Migration and queer mobilisations: how migration facilitates cross-border LGBTQ activism

Refugees’ Transnational Practices: Gay Iranian Men Navigating Refugee Status and Cross-border Ties in Canada

“…During my field work, I found that gay Iranian men, mainly those with higher sense of connection with Iranian LGBT communities as well as greater cultural capital (i.e., higher educational attainments and previous activism experiences; Guarnizo, Portes, and Haller 2003), had become agents of social change by using the Iranian diasporas’ networks and media channels to promote discussions around the acceptance of LGBTs among Iranian communities inside and outside Iran (Ayoub and Bauman 2018; Eleftheriadis 2014; Klapeer and Laskar 2018).…”

“…Initially, queer migration researchers were occupied with the emancipatory rural-to-urban migration of sexual minorities (Binnie 2004; Weston 1995) as well as the hegemonic exportation of Western sexual identities to the rest of the world as components of the globalization of human and minority rights (Grewal and Kaplan 2001; Povinelli and Chauncey 1999). The more recent queer migration scholarship has explored the ways sexuality constitutes social relations, shapes collectivities, and structures sexual minority migrants’ lives in host countries (Ayoub and Bauman 2018; Binnie and Klesse 2013; Cantú 2009; Carrillo 2018; Grundy and Smith 2005; Klapeer and Laskar 2018; Manalansan 2003; Mepschen et al 2010). In other words, and in line with the critique of ethnic assimilation narratives put forward by transnational migration studies, queer migration research “underlines the intra-group diversities around sexual and gender identities and explores the ways that sexuality may also drive immigration, inform group membership” (Karimi 2018b), and shape cross-border ties.…”

“…found in at least two geographically and internationally distinct places” (Faist 1998). This means that the newcomers, including sexual-racial minority refugees, can use cross-border sources of capital to build new social relations in the host country while sustaining cross-border ties with LGBT communities as well as friends and families in home and transition countries (Ayoub and Bauman 2018; Erel 2010; Klapeer and Laskar 2018; Miller 2011; Nowicka 2013). Consequently, it is possible to theorize that refugees are continually located in and interact with power structures of transnational social fields, and that they develop habitus and various forms of capital that enable successful navigation of the structures of transnational social fields (Bourdieu 1984).…”

“…A similar narrative frames the internal migration of sexual minorities as a unidirectional move from rural patriarchy to urban freedom which, mainly, awaits the white middle-class lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgenders (LGBTs; Duggan [2003] 2012; Gorman-Murray 2007). Although some (and growing) attention is given to sexual-racial minority immigrants ’ ties with their home countries (Ayoub and Bauman 2018; Binnie and Klesse 2013; Carrillo 2018; Dhoest 2016; Mepschen, Duyvendak, and Tonkens 2010), the nascent body of literature on queer migration has neglected sexual-racial minority refugees’ transnational lives.…”

“…In this article, I will rely on empirical data I collected from 35 interviews with gay Iranian refugees in Canada to demonstrate the complexities of sexual-racial minority refugees’ transnational ways of belonging regarding their ties with families back in Iran, ties with the Iranian LGBT community awaiting the results of asylum claims in Turkey, and limited activism in Canada (Ayoub and Bauman 2018; Binnie and Klesse 2013; Eleftheriadis 2014). I will connect my findings and discussions with the wider body of social theory.…”