in the procedure can better be secured if the official bodies involved are filled on an equal gender basis in order to take account of gender specific decision making aspects.

Immigration to work: immigration in order to find work is often perceived as immigration by men. This is because women often have fewer formal qualifications than men. They are secret work immigrants to the extent that they often work in the informal services sector. The best example is the “Polish cleaning woman”. Incentives for immigration must address both women and men with the cross-sectional goal of gender equality between women and men. What is important is to reflect the term “work” in a way that does justice to gender issues in the field as a whole.

Reuniting of families: family networks are the most important points of contact for social relations. In the migration situation, they become a special form of “social capital” that can make a considerable contribution to integration in the adopting society and must be treated with care. Women feel responsible for holding the family together and are therefore particularly affected by the rigid rules concerning the reuniting of families. With integration measures, an integrated approach should be pursued in view of the experience gained with projects. The success rate is significantly greater where mothers and children learn parallel to each other rather than where facilities for mothers are ignored.

Illegality: without legal residential status, the people affected are not assured of their basic rights. This means for example that there is no access to medical care, sex advice or pregnancy conflict advice for victims of human trafficking, who are predominantly women.