Amann, ‘Invisi(bi)lity’, 2023

Melissa Clara Amann, ‘Invisi(bi)lity: The challenges of bisexual individuals in the German Asylum Process’, University of Twente / University of Muenster, 2023

Abstract

This paper analysis the experiences and challenges faced by bisexual asylum applicants within the German asylum procedure. It thereby focuses on the factors and challenges forested by the asylum’s administrative procedures, including data carrier screenings, leading to the nonacceptance of bisexual applicants. The paper regards the administrative steps in the asylum procedure through a biopolitical and extractive biopolitical lens combining it with queer migration concepts embedding bisexuality and its sexually fluid nature. Via a literature and judicial review, this paper identifies a juridical gap concerning the framing of bisexuality and bisexual individuals in the regional and domestic regulations concerning asylum regards. By applying a QCA on three semi-structured interviews, the author identifies a web of interconnected negatively influencing factors stretched among the administrative measures. The main factors identified on the web include procedural shortcomings, lack of understanding, insufficient explanations, expected narratives, queerphobia, and fear. The paper concludes that the German asylum procedure falls short in providing adequate protection and recognition of bisexual asylum applicants, due to the prevailing heteronormative and monosexual environment declaring and normalizing the discrimination and erasure of bisexual migrants in the scope of an asylum system of a democratic and queer-friendly country, fostering queer complicities.