Wessels, ‘LGBTQ+ Migrants’, 2025

Category: Literature
Source: Academic
Subject: Sexual Orientation/Sexuality, Gender Identity, Refugee/Asylum, Migration, LGBT+
Place: International
Year: 2025
URL: https://doi.org/10.4337/9781802204155.00055

J. Wessels, ‘LGBTQ+ Migrants’, in Vincent Chetail, Jittawadee Chotinukul, and Giulia Raimondo (eds.), Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Migration and Asylum Law, Edward Elgar, 2025, Chapter 49

Abstract

LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and others) migrants are individuals who cross or have crossed international borders and identify as LGBTQ+. Many countries still have laws and policies that discriminate against LGBTQ+ individuals, making migration a necessity. Whereas LGBTQ+ migrants were originally invisibilized or excluded, migration law specifically pertaining to LGBTQ+ people has emerged at domestic and international levels in two key areas: international protection, or asylum, and family reunification. In line with developments in international and human rights law more widely, key notions of migration law have been reinterpreted to extend protection to LGBTQ+ migrants.