Abstract
The asylum system is a key site in which disputes over “sexuality” are contested. In refugee status determinations, administrative bodies are required to determine the actual or perceived sexuality of a claimant. This article draws on eight semi-structured interviews with refugees who claimed asylum in the United Kingdom based on their sexual diversity to deconstruct the distinct conceptions of sexual orientation, identity, and behaviour prevalent within the asylum system. It argues that the UK system overly privileges identity, falsely construing this as determinative of other aspects of sexuality. In doing so, it proposes a new framework of sexual diversity as a more relativist and inclusive way of making sense of sexual difference.
Highlights
In recent years, the treatment of sexually diverse refugees and asylum seekers has become an area of expanding interest for academic researchers
Given the limitations of Country Information regarding sexual minorities, this can often mean that such claims are viewed as not being supported by external credibility, or, as Bruce-Jones has argued, that claimants end up essentially being assessed on the extent to which their sexuality/sexual diversity corresponds to the judge or decision-makers own conceptions of sexual identity (Bruce-Jones 2015, p. 114)
It is argued that such a shift would help to create greater conceptual space for a wider range of sexual and gender differences to be recognized and offered appropriate protection under the Refugee Convention
Summary
The treatment of sexually diverse refugees and asylum seekers has become an area of expanding interest for academic researchers (see for example: Bennett 2014; Giametta 2017, 2020; Khan 2016, 2019; Millbank 2009; Murray 2014; Powell 2020, 2021). I do not claim this swing is new—Foucault (1998) relates the idea back to early sexology in the Victorian period—I suggest that many recent developments in the rights of sexually diverse people have been contingent on a conception of sexualities as pre-eminently identities This has marginalized the orientational and behavioural ways in which sexual difference manifests. Drawing on an ethnographically informed phenomenological narrative analysis approach, I show how participants rejected or contested the utility of identity as a way of making sense of their own sexual diversities (Black et al 2011; Malagodi and Powell 2019; Powell 2021) They instead situated these diversities as being founded in forms of behaviour, desire, or as being irrelevant to their own self-conceptions. The blending of queer theory and empirical evidence remains, with some notable exceptions, relatively rare (see for example: Morris 2021a; Powell 2021)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
