Abstract
Biometric security and screening systems have revolutionized border crossings. As bodies move across the physical space of the borderland, the border moves through them, scanning and cataloguing and scrutinizing bodies for irregularity. While such technologies have been scrutinized, they have largely been so through heteronormative and cisnormative lenses that fail to recognize the vastly different experiences of nonbinary, nonconforming, transgender, and queer border crossers. This paper examines the implications of what we argue is the individualization of the border, and the effects of biometric security screenings for people whose bodies do not conform to heteronormative and cisnormative standards. We argue that border securitization increasingly equates body differences to narratives of threat and risk, which endangers nonbinary, trans, and queer border crossers, and places their safe passage at risk.
Highlights
Borders represent perhaps one of the greatest paradoxes of our time: While barriers to economic flows are dismantled, it is clear that borders remain highly significant as arbiters of human flows.Recent events, including the Schengen crisis in Europe, as well as the “build the wall” campaign in the United States, reveal that borders have a persistent role as pillars of national identity, sites of exclusion and expulsion, and as mechanisms to create spaces of exception.1 The border represents a physical, spatial, and symbolic marker between those who are in, and who are not and provides a focal point for concerns for the policing and securing of these boundaries.2 Border processes—especially as they pertain to border-crossers and migrants—are far from neutral arbiters of flows
The purpose of this paper is to examine how the border operates as an arbiter of the rights of refugees claiming asylum on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression (SOGIE)
To promote greater understanding of cases involving sexual orientation and gender identity and expression (SOGIE) and the harm individuals may face in presenting their cases before the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) and establishes guiding principles for decision-makers in adjudicating cases involving SOGIE.5
Summary
Borders represent perhaps one of the greatest paradoxes of our time: While barriers to economic flows are dismantled, it is clear that borders remain highly significant as arbiters of human flows. To promote greater understanding of cases involving sexual orientation and gender identity and expression (SOGIE) and the harm individuals may face in presenting their cases before the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB) and establishes guiding principles for decision-makers in adjudicating cases involving SOGIE.5 The details of these new guidelines provide an important glimpse into the operational realities of the IRB and are at once a validation of the unique experiences of trans, queer, and nonbinary refugee claimants and an area for concern for that very group, due to an apparent contradiction between the wording of these guidelines and an earlier precedent in Canadian law. We argue that the ad hoc nature of contemporary refugee and asylum policy in Canada is, with respect to queer and transgender claimants—and most other gender-nonconforming identities—critically underdeveloped
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