Abstract
Establishing a life in an asylum country presents an exceptionally daunting challenge, particularly for women. In asylum countries, women encounter numerous hurdles like healthcare, language barriers, economic empowerment, childcare, education, cultural adjustment, legal issues, and more. This chapter comprehensively analyzes reception conditions and integration practices in the Portuguese asylum system from a gender perspective, covering seven critical areas: housing, financial support, healthcare, psychological assistance, education, labor market integration, and legal aid. Through 49 interviews (with asylum-seeking women and with professionals working in the Portuguese asylum system), this research unveils deficiencies in support, mainly due to the absence of gender-specific approaches. The chapter aims to promote gender-sensitive policies and practices to aid asylum-seeking women.
TopBackground
Law no. 27/2008, as amended by Law no. 26/2014 (also known as “The Asylum Act”), defines 'applicants in need of special procedural guarantees'. While the Act does not provide an exhaustive list of criteria for such individuals, it references factors like age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, serious illness, mental disorders, torture, rape, or other severe forms of psychological, physical, or sexual violence as potential determinants of special procedural guarantees (Oliveira, 2020). The Asylum Act emphasizes safeguarding individuals targeted for persecution due to gender-based reasons, as specified in subparagraph f of article 5, addressing acts of persecution. Notably, it's important to highlight the scarcity of publicly available statistics specifically related to cases of gender-based violence among asylum-seeking women.