"They Told Me to Shut Up and Stop Denying What I Am": On Claims of Asylum, Nigerian Women Fleeing Witchcraft-Motivated Violence and Intersecting Canadian Structures of Othering

Abstract

According to existing literature, English-speaking countries that receive refugees fleeing witchcraft-motivated violence see claims of asylum from Nigerian women more than from any other nation. Witchcraft-motivated violence is a gender-based issue that occurs in various forms in countries all over the world, and occurs when an individual, especially a woman, is accused of witchcraft and experiences violence as a result. Research in the sphere of witchcraft-motivated violence and asylum-seeking focuses on the context of international refugee law, particularly with regard to belonging to a 'particular social group.' This thesis aims to expand upon existing literature by focusing exclusively on decisions from Canada's Refugee Appeal Division. Through conducting a thematic content analysis of five cases of Nigerian women seeking asylum in Canada between 2019 and 2020, I demonstrated how intersecting Canadian structures of oppressive 'Othering' led to immigration decision-makers arriving at different conclusions about the lived realities of witchcraft-motivated violence than those presented by the women. I attribute these intersecting structures of Othering to a combination of what Said observed in his work Orientalism and Western social constructions of witchcraft and witch hunts rooted in misogyny. The importance of these findings contributed to the knowledge production in the sphere of witchcraft-motivated violence and asylum seeking, and highlights fundamental issues within the culture of the Refugee Appeal Division, and the Immigration and Refugee Board more broadly.