Bhagat, ‘LGBT Asylum Claims’, 2015

Ali Bhagat, ‘LGBT Asylum Claims: Examining the limits of citizenship in Post-1994 Cape Town, South Africa’, thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts in Political Science, Montreal, August 2015

Abstract

LGBT asylum claimants and refugees receive little attention in South Africa despite the state’s progressive constitution specifically in terms of sexual orientation. This primarily qualitative study conducted through in-depth semi-structured interviews with LGBT asylum seekers and NGOs examines the ways in which refugee status is limited through, what I term, afro-homophobia. I argue that the implicit heteronormativity of the South African state detrimentally affects LGBT refugees applying for asylum within its borders. I explore two sides of this argument: 1) The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) in South Africa is incapable of justly evaluating sexual minority asylum claims due to poor training; bureaucratic backlog and disorganisation and the persistence of homophobic and afro-phobic mindsets. 2) South Africa—specifically Cape Town—is not a safe haven for forcibly relocated LGBT migrants and the state continues to de-prioritise LGBT issues assuring that violence follows sexual minorities from their country of origin to their re-location sites in Cape Town. In doing so this research contributes to refugee and migration studies through the examination of sexual minority refugees who navigate a system which excludes them.