Fassin and Salcedo, ‘Becoming Gay?’, 2015

Eric Fassin and Manuela Salcedo, ‘Becoming Gay? Immigration Policies and the Truth of Sexual Identity’, 2015 Archives of Sexual Behavior, 44 (5), pp. 1117-1125

Abstract

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.

Keywords

Homosexuality Sexual migration Immigration policies Identity Sexual orientation DSM-5