Sweden's New Resettlement Policy: Introducing Gender and Gender Equality as Governing Tools in Migration Governance
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25071/1920-7336.41711Keywords:
Resettlement, Sweden, gender, human rights, deservingnessAbstract
In 2022, Sweden introduced new refugee selection guidelines prioritizing women and girls—a departure from earlier practices focused solely on vulnerability. Through a problem representation analysis, this article examines parliamentary motions on resettlement from 2015 to 2022, exploring how gender, im/mobility, religion, and vulnerability shape notions of deservingness. It argues that gender is—intentionally or not—used as a governance tool, reflecting a broader migration policy shift of not only framing men and asylum seekers as a problem but creating the grounds for weakening rights-based approaches in favour of a more humanitarian approach to migration governance driven by compassion but also control.
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