Unaccompanied Children Claiming Asylum on the Basis of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

Hedlund, Daniel; Wimark, Thomas

doi:10.1093/jrs/fey026

Cited by 16 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Examples include expectations that applicants will show they have attended gay pride marches (Bennett & Thomas, 2013) or visited gay districts in the asylum country (Hersh, 2015). Remarkably, stereotypes often apply not only to asylum-seekers, but also to their societies of origin, which are seen as entirely hostile towards sexual minorities (Dhoest, 2019;Hedlund & Wimark, 2019;Tschalaer, 2020). In one study it was reported that this had led officials to disbelieve applicants who claimed their male family members had reacted positively when they disclosed their sexuality (Hedlund & Wimark, 2019).…”

Section: Disbelief Of Sexual Orientationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Asylum Claims based on Sexual Orientation: A Review of Psycho-legal Issues in Credibility Assessments

Selim¹,

Korkman²,

Pirjatanniemi³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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The number of people seeking asylum based on their sexual orientation is expected to continue increasing. Assessing the credibility of such claims to determine whether asylum-seekers meet the criteria for refugee status is a complex task for asylum officials. These assessments involve several psychological aspects, affecting applicants’ disclosure and asylum officials’ determinations. Here, we present a systematic literature search and review of 47 original manuscripts to analyze credibility assessments in asylum claims based on sexual orientation. We demonstrate that asylum officials often make assumptions regarding human sexuality, sexual identity formation and sexual behavior that are either partially or entirely unsupported by psychological research. These assumptions are problematic as they undermine the validity of the asylum process and put vulnerable individuals at risk of severe harm. The challenges are aggravated in the cross-cultural context of asylum determinations, where applicants from different countries may manifest their sexual orientation in ways that deviate from Western expectations. We discuss the implications of our review’s findings for psychological research and asylum practice.

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Section: Disbelief Of Sexual Orientationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Asylum Claims based on Sexual Orientation: A Review of Psycho-legal Issues in Credibility Assessments

Selim¹,

Korkman²,

Pirjatanniemi³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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“…This research shows that asylum seekers are required to be recognizable as queer subjects according to Western stereotypes (ibid). Demonstrating a marriage-like relationships is helpful and suggests that homonormativity and homonationalism are at work in these processes (Akin & Svendsen 2018;Hedlund & Wimark 2019). Following this critique, Norwegian immigration authorities is now explicit that case workers should avoid stereotypes, expectations of specific sexual practice or early acknowledgement of a queer identity (UDI 2018, see also Stubberud and Akin 2018).…”

Section: Presenting As a Queer Asylum-seeking Childmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hazeldean (2011) concludes in her review of adjudications that concern the protection of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans* (LGBT) asylum-seeking children in the US that LGBT identity works against being seen as a child by judges. Hedlund and Wimark (2019) have furthermore traced a tendency among case workers to describe queer children's sexual relationships in terms that make them seem durable and adultlike in adjudication processes where children have been granted asylum based on sexual orientation. Notably, this is also the case when the relationships involved are between young children and significantly older adults, which would in most other contexts be seen as sexual abuse (ibid).…”

Section: Presenting As a Queer Asylum-seeking Childmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Wager for Life: <i>Queer children seeking asylum in Norway</i>

Stubberud

Akin

Svendsen

2019

Nordic Journal of Migration Research

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This article explores the experiences of queer children who have sought asylum alone in Norway, focussing on hope, fear and despair. The children who are denied asylum relate an experience of standing at the brink of death, while those who are granted asylum describe how the queer life they have hoped for is postponed by the settlement and integration system, where they live in isolation and in risk of violence and bullying. We analyse these experiences in light of decolonial theory in which the conditions of war and proximity to death are extended into the childrens' lives under the custodianship of the Norwegian state. Drawing on queer theory, the wager is life as these children have known it. The potential is living beyond the coloniality of Being, in relationships and communities that provide the possibility of a meaningful life. KeywordsUnaccompanied minor asylum seekers • refugee children • queer • decolonial theory • aff ective biopolitics Open Access.

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“…Yet, in a context of high suspicion toward asylum seekers, this formalization has turned into a restrictive evaluating apparatus of queer applicants' credibility. Numerous academic works have emphasized how narrow understandings of sexuality and gender 1 , as well as expectations of performance of victimhood or narratives of migration experienced as liberation, actually lead to excluding queer 2 applicants from asylum (Morgan, 2006;Rehaag, 2008;Berg and Millbank, 2009;Kobelinsky, 2012;Lewis, 2014;Murray, 2014Murray, , 2015Ferreira, 2015;Giametta, 2016Giametta, , 2017Akin, 2017;Dustin and Held, 2018;Hertoghs and Schinkel, 2018;Hedlund and Wimark, 2019;Rinaldi and Fernando, 2019;Tschalaer 2019;Tschalaer 2020;Sari, 2020). A more recent study has focused attention on the ways support organizations assist queer migrants with their asylum procedure (Cesaro, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Refugeeness, Sexuality, and Gender: Spatialized Lived Experiences of Intersectionality by Queer Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Paris

Chossière

2021

Front. Hum. Dyn.

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In the last few years, asylum claims based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity (SOGI) have received increased attention within migration and queer studies. Mostly focusing on the refugee status determination process, these works have emphasized how the expectations of asylum institutions about “genuine queer refugees” lead to the exclusion of many applicants from SOGI asylum. This paper aims at shifting the analysis perspective from the legal categorization process to the impacts of everyday experienced categories of “asylum seekers” or “refugees” on queer migrants in the Parisian area. Using a three-year long ethnographic fieldwork, completed through interviews with queer asylum seekers and refugees, this paper investigates how refugeeness, understood as the objective and subjective effects of migration and asylum policies on individuals, contributes to shaping lived experiences of sexual and gender minorities in France. By drawing attention to the ways that the multiple power relationships queer asylum seekers and refugees have to face are spatially grounded, this paper discusses how an intersectional understanding of sexuality, gender, and refugeeness allows us to emphasize the role played by migration status in the negotiation of hetero- and cisnormativity. This paper also argues that far from remaining passive toward the categorization process they are subjected to, queer asylum seekers and refugees strategically appropriate the administrative categories with which they are associated. Such an analysis of lived experiences of queer asylum seekers and refugees in the country of arrival thus highlights the complex reshaping of social location caused by migration.

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Unaccompanied Children Claiming Asylum on the Basis of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity

Cited by 16 publications

References 23 publications

Asylum Claims based on Sexual Orientation: A Review of Psycho-legal Issues in Credibility Assessments

Asylum Claims based on Sexual Orientation: A Review of Psycho-legal Issues in Credibility Assessments

A Wager for Life: <i>Queer children seeking asylum in Norway</i>

Refugeeness, Sexuality, and Gender: Spatialized Lived Experiences of Intersectionality by Queer Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Paris

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