Exclusionary refugee protection regime, colonial others and gender dualities

International refugee law and protection purport to apply to refugees worldwide, but their founding and application is in fact intimately linked to the geopolitical battles and memories of the great powers. As a result, different conceptualisations of refugees have emerged along a Global North-South divide. This chapter is interested in these conceptualisations and focuses on colonial Othering in the context of displacement. To this end, it analytically links three areas: international refugee law, political discourses about refugee protection and gendered effects on refugees - particularly in (post)colonial Africa. We show that the 1951 Refugee Convention’s focus on refugees in and from Europe has contributed to the structural neglect and Othering of refugees who are situated ‘elsewhere’ in the world. After decolonisation in Africa, political discourses about protection intensified these dynamics; at the core was not legal asylum but instead humanitarian relief. This resulted in the portrayal of the Other refugees as helpless, apolitical and feminine bodies in need of relief, which (re)produced Western gender dualities.