Wyss, Anna and Carolin Fischer

Männlichkeit im Spannungsfeld
2021

This paper explores the interplay of ambivalent representations of masculinity in the everyday lives and practices of Afghan refugees in Germany and Switzerland and analyses its consequences. We demonstrate how exposure to suspicion and legal precarity in the receiving society in conjunction with responsibilities for family members living abroad produce gendered tensions. These tensions derive from arbitrary imperatives inherent to European migration politics, the implications of holding a precarious legal status and unfulfilled expectations of family members living abroad. Exposure to such coinciding but contradictory requirements places male refugees at risk of dual marginalization.