Velvet triangles and more: making sense of EU’s Gender Mainstreaming in migration policy

Gender Mainstreaming (henceforth GM) is an instrument institutionalized by international law to promote gender equality. Since its first formulation in 1995, GM has been applied in several configurations, some more conservative and others more progressive, also within the European Union (henceforth EU). Studies have shown a gap between EU rhetoric and practice concerning GM. Specifically, GM has had an uneven application, if any, in areas considered “gender neutral” such as security, foreign policy and migration. Migration policies in particular, and their connection to gender issues, have received little attention in the literature, especially with regard to the EU. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the reasons behind the configuration of GM applied in migration management. Following the RQ “How can we explain the approach to Gender Mainstreaming in EU migration policy?” and using qualitative methodologies such as semi-structured interviews and document analysis, this study applies Woodward's (2004) velvet triangle theory to explain why, within migration policy, the EU applies an integrationist approach to GM, i.e., focused on quantitative and superficial measures that do not really challenge the sources of gender inequalities. The findings suggest that the integrationist approach can be explained by structural weaknesses of migration policies’ velvet triangles but, at the same time, that the securitized approach to migration and national interests of Member States (henceforth MSs) play a considerate role in EU’s general approach to GM.