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From Vulnerability to Empowerment: Critical Reflections on Canada’s Engagement with Refugee Policy

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  • Amanda Klassen

    (Department of Political Science, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6, Canada)

Abstract

The making and implementation of global policy are prominent areas of activity for the global refugee regime, with a specific focus on policy relating to the categories of vulnerable refugees. Recent collective efforts globally have highlighted the importance of meaningfully including refugees themselves; and a discursive shift away from the language of vulnerability towards that of empowerment in policy making, and humanitarian assistance. Despite this, efforts to implement these commitments have largely been unsuccessful, raising questions about how refugees are engaged in these processes, and in what ways the label of vulnerable continues to influence the making and implementation of global refugee policy. Using the case of Canada’s engagement with the global refugee regime, and with refugee women in particular, this article argues that the continued framing of refugee women as vulnerable has impeded progress, and that for transformative policy to be realized, refugee women must be seen as actors with capacity to participate, and must be included in all processes of policy making, implementation and evaluation. A feminist geopolitical framework is presented as a way to decenter states and institutions in favor of centering the individual embodied experiences of refugee women in global refugee policy making. By doing so, empowerment can be realized in policy and practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Amanda Klassen, 2022. "From Vulnerability to Empowerment: Critical Reflections on Canada’s Engagement with Refugee Policy," Laws, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-17, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlawss:v:11:y:2022:i:2:p:22-:d:768103
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Kate Pincock & Alexander Betts & Evan Easton-Calabria, 2021. "The Rhetoric and Reality of Localisation: Refugee-Led Organisations in Humanitarian Governance," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 57(5), pages 719-734, May.
    2. Acharya, Amitav, 2004. "How Ideas Spread: Whose Norms Matter? Norm Localization and Institutional Change in Asian Regionalism," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 58(2), pages 239-275, April.
    3. Autesserre, Séverine, 2009. "Hobbes and the Congo: Frames, Local Violence, and International Intervention," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 63(2), pages 249-280, April.
    4. Checkel, Jeffrey T., 2005. "International Institutions and Socialization in Europe: Introduction and Framework," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 59(4), pages 801-826, October.
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    1. Reem Alkharouf & Ali Shehadeh & Khaled Khazaleh & Azzam Al-Azzam & Muneer Khalayleh, 2023. "Assessing Refugee Preferences for SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) Solutions in Irbid Camp and Sakhra Region: Cultivated Roofs and Refrigerators as Food Banks Interventions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-27, August.

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