Queer motherhood in the context of legal precarity: experiences of lesbian mothers seeking asylum in Germany

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article focuses on the everyday experiences of lesbian asylum claimants in southern Germany who engage in practices of ‘mothering from a distance’ and/or who decide to have children while their asylum decision is still pending. The aim of this article is to use motherhood as an empirical lens to discuss forms of belonging, stability, and pain at the intersection of gender, sexuality, race, and legal status. The writing of this article draws on empirical case studies featuring two lesbian-identifying mothers from Uganda – Hope and Livia – who are both currently going through the asylum process in Germany. It is argued that experiences around motherhood lay bare the often-invisible emotional journeys of lesbian womxn which have a substantial bearing on their asylum process in Germany. To this end, this article contributes to the nascent scholarship that seeks to amplify the experiences of lesbian womxn within queer asylum scholarship.