The External Dimension of EU Migration and Refugee Policies: Gender-Specific Challenges

Although the EU received widespread criticism for transferring its refugee protection and migration management responsibilities outside its borders, one aspect that requires further attention is the way in which gender considerations are incorporated within these policies. Addressing this understudied issue, this chapter explores whether gender-specific challenges are integrated into EU cooperation with third countries in the area of migration and asylum policy. The chapter is divided into two sections: the first provides an examination of the EU’s asylum policy from a gendered perspective and also analyses the extent to which Turkish policy development in this area has been subject to Europeanisation; the second investigates the degree to which the EU has integrated gender-related norms and concerns into its cooperation with third countries, looking specifically at the case of Turkey-EU cooperation. The central argument is that EU external migration policies largely neglect issues pertaining to gender. This leads to the EU having limited scope to oversee the incorporation of gender concerns and norms in its partners’ asylum policies.