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Sweden's New Resettlement Policy: Introducing Gender and Gender Equality as Governing Tools in Migration Governance

Brigitte Suter
In 2022, Sweden introduced new refugee selection guidelines prioritizing women and girls—a departure from earlier practices focused solely on vulnerability. Through a problem representation analysis, this article examines parliamentary motions on resettlement from 2015 to 2022, exploring how gender, im/mobility, religion, and vulnerability shape notions of deservingness. It argues that gender is—intentionally or not—used as a governance tool, reflecting a broader migration policy shift of not only framing men and asylum seekers as a problem but creating the grounds for weakening rights-based approaches in favour of a more humanitarian approach to migration governance driven by compassion but also control.

Revisiting the “Imperative of Categories”: Women at Risk in Resettlement Practice

Jessica Schultz
Refugee “women at risk” (WaR) have been prioritized since the late 1980s as candidates for third-country resettlement. Drawing on Macklin (1995), this article interrogates the logic and consequences of the WaR category. Through the lens of Norwegian practice, it shows how restrictive interpretations of UNHCR’s criteria and securitized resettlement processes reinforce a culture of disbelief and a focus on non-state protection by men. The application of WaR incentivizes family separation and perpetuates essentialist ideas about women’s vulnerabilities. While a broader category for gender-based risks can moderate WaR’s exclusionary effects, it similarly contributes to legitimizing harmful border regimes.

Navigating Vulnerability in the Context of Resettlement: Syrian Youth in Türkiye

Pelin Kılınçarslan, Müge Dalkıran and Ahmet İçduygu
This article explores vulnerability in the resettlement experiences and imaginaries of Syrian refugee youth (aged 18–35) in Türkiye, a group often excluded from conventional vulnerability frameworks. Based on in-depth interviews, it conceptualizes vulnerability as multi-faceted, spanning innate, structural, and situational dimensions. Findings show how shifting migration policies, politicization, and institutional barriers compound insecurities, shaping how youth imagine and pursue resettlement in a protracted refugee context. The study contributes to debates on vulnerability, youth migration, and the evolving possibilities of resettlement, and underlines the need for international policies and agreements that adopt context-sensitive approaches addressing structural and situational factors.

The Evolution of Vulnerabiity in Norwegian Refugee Debates: Semantic and Political Changes over Four Decades

Ragna Lillevik
This study traces how vulnerability emerged as a key concept in Norwegian refugee policy from the 1980s to the 2020s. Using Koselleck’s conceptual history framework, it analyzes seven major legislative and policy debates. The findings show a shift from systemic understandings of displacement to individualized assessments of risk, reinforcing hierarchies of deservingness. Vulnerability liberalized asylum procedures but also legitimized restrictive policies, favouring resettled refugees over asylum seekers. The study highlights how this concept operates as both a moral and a political tool, shaping refugee priorities while narrowing political responsibility for global displacement.

Sacrificing the Few to Save the Many: The Moral Economy of Resettlement to Norway

Nerina Weiss
This article explores how Norwegian resettlement officers navigate moral dilemmas when selecting refugees who are deemed both deserving of protection and too vulnerable, costly, or risky to resettle. It analyzes resettlement officers’ moral distress, discretionary power, and coping strategies and develops a moral economy perspective on refugee resettlement in a universalist welfare state. The analysis reveals that these dilemmas reflect fundamental contradictions within the resettlement system, at the intersection of humanitarian commitment, national legal and social norms, and municipal capacity. These moral tensions create a space where human suffering is neither ignored nor easily resolved but continuously present.