Gender, Displacement, and the Ethics of Protection
Gender, Displacement, and the Ethics of Protection
Focusing on the flight of women and girls from Venezuela to Brazil, and on South American refugee regimes, this paper addresses the ethics of forced displacement and the requirements of gender responsive systems of protection. The analysis centres the voices of displaced women brought in through fieldwork in Manaus and Boa Vista, Brazil, in 2020-2022, to identify gaps and negative effects of gender-blind provision of shelter, healthcare and other services at crossing and reception. We argue that current approaches to protection privilege humanitarian responses to victims, whereas any efforts to break cycles of deprivation and exclusion affecting displaced women and girls should privilege determinants of relational autonomy and the social agency of displaced women and girls. By developing this analysis, we contribute directly to feminist critiques of refugee protection, and reconstruct (based on migrant women’s perspectives and feminist work on relational autonomy) key elements of a gendered account of protection that centres on the recognition of autonomy.
Venezuela, forced migration, humanitarianism, protective reception, relational autonomy, women and adolescent girls
Riggirozzi, Pia
ed3be4f8-37e7-46a2-8242-f6495d727c22
Cintra, Natalia
875176c4-c3b4-40bf-a6bd-90fea4a9058b
Owen, David
9fc71bca-07d1-44af-9248-1b9545265a58
Riggirozzi, Pia
ed3be4f8-37e7-46a2-8242-f6495d727c22
Cintra, Natalia
875176c4-c3b4-40bf-a6bd-90fea4a9058b
Owen, David
9fc71bca-07d1-44af-9248-1b9545265a58
Riggirozzi, Pia, Cintra, Natalia and Owen, David
(2025)
Gender, Displacement, and the Ethics of Protection.
International Migration Review.
(doi:10.1177/01979183251319014).
(In Press)
Abstract
Focusing on the flight of women and girls from Venezuela to Brazil, and on South American refugee regimes, this paper addresses the ethics of forced displacement and the requirements of gender responsive systems of protection. The analysis centres the voices of displaced women brought in through fieldwork in Manaus and Boa Vista, Brazil, in 2020-2022, to identify gaps and negative effects of gender-blind provision of shelter, healthcare and other services at crossing and reception. We argue that current approaches to protection privilege humanitarian responses to victims, whereas any efforts to break cycles of deprivation and exclusion affecting displaced women and girls should privilege determinants of relational autonomy and the social agency of displaced women and girls. By developing this analysis, we contribute directly to feminist critiques of refugee protection, and reconstruct (based on migrant women’s perspectives and feminist work on relational autonomy) key elements of a gendered account of protection that centres on the recognition of autonomy.
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riggirozzi-et-al-2025-gender-displacement-and-the-ethics-of-protection
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Accepted/In Press date: 15 January 2025
Keywords:
Venezuela, forced migration, humanitarianism, protective reception, relational autonomy, women and adolescent girls
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Local EPrints ID: 498389
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/498389
ISSN: 0197-9183
PURE UUID: 19ac12a5-4a06-40da-838e-e8e7bee575cc
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Date deposited: 18 Feb 2025 17:30
Last modified: 22 Aug 2025 02:29
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Author:
Natalia Cintra
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