Not in our names

The culturalist instrumentalization of the defense of women's rights and the gender violence of migration policies

Abstract

This paper describes how the differentialist and reductionist use of the notion of ‘culture’, within dynamics defined as sexual nationalism (Fassin) or femonationalism (Farris) are used to legitimize contemporary migratory policies of borders externalization which have the direct effect of producing specific positions of vulnerability to violence that particularly affects women. By way of example, the manipulation of the ‘events’ that occurred in Cologne on New Year’s Eve 2015, and the story of F., an Ivorian woman who, to emancipate herself from the patriarchal dynamics stigmatized by Western democracies, had to suffer even worse abuse in his migration history, are analized. Finally, the procedures for evaluating asylum requests as a practice of secondary victimization are considered, by taking into account the excerpts from the minutes of the hearing of a Nigerian asylum seeker victim of trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

Keywords: cultural differentialism, cultural reductionism, sexual nationalism, femonationalism, migrant women and migration policies.