Presumptions of Invulnerability and Social Group Exclusion

Trafficked Adult Males As (Un)Gendered Protection Seekers Presumptions Of Invulnerability and Exclusion From Membership Of A Particular Social Group Date: June, 26 2023 - Access to asylum for trafficked persons inconsistent (at best) and dependent o (perceived) gender identity and type of exploitation - Women and girls trafficked for sexual exploitation recognized as MPSG at higher rates, though not always in a consistent manner, than women and girls trafficked for purposes other than SE and trafficked men and boys.  Gender stereotypes and failure to recognize gender dimension of trafficking with respect to men and boys  Nature of exploitation - forced labor and forced criminality considered lesser' harms v sexual exploitation - Analysis of UKUT IAC decisions 2017-2020. Two themes:  Process of (un)gendering trafficked men, which affects recognition of their vulnerability (and victimhood)  Creation of hierarchy of exploitation - and therefore of suffering - between trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and trafficking for other exploitative purposes - Unpacking the gender-biases of anti-trafficking action: Current framing and implementation of laws and policies on (anti) human trafficking are particularly punitive towards adult men MPSG: Testing The Test(S)  HVT (Vietnam): sexual exploitation. Persons trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation have a common immutable characteristic, namely their experience of having been trafficked, and that shared possession of that characteristic established the existence of the PSG  SSHD v TSN (Vietnam): forced criminality. "Past persecution or ill-treatment is a strong indicator of the likelihood of such treatment occurring in the future and the appellant's experience would appear to fit that paradigm" Gender And Vulnerability In Anti-Trafficking  Int'l refugee law critiqued as portraying as universal what is, in fact, a male paradigm and over-reliance on gender (and PSG) in asylum claims submitted by females  Critical analysis of asylum's (and anti-trafficking's) gendered politics include gendered exclusions  Rooted tendency within patriarchal and male-dominated societies to perceive women as subject to external control  Vulnerability deemed incompatible with manhood  Adult men perceived and recognized as 'victims' only when trafficking experience contributes to their feminization or their infantilization (Un)Gendered Males  When notion of women pinned down to narrowly sexualized aspect of the category, it reinforces patriarchal discourses  Prima facie (in) vulnerability  Screening tools - both re: human trafficking and CRSV - do not routinely include men (and include boys in a limited manner)  Inclusive vs competitive vulnerability and the 'gender neutrality' paradigm  SV against males often labelled as torture, rather than SV - perpetuating conception that SV has 'gendered', (mis)understood as 'sexed', nature Exploring 'Men's Silence': Masculinities And Victimhood Victimhood Is Performative 1. Beyond sex, victimhood (understood as) feminine 2. Visual gestalt. the 'lens' through which decision-makers see (or construe images) 3. (Over) reliance on self-identification Convergent VS Divergent Behavior(S) 1. Avoiding narratives', 'de-personalization' of violence, and coping mechanisms 2. Group-based approaches to vulnerability create misleading homogeneity presumption (Cunniff Gibson 2016) Understanding Gender Across The Spectrum 1. Gender strategically understood and deployed as applying only to women and girls 2. Gender made invisible with respect to men, or visible only with reference to hegemonic masculinity: de-victimization