Powell, ‘”It felt like they were looking for something very specific”‘, 2020
- Category: Literature
- Source: Academic
- Subject: Sexual Orientation/Sexuality, Refugee/Asylum
- Place: United Kingdom
- Year: 2020
- File: It felt like they were looking for something very specific
- URL: http://slsablog.co.uk/blog/blog-posts/virtualslsa2020-it-felt-like-they-were-looking-for-something-very-specific-stereotypes-and-essentialism-in-the-sexual-orientation-asylum-policy-instruction/
Alex Powell, ‘”It felt like they were looking for something very specific”: Stereotypes and Essentialism in the Sexual Orientation Asylum Policy Instruction’, SLSA Blog, July 2020
Abstract
In August 2016, the Home Office issued version 6 of their Asylum Policy Instruction: Sexual Orientation in the Asylum Claim (hereafter: 2016 API). The policy is designed to guide decision-makers in determining the qualification of sexuality based refugees. The policy has been heralded as a step towards analysing asylum claims on the basis of identity rather than conduct and has received praise from the UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group (Hereafter: UKLGIG). This blog post draws on interviews completed as part of a doctoral research project to critically interrogate one form of inquiry proposed in the 2016 API, offering three ways in which this form of evidence may not correspond to the lived realities of asylum claimants.