Refugee Camps as Contested Gendered Spaces: Afghan Women's Liminality, Inequality, and Agency in Germany

Abstract

This article examines how migrant women from Afghanistan who arrived in Germany in or after 2015—including asylum seekers, refugees, and those with rejected cases—experience and contest the everyday challenges within the liminal and precarious confines of camps and camp-like structures, including asylum reception and collective accommodation centres. It contributes critically to camp and refugee studies by centring the gendered experiences, liminality, intersectional vulnerabilities, and agency of women in these settings. The article argues that camps and camp-like spaces are contested gendered spaces where female migrants navigate and challenge multiple inequalities by exercising agency through diverse strategies. Afghan migrant women provide a compelling case, justified by their intersecting origins and the limited research on their experiences. In-depth interviews, participant observation, and a review of the literature are utilised to collect data using a qualitative design that implements an engaged narrative inquiry. Two interconnected themes emerge from the research. The first analyses how participants categorise their living arrangements as camps and heims, while addressing the spatial inequalities, gendered vulnerabilities, and liminal experiences they encounter. The second examines women's agency and the various strategies they exercise to navigate and contest these inequalities. Specifically, three forms of agency are highlighted: creative space-making, resilient navigation, and solidarity through faith and sisterhood.