Greatrick, ‘More than Queer’, 2021

Aydan Greatrick, ‘More than Queer: Rethinking diaspora and faith-spaces in the lives of LGBTQ+ asylum seekers in the UK’, Network for Migration Matters, 29 April 2021

Abstract

The UK immigration system is notably hostile toward refugees and asylum seekers. Ever narrower criteria determine who can and cannot seek protection from the British state. For those in the system, scrutiny and disbelief govern their experience, as well as inadequate housing, an inability to work, and generalised and racialised hostility. This sits in contrast to representations of the UK as a welcoming and tolerant nation which boasts a proud (but entirely fictional) history of helping the most vulnerable refugees. In recent years, the figure of the LGBTQ+ asylum seeker has become rhetorically emblematic of this supposedly welcoming and tolerant culture. Queer refugees and asylum seekers denied protection and safety in the supposedly backward, homophobic and transphobic cultures from which they have fled, are seen to be granted safety and dignity in the UK.

In keeping with this narrative, queer refugees and asylum seekers are often assumed to be fleeing from religiously motivated persecution, or from homophobic and transphobic cultures in their country of origin. In the UK, these assumptions are present throughout LGBTQ+ asylum seeker interactions with adjudicators and the Home Office. Successful testimonies are expected to put distance between queer asylum seekers and the ‘backward’ religions or cultures from which they have fled, before finding safety and protection from LGBTQ+ communities in the UK (Giametta, 2014). Indeed, whilst religious attitudes and cultural or social norms frequently justify the persecution of LGBTQ+ people in many countries, these assumptions often mean that queer refugees and asylum seekers are expected to reject, or to struggle with, their faith and cultural identities and backgrounds, instead favouring the protection and safety of fellow LGBTQ+ communities. These narratives and assumptions are narrow and limiting, built around a stereotype that religion is intrinsically hostile toward sexual and gendered difference. It also implies that certain cultures are inherently ‘backward’, in contrast to the supposed benevolence of ‘tolerant’ Western democracies whose secular attitudes are conducive to sexual liberation (Puar, 2007).