Victimhood and femininities in Black lesbian asylum cases in Germany

Tschalaer, Mengia

doi:10.1080/1369183x.2020.1772735

Cited by 19 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 33 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Thus, this article is based on a predominantly male experience. A previous study has elaborated how especially lesbian women are underrepresented in research with LGBTQ* refugees and may face discrimination in the asylum process (Tschalaer 2020). Besides, it is possible that women are underrepresented in public LGBTQ* support groups, which raises the question whether their access to LGBTQ* service organizations is limited.…”

Section: Strengths Limitations and Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experiences of Minority Stress and Mental Health Burdens of Newly Arrived LGBTQ* Refugees in Germany

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Introduction While many refugees have settled in Germany within recent years, little is known about LGBTQ* (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, queer*) refugees, a potentially vulnerable group. This qualitative study investigated LGBTQ* refugees’ experiences of distal and proximal minority stressors as well as their mental health burdens during the post-migration period. Methods In 2018, 26 self-identified LGBTQ* refugees were recruited in community centers of different metropolitan areas of Germany and interviewed in three focus groups. Anonymized transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results LGBTQ* refugees experienced discrimination based on their intersecting identities. Some described daily occurrences and higher rates in comparison with premigration. Moreover, LGBTQ* refugees reported expectations of rejection and thus concealed their identities, while some also demonstrated identity acceptance. Reported mental health burdens covered internalizing symptoms as well as low levels of well-being. Conclusions Findings suggest that LGBTQ* refugees are especially vulnerable to multiple forms of discrimination based on their intersecting identities. For a subgroup of participants, both discrimination experiences and mental health burdens subjectively increased during post-migration. Policy Implications Our evidence substantiated that LGBTQ* refugees need to be distinctively acknowledged in social policies to counter their specific patterns of experienced discrimination and improve their mental health.

show abstract

Section: Strengths Limitations and Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experiences of Minority Stress and Mental Health Burdens of Newly Arrived LGBTQ* Refugees in Germany

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This is illustrated by women's struggles to gain asylum, as their sacrifice of leaving their children behind is constructed as a sign of deviance, rather than viewed to testify to the hopelessness of their situations. The widespread use of images of refugee mothers holding their children epitomises the central role motherhood plays in the perceptions of deserving and vulnerable female refugees (Freedman 2010;Tschalaer 2020). In Isatou's case, the homogenisation which masks the dynamics of diverse FGC practices had converged with Western stereotypes about motherhood, resulting in the interviewers' inability to recognise her decision to stay away from her daughters as a protective act.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategies of denial: women’s experiences of culture of disbelief and discreditation in the treatment of asylum claims on the grounds of female genital cutting (FGC)

Käkelä

2021

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Drawing from qualitative research with female asylum seekers in Scotland who had claimed asylum to protect their daughters from female genital cutting (FGC), this article examines the workings of the culture of disbelief during asylum interviews. In this article I illustrate how the treatment of FGC-related asylum claims is informed by the convergence of hostile environment, gender and refugee stereotypes and the dominant representations of FGC. I argue that at the collision of antiimmigration and anti-FGC discourses, asylum seeking women are confronted with conflicting expectations whereby they are simultaneously expected to reinforce the constructions of themselves as victims of 'backward' cultural practices, and to narrate their vulnerability beyond cultural terms in order to meet the criteria for asylum outlined in the Refugee Convention. This paper illuminates the multiple strategies asylum interviewers employ to undermine women's lived experiences of persecution, revealing the contradictions in how interviewers simultaneously question the threat of FGC, women's inability to resist these practices and women's own experiences of being subject to FGC. Through this, I problematise the assumptions that FGC as an 'extreme' form of gender-based violence would offer an exception to refugee women's persistent struggles in being recognised as victims of persecution.

show abstract

“…LGBTQI+ asylum claimants while privileging the health protection of UK citizens in the sense of queer necropolitics as theorised above, potentially affecting the power dynamics between researchers and research participants. This project's research methodology builds on previous work on representation, sexuality, migration, and asylum by the project's principal investigator, Christopher Pullen, and I (Pullen 2018(Pullen , 2016(Pullen , 2020Tschalaer 2021Tschalaer , 2020a In the context of the research project, 14 semi-structured interviews have been conducted with social/charity workers, asylum claimants, and refugees affiliated with NGO help organisations in Glasgow, Birmingham, Cardiff, Brighton, Belfast, and London. The interviews with NGO representatives offered an opportunity for the interviewees to express concerns but also good practices in their support work with LGBTQ+ asylum claimants.…”

Section: Methodology: Listening and Autobiographical Storytellingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Instead, queer migration scholarship predominantly focuses on the legal marginalisation of queer legal subjects within heteronormative asylum regimes (i.e. Giametta 2017;Luibhéid 2008;Rehaag 2008;Ritholtz and Buxton 2021;Shakhsari 2014;Tschalaer 2021Tschalaer , 2020a with only a few studies highlighting the social dimension of their marginalisation (Wimark 2019(Wimark , 2020Held 2021).…”

Section: Covid-19 and Queer Asylummentioning

confidence: 99%

Increasing Isolation of LGBTQI+ Asylum Claimants During Covid-19 in the UK

Tschalaer

2022

JCER

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The aim of this article is to discuss how the covid-19 pandemic exacerbates inequalities and social isolation by examining the UK Government approach to providing asylum claimants’ access to safe accommodation and health services on the one hand, and charities support of particularly lesbian, gay, bi- and trans-sexual, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) claimants to gain/sustain access to social spaces and social support on the other. The data used for the writing of this article is based on 14 semi-structured interviews conducted between August 2020 and April 2021 with social/charity workers, asylum claimants and refugees affiliated with NGO help organisations in Glasgow, Birmingham, Cardiff, Brighton, Belfast, and London. This article argues that that the Home Office’s policies around housing and health during the covid-19 pandemic are closely linked to ‘hostile environment’ policies and amplifying housing and food precarity, isolation, exposure to violence, economic insecurity as well as physical and mental health problems for LGBTQI+ asylum claimants. There is a lack of intersectionality in the governmental approach to refugees and covid-19 and which creates a support gap for particularly LGBTQI+ asylum claimants. This intersectional research on sexuality, gender and asylum in the UK reveals that hostile environment policies render LGBTQI+ persons seeking asylum particularly vulnerable to homelessness, limited support services as well as mental health problems and gender-based and sexual violence.

show abstract

Victimhood and femininities in Black lesbian asylum cases in Germany

Cited by 19 publications

References 33 publications

Experiences of Minority Stress and Mental Health Burdens of Newly Arrived LGBTQ* Refugees in Germany

Experiences of Minority Stress and Mental Health Burdens of Newly Arrived LGBTQ* Refugees in Germany

Strategies of denial: women’s experiences of culture of disbelief and discreditation in the treatment of asylum claims on the grounds of female genital cutting (FGC)

Increasing Isolation of LGBTQI+ Asylum Claimants During Covid-19 in the UK

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About