Database

Portugal’s migration history has been extensively explored in academic literature, including in legal scholarship. Yet, very little attention has so far been directed towards Portuguese refugee law. This may be due to the relatively low number of asylum seekers that Portugal receives, but that does not justify neglecting the study of the Portuguese socio-legal framework applicable to asylum seekers and refugees. This article addresses this gap by analyzing the framework in a European context, enhancing the analysis with a case study of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, and intersex (LGBTI) asylum seekers. The analysis explores the evolution of the current legal framework, the procedures and remedies available to asylum seekers, the substantive standards applied in decision making, and the broader socio-legal resources offered to asylum seekers. Several shortcomings and possible avenues of improvement are also identified.

Our article is about the new relevance of the category of “the homosexual” in immigration policies. This novelty is paradoxical: while homosexuality had previously been defined exclusively in negative terms, from the point of view of the State, it has now assumed a positive value in the West—since it can be invoked to justify asylum seeking. The argument has two prongs. On the one hand, taking homosexuality into account for immigration control implies a definition of gay identity. On the other, the objects of these policies are also subjects: their own identity is caught up in this transnational process of identification. Fieldwork for this article was conducted in France on bi-national same-sex couples. However, the new categorization of homosexuality extends far beyond—in Europe and throughout the world. We argue that the politics of identity are not just, and not primarily about identity politics; they have to do both with politics in general and policies in particular.

In Europe, refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants are more vulnerable to sexual victimisation than European citizens. They face more challenges when seeking care. This literature review examines how legal and policy frameworks at national, European and international levels condition the prevention of and response to sexual violence affecting these vulnerable migrant communities living in the European Union (EU). Applying the Critical Interpretive Synthesis method, we reviewed 187 legal and policy documents and 80 peer-reviewed articles on migrant sexual health for elements on sexual violence and further analysed the 37 legal and 12 peer-reviewed articles among them that specifically focused on sexual violence in vulnerable migrants in the EU-27 States. Legal and policy documents dealing with sexual violence, particularly but not exclusively in vulnerable migrants, apply ‘tunnel vision’. They ignore: a) frequently occurring types of sexual violence, b) victimisation rates across genders and c) specific risk factors within the EU such as migrants’ legal status, gender orientation and living conditions. The current EU policy-making paradigm relegates sexual violence in vulnerable migrants as an ‘outsider’ and ‘female only’ issue while EU migration and asylum policies reinforce its invisibility. Effective response must be guided by participatory rights- and evidence-based policies and a public health approach, acknowledging the occurrence and multiplicity of sexual victimisation of vulnerable migrants of all genders within EU borders.

Over the past few years, the rise of restrictions on religious freedom, and the denial of fundamental rights to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex people (LGBTI) minorities in many parts of the world have resulted in an increased number of the asylum requests in many European countries. This article compares and contrasts the approaches of the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union, highlighting common approaches and divergences. Part I serves as an introduction to the topic. Part II discusses recent developments in the case law concerning the persecution of religious minorities. Part III discusses recent developments concerning the persecution of LGBTI communities. Part IV highlights the common trends, key notions and legal uncertainties of the two sets of decisions. Finally, part V five offers some concluding remarks.

 

Diese Broschüre gibt Ihnen einen Überblick über Themen, die für die professionelle oder private Begegnung mit dieser spezifischen Gruppe Asylsuchender relevant sind. Die Rede ist hier von Asylsuchenden, die ihr Herkunftsland aufgrund von Homo- oder Transphobie verlassen haben und in der Schweiz um Schutz ersuchen, indem sie ein Asylgesuch stellen. Wir nennen diese Menschen LGBTI-Asylsuchende, das sind die Anfangsbuchstaben von Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex. Diese Informationsbroschüre richtet sich an ein breites Publikum: an die Nachtwache in der Asylunterkunft, an die Seelsorger_innen im Ausschaffungsgefängnis, an die JuristInnen der Rechts-beratungsstelle, an den Dolmetscher im psychiatrischen Ambulatorium, an die Sozialarbeitenden im Spital, an die Therapeutinnen, den Hilfswerkvertreter, an die Lehrer der Integrationsklassen, an die Zahnärztin im Empfangszentrum, an die BefragerInnen und EntscheiderInnen des Bundesamtes und Bundesverwaltungsgerichts, andere Behörden und Private, an Zugewandte und Skeptische und an alle anderen interessierten Menschen.

This special issue of Sexualities emerges in response to the growing visibility of LGBTQI immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers within global gay rights advocacy. Despite the increasing prominence of LGBTQI issues on the international human rights agenda, there has been relatively little discussion of the relationship between queer migration and LGBTQI human rights activism in the field of sexuality studies. This special issue seeks to bring queer migration and sexual citizenship studies into critical conversation with current literature in the area of gender, sexuality and human rights.

This article examines how gender, sexuality, race and class intersect in queer asylum claims to influence the perceived credibility of gay and lesbian asylum applicants. Building on recent scholarship in queer migration studies that considers the role of gender and sexuality in the social construction of migrant illegality, this article explores how practices of credibility assessment in the political asylum process produce women and sexual minorities as deportable subjects. As I argue, the tactics utilized by gay male asylum applicants to resist deportation show how practices of credibility assessment in the political asylum process are linked to the state’s reproduction of sexual citizenship narratives, narratives that have a disproportionately negative impact upon queer female migrants of color. Accounting for the intersections among gender, sexuality, race and class in influencing the perceived credibility of gay and lesbian asylum applicants is thus crucial for conceptualizing alternative forms of queer anti-deportation activism.

This article explores the challenges of developing queer migrant justice strategies within nation-state contexts. With a focus on the Toronto-based ‘Let Alvaro Stay’ campaign (2011) and Julio Salgado’s collaborative ‘I Am Undocuqueer’ project, I critically examine queer anti-deportation activists’ reliance on methodological nationalisms and visibility politics in making claims hearable to the state. While such tactics risk reinforcing the nation-state as a primary site of identification, thereby contributing to its naturalization as an inevitable horizon of belonging, I argue that they also open space for imagining queer(er) no borders futures.

Stories matter for refugees. Refugees make sense of their past and present experiences, claim identities, interact with each other, and participate in cultural, political, and social conversations through the sharing of their stories. When we record oral histories, we not only capture important narratives about the lived–experiences and lived–histories of refugees, we also see how the narratives themselves “represent the constantly evolving ways in which migrants make their lives through stories.”