Between Protection and Harm. Negotiated Vulnerabilities in Asylum Laws and Bureaucracies

Abstract

‘Vulnerability’ is flooding UN and EU policy discourses on asylum, which increasingly lay the emphasis on the need to adopt specific protection measures for vulnerable refugees. But how should their vulnerabilities be assessed and addressed? How can a focus on the specific needs of the most vulnerable refugees complement comprehensive policy response, which guarantees all refugees’ right to protection? The speakers will address these questions, based on the findings of the research they conducted as part of the VULNER project, an international research initiative that aimed at reaching a better understanding of the vulnerabilities of migrants seeking protection (www.vulner.eu). They will dissect the current narratives of ‘vulnerability’ in asylum laws and policies in Europe and in the Global South, by unpacking the meanings, productions, and performances, of ‘vulnerability’ in two different contexts: the international aid response to refugee needs in Lebanon, and the assessment of asylum applications introduced by LGBTIQ+ persons in the EU. They will also discuss how the increased reliance on ‘vulnerability’ to guide states’ replies to refugee movements improves refugee protection, while also generating contestations and exclusionary effects that may cause harm. Programme: - Introduction (Hilde Lidén) - Negotiating Multiple Meanings of Vulnerabilities in Lebanon’s Compounded Crises: Refugees’ Encounters with Frameworks and Institutions (Maria Maalouf) - Beyond the Rainbow? An Intersectional Analysis of the Vulnerabilities faced by LGBTIQ+ Asylum-Seekers (Denise Venturi) - The Travels and Transformations of ‘Vulnerability’: From an Ethical and Analytical Concept to a Legal and Bureaucratic Label (Luc Leboeuf)