Queering Asylum in Europe: Legal and Social Experiences of Seeking International Protection on Grounds of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (Carmelo Danisi, Moira Dustin, Nuno Ferreira and Nina Held); Queer Migration and Asylum in Europe (Richard C. M. Mole)

Abstract

During the last two decades, the protection of LGBTIQ+ migrants, asylum claimants, and refugees has gained the attention of civil society, academia, and state authorities. Among the millions of international migrants and forcibly displaced people worldwide, a growing number of LGBTIQ+ individuals leave their countries for very diverse reasons, from economic and security-related motives to fleeing persecution on grounds of their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC). Europe is one of their most frequent destinations. Discourses advocating for the recognition of the human rights of these individuals worldwide are clashing with the fact that currently, 122 of the 193 UN member states either criminalize same-sex sexual activity or tolerate sexual-orientation discrimination (Mole 2021, p. 15). Given the multiple intersections they embody, including not only non-heteronormative SOGIESC but also race, ethnicity, religion, age, class, and health, this is a group whose rights are particularly vulnerable throughout the migration/asylum process.