Odierna, ‘”They Only Focus on Violence and Nothing Else”: Questioning the Idea of “Refugee Women’s” General Vulnerability to Violence,’ 2025

Odierna, B. (2025). ‘”They Only Focus on Violence and Nothing Else”: Questioning the Idea of “Refugee Women’s” General Vulnerability to Violence’. Geopolitics, 1–22.

Abstract

In Germany, women categorised as refugees are often depicted homogenously, as potential victims of (sexual) violence. However, many of these women strongly criticise their collective representation as victims. Drawing on interviews, informal conversations, and observations from my fieldwork (2020-22), I will argue that vulnerability cannot be regarded as a ‘characteristic’ of so-called ‘refugee women’; rather, its rhetorical utilisation in the German public should be carefully examined. Using the example of the local discourse on violence prevention in Munich and Bavaria after 2015, I will examine how the construction of ‘refugee women’ as being particularly at risk of violence can pose a challenge to social workers’ efforts to prevent violence in municipal reception centres. Finally, I will argue that both the ascription of vulnerability to so-called ‘refugee women’, and their experiences of structural violence contradict established portrayals of German society as a social and geographical safe haven for people living through, and living after, the asylum process.