Abstract
This two-volume open-access book offers a theoretically and empirically-grounded portrayal of the experiences of people claiming international protection in Europe on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity (SOGI). It shows how European asylum systems might and should treat asylum claims based on people’s SOGI in a fairer, more humane way. Through a combined comparative, interdisciplinary (socio-legal), human rights, feminist, queer and intersectional approach, this book examines not only the legal experiences of people claiming asylum on grounds of their SOGI, but also their social experiences outside the asylum decision-making framework. The authors analyse how SOGI-related claims are adjudicated in different European frameworks (European Union, Council of Europe, Germany, Italy and UK) and offer detailed recommendations to adequately address the intersectional experiences of individuals seeking asylum. This unique approach ensures that the book is of interest not only to researchers in migration and refugee studies, law and wider academic communities, but also to policy makers and practitioners in the field of SOGI asylum.
Highlights
We provide a comparative analysis of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) asylum in the three countries selected (Germany, Italy, UK. Ximena (UK)), while other project publications cover subjects that emerged as important in our fieldwork but that did not fit with the structure of these volumes or which we wanted to discuss in greater detail than would be possible in these volumes taking a broad, pan-European perspective
While conscious that the UN opts for the acronym LGBTI (United Nations Human Rights Office 2019), we have found it important to add Q for queer, as ‘identity categories are burdened by legacies that must be interrogated, do not map neatly across time and space, and become transformed through circulation within specific, unequally situated local, regional, national and transnational circuits’ (Luibhéid 2008, p. 170)
The SOGICA project ran from September 2016 until August 2020.1 In these four years, the project consisted of different phases: (1) delineating the project’s methodology and theoretical and analytical frameworks, in particular how human rights, feminist and queer studies and the concept of intersectionality can be used as particular lenses for the analysis of SOGI asylum claims; (2) preparing and conducting fieldwork in Germany, Italy, the UK and at European Union (EU) and Council of Europe levels; (3) analysing the data, writing up the results and producing detailed policy recommendations
Summary
As Victor Madrigal-Borloz stated, for many SOGI claimants ‘the trauma and persecution start well before their actual flight to safety’, while ‘the journey to safety can prove treacherous [because these claimants] continue to face prejudice and violence in countries of transit and host countries’ (UN Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity 2019) He called upon states to grant ‘safe settings’ well before the asylum process starts in the receiving country, in order to cover their often long-term travels and stays in transit countries. It is helpful in understanding how stereotypes based on SOGI, and on SOGI in relation to other characteristics – such as age, gender, religion, education – come together to create expectations of how a particular claimant should present themselves for their claim to be successful
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