Attached Paper Annual Meeting 2024

Displaced Persons, Sexualized Violence and Agency

Abstract for Online Program Book (maximum 150 words)

Displaced persons, refugees and migrants frequently endure sexualized violence on their journeys. Nationalist ideologies exploit women's vulnerability to fortify national identity, fuelling debates charged with racism and sexism amid a global rightward shift. Concerns arise over the treatment of LGBTIQ+ individuals fleeing persecution and the recognition of sexualized violence for asylum. Many discussions on flight and migration reveal a lack of understanding of gender-based violence complexities.

This analysis examines epistemological presuppositions, concepts and theories, Russia's war in Ukraine, flight and migration from Ukraine, sexualized violence in the Hamas-Israel conflict, and offers an outlook on agency and human flourishing in postmigrant societies. Questions of belonging, exclusion, and integration polarize societies. Postmigrant ideologies prompt a re-evaluation of norms, privileges, and migrants' rights. "Post" in post-migrant is not just temporal; it signifies a critical review of migration narratives.