Western hosts and Southern ghosts: the west-as-host construct in refugee law scholarship and its gendered implications for women in polygynous relationships

Abstract

ABSTRACT Refugee law scholarship is largely focused on the application of refugee law and the refugee status determination processes of Western host countries. This geographical focus in much scholarly work stands in stark contrast to the global distribution of refugees, the majority of whom are hosted by countries of the Global South. Women refugees are particularly underrepresented in Western host states. This paper focuses attention on refugee women in polygynous relationships within the South African asylum system, exposing both the exclusionary impact of Western anti-polygamy measures and the imbalanced knowledge production in refugee law. This work makes clear the way in which an unacknowledged bias in the study of refugee law as applied only in select Western countries, limits and indeed distorts our understanding of international refugee law and serves to erase certain refugees.