Munir, ‘Vulnerabilities and Responses to Queer Identity Among Muslim Refugees and Their Families’, 2020

Laine Munir, ‘Vulnerabilities and Responses to Queer Identity Among Muslim Refugees and Their Families’, Tampere University, November 2020

Description

Recent scholarship has done well in its analysis of asylum-seekers from developing countries after they arrive in Europe, but this focus has come at the cost of overlooking the experiences of their families still at home. This research draws on the case study of a transgender Muslim awaiting asylum in Greece since 2018, interrogating how his family experienced his persecution in and eventual flight from rural Pakistan to urban Greece. It seeks to answer the following research question: How do LGBTIQA+ refugees and the families they leave behind navigate their vulnerabilities and consequent strategic responses? Transnational intersectionality guides this exploration of the commonalities and differences in the family’s insecurities while the young man was in Pakistan and describes their three shared stages of strategic responses—initial hiding, asserting religiosity, and finally, channeling his gender expression.