Re-thinking Articulations of Nation and Gender through Asylum Policies: Discourses and Representations of Women Seeking Asylum in Spain

This chapter examines the role asylum procedures play in the making of national identities and the construction of racial and gender borders in contemporary “fortress Europe”. For this purpose, I employ a Critical Discourse Analysis approach to examine court cases of women claiming asylum in Spain based on gender persecutions. I focus on the discursive strategies implemented by the authorities that decide on asylum and the gendered and racialised representations they deploy regarding women from the global South and their cultures in assessing these claims. Three main patterns were identified: 1) the stereotypical portrayal of women asylum seekers as voiceless victims both reproduces colonial narratives and serves to justify denial of asylum claims; 2) the essentialisation of cultural difference, in which forced marriages and female genital mutilation are labelled as “ethnic gender violence”; 3) the representation of Spain as an idealised “gender-equality haven” accounts for the sensationalised rhetoric of gendernationalism as it contrasts with the material consequences of border regimes, including the high rejection rate of asylum claims and androcentric and cultural blindness to gender-based violence. Finally, I conclude that the application assessment procedures put female asylum seekers in the spotlight through an essentialist representation of “real victims” that the authorities produce, and the gendernationalist official discourse serves to maintain the racial/biopolitical order of asylum by excluding them from the protective care policies and condemning them to deportation and irregularity.