Unveiling the Liberal Dilemma: Feminist Diplomacy and European Strategies in Immigration Management
In the realm of foreign affairs and international justice, migration and flight are pivotal issues, intertwined with climate change, human rights, and development. However, a significant gap has emerged in Germany's Feminist Foreign Policy (FFP), with migration and asylum policies conspicuously absent from the guidelines. This omission, rather than a misuse of feminist ideals, indicates an unresolved tension and conflict between feminist commitments to human rights and empowerment, and the state's migration control policies that emphasise security and restriction.
The FFP, published by the German Federal Foreign Office in early 2023, underscores support for women's participation, protection from sexual violence in conflict, and empowerment in crisis regions. Yet, migration and asylum issues, particularly border controls and deportations, remain largely detached from these commitments.
Recent German migration policies have become more restrictive, involving harsher asylum rules, border pushbacks, suspension of family reunification, and outsourcing asylum processing. These measures conflict with feminist ideals of protection and humanitarian rights, especially for women refugees and asylum seekers who face specific vulnerabilities.
The EU's externalization and border control policies, which Germany supports as part of the EU framework, frame migration as a security threat and often ignore the intersectional gendered impacts on migrants, especially marginalised women. This approach contradicts the FFP's emphasis on intersectionality, protection, and human rights.
A critical examination of the legal and human rights framework shows Germany's pushback policies and inadequate asylum procedures risk violating European human rights laws. This dissonance between feminist human rights commitments and actual migration practice is a pressing concern.
Advocacy for gender-sensitive asylum processes exists at the EU level but has not been fully integrated into Germany's FFP guidelines, suggesting a gap rather than misuse of feminism. The issue points more to political and strategic priorities overriding feminist goals.
Critics argue that FFP fails to interrogate the global power structures upon which it is based, potentially strengthening existing global hierarchies and legitimising policies that disempower the very groups they claim to protect. The consequence of this is border securitisation in perpetuity.
In response, the Heinrich Böll Foundation and 17 other NGOs published a joint position paper, advocating for a more comprehensive approach to FFP that addresses migration and asylum issues. The act of flight itself remains especially prohibitive and dangerous for marginalised groups, such as women, children, LGBTIQ+, elderly, and people with disabilities.
As the debate on FFP continues, it is crucial to bridge the gap between feminist ideals and migration control policies, ensuring that the rights and protection of all migrants and asylum seekers are prioritised in Germany's foreign policy.
- The German Federal Foreign Office's Feminist Foreign Policy (FFP) supports women's empowerment and protection in crisis regions, but it overlooks migration and asylum issues, creating a significant division.
- The European Union's border control policies, which Germany supports, disregard the intersectional gendered impacts on migrants, contradicting the FFP's emphasis on intersectionality and human rights.
- The FFP's failure to fully address migration and asylum issues, such as border controls and deportations, risks violating human rights laws, especially for vulnerable groups like women.
- Advocating for more comprehensive FFP guidelines that consider migration and asylum issues, such as the position paper by the Heinrich Böll Foundation and other NGOs, is essential to prioritize the rights and protection of all migrants and asylum seekers.
