Cover not available
Article published In:
Queering borders: Language, sexuality and migration
Edited by David A.B. Murray
[Journal of Language and Sexuality 3:1] 2014
► pp. 28–59

Testimonies of LGBTIQ refugees as cartographies of political, sexual and emotional borders

| Université Laval, Québec, Canada

To be granted status, refugee claimants have to testify at the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB). This liminal space is charged with both the promise of liberation and the threat of deportation. Adding to the challenge are the governmental measures that constrain the right to asylum. This paper suggests answers to the question: What language and other discursive features do LGBTIQ claimants have to use to be recognized as refugees? This ethnography is based on fieldwork conducted in Toronto and Vancouver. I will present two vignettes of claimants I accompanied to their hearings. Contrary to heterosexuals, queer asylum seekers have to prove their sexual orientation and/or their gender identity. Truth about their sexuality and persecution is evaluated through the lens of legal technologies, and stereotypes are still common. However, extralegal forms of communication also come into play. New avenues for justice are being fostered by grassroots organizations.

Keywords: refugee, hearing, asylum, testimony, Canada, LGBTIQ, gay, credibility, evidence, citizenship
Published online: 10 March 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jls.3.1.03ric
References
Baird, Vanessa
2007  The No-Nonsense Guide to Sexual Diversity . Toronto: New Internationalist Publications.Google Scholar
Berg, Laurie & Millbank, Jenni.
2009 Constructing the personal narratives of lesbian, gay and bisexual asylum claimants. Journal of Refugee Studies 22(2): 195–223. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Boellstorff, Tom
2009 The emergence of political homophobia in Indonesia. Masculinity and national belonging. In Homophobias. Lust and Loathing across Time and Space , David Murray (ed), 123–145. Durham: Duke University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bucholtz, Mary & Hall, Kira.
2004 Theorizing identity in language and sexuality research. Language in Society 33(4): 469–515. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Butler, Judith
2007  Le récit de soi . Paris: Presses universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Canadian Council for Refugees
2013 Immigration and refugee board statistics for 2012 <http://​ccrweb​.ca​/en​/immigration​-and​-refugee​-board​-statistics​-2012 (March 2 2013)
Cantú, Lionel.
2005 Well-founded fear: Political asylum and the boundaries of sexual identity at the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. In Queer Migrations. Sexuality, U.S. Citizenship, and Border Crossings , Eithne Luibhéid & Lionel Cantú (eds), 61–74. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
2009  The Sexuality of Migration. Border Crossings and Mexican Immigrant Men . New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Cleveland, Janet
2011  La détention des demandeurs dasile au Canada: L’impact sur la santé mentale et des propositions de réforme . Paper presented at the Canadian Council for Refugees Fall Consultation, Montreal, November 25, 2011.
Cohen, Tobi
2013 Number of asylum claims drops dramatically after Ottawa releases list of ‘safe’ countries. National Post , August 13 2013 <http://​news​.nationalpost​.com​/2013​/08​/13​/number​-of​-asylum​-claims​-drops​-dramatically​-after​-ottawa​-releases​-list​-of​-safe​-countries/ (August 13 2013)
Conklin, William E.
1998  The Phenomenology of Modern Legal Discourse. The Juridical Production and the Disclosure of Suffering . Dartmouth: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Conley, John M. & O’Barr, William M.
2005 [1998]  Just Words: Law, Language, and Power . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Dauvergne, Catherine
2008  Making People Illegal: What Globalization Means for Migration and Law . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Diallo, Lamine & Lafrenière, Ginette.
2007 Intervenir auprès des survivants de guerre, de torture et de violence organisée: Compte-rendu d’un projet de recherche entre l’Université Wilfrid Laurier et le Centre de santé communautaire de Hamilton et Niagara. Reflets: Revue d’Intervention Sociale et Communautaire 13(1): 41–77. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Engel, Pascal
2005 Faut-il croire ce qu’on nous dit? Philosophie 881: 58–71. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fassin, Didier
2009 Les économies morales revisitées. Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales 64(6): 1237–1266.. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Foucault, Michel
1975  Surveiller et Punir: Naissance de la Prison . Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Goodale, Mark & Engle Merry, Sally
(eds) 2007  The Practice of Human Rights. Tracking Law between the Global and the Local . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gopinath, Gayatri
2005  Impossible Desires. Queer Diasporas and South Asian Public Cultures . Durham: Duke University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hastrup, Kirsten
2001 Accommodating diversity in a global culture of rights: An introduction. In Legal Cultures and Human Rights. The Challenge of Diversity , Kirsten Hastrup (ed), 1–24. The Hague: Kluwer Law International. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2003a Violence, suffering and human rights. Anthropological reflections. Anthropological Theory 31: 309–323.. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2003b Representing the common good. The limits of legal language. In Human Rights in Global Perspective. Anthropological Studies of Rights, Claims and Entitlements , Richard A. Wilson & Jon P. Mitchell (eds), 16–32. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Haut Commissariat des Nations Unies
2008  Principes directeurs sur la protection internationale: La persécution liée au genre dans le cadre de l’article 1A (2) de la Convention de 1951 et/ou son Protocole de 1967 relatif au Statut des réfugiés . http://​www​.unhcr​.fr​/4ad2f7f61d​.pdf (February 27 2013)
Herlihy, Jane, Gleeson, Kate & Turner, Stuart.
2010 What assumptions about human behaviour underlie asylum judgments? International Journal of Refugee Law 22(3): 351–366. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
ILGA (International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association)
2011 Working at the United Nations. World , March 24 2011 <http://​ilga​.org​/ilga​/en​/article​/mwRtf9j1gW (August 6 2013)
Itaborahy, Lucas P.
2012  State-sponsored homophobia. A world survey of laws criminalizing same-sex sexual acts between consenting adults, an ILGA report . http://​old​.ilga​.org​/Statehomophobia​/ILGA​_State​_Sponsored​_Homphobia​_2012​.pdf (February 25 2013)
Jordan, Sharalyn
2010 Un/Settling: A Critical Ethnographic Inquiry into Settlement by Refugees Making Claims Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. PhD dissertation, University of British Columbia. https://​circle​.ubc​.ca​/bitstream​/handle​/2429​/30526​/ubc​_2011​_spring​_jordan​_sharalyn​.pdf​?sequence​=3 (September 21 2012)
Kirmayer, Laurence J.
2003 Failures of imagination: The refugees narrative in psychiatry. Anthropology and Medicine 10(2): 167–185. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kobelinsky, Carolina
2008 Les situations de retour: Restituer sa recherche à ses enquêtés. In Les Politiques de l’Enquête. Épreuves Ethnographiques , Didier Fassin & Alban Bensa (eds), 185–204. Paris: La Découverte.Google Scholar
Lacroix, Marie
2004 Canadian refugee policy and the social construction of the refuge claimant subjectivity: Understanding refugeeness. Journal of Refugee Studies 17(2): 147–165. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
LaViolette, Nicole
1997 The immutable refugees: Sexual orientation in Canada (A. G.) v. Ward. University of Toronto Faculty of Law Review 55(1): 1–41.Google Scholar
2004  Sexual Orientation and the Refugee Determination Process: Questioning a Claimant about their Membership in the Particular Social Group . Ontario: University of Ottawa.Google Scholar
2010a  Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and the Refugee Determination Process . Ontario: University of Ottawa.. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010b UNHCR guidance note on refugee claims relating to sexual orientation and gender identity: A critical commentary. International of Refugee Law 22(2): 173–208. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Leap, William & Boellstorff, Tom
(eds) 2004  Speaking in Queer Tongues: Globalization and Gay Language . Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Lee, Edward O.J. & Brotman, Shari.
2011 Identity, refugeeness, belonging: Experiences of sexual minority refugees in Canada. Canadian Review of Sociology 48(3): 241–274.. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lévy, Joseph Josy & Ricard, Nathalie.
2013 Droits humains et minorités sexuelles. In Droits et Cultures en Mouvements , Francine Saillant & Karoline Truchon (eds), 101–130. Quebec City: Presses de l’Université Laval.Google Scholar
Lidstone, Robert S.L.
2006 Refugee Queerings: Sexuality, Identity and Place in Canadian Refugee Determination. Masters thesis, Simon Fraser University.Google Scholar
Luibhéid, Eithne.
2002  Entry Denied. Controlling Sexuality at the Border . Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
2008 Queer migration: An unruly body of scholarship. GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian & Gay Studies 14(2/3): 169–190.. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Manalansan IV, Martin F.
2006 Queer intersections: Sexuality and gender in migration studies. International Migration Review 40(1): 224–249. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McGhee, Derek
2000 Assessing homosexuality: Truth, evidence and the legal practices in determining refugee status – The case of Ioan Vacriu. Body and Society 6(1): 29–50. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2003 Queer strangers: Lesbians and gay refugees. Feminist Review 731: 145–147. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Merry, Sally E.
2006 Transnational human rights and local activism: Mapping the middle. American Anthropologist 108(1): 38–51. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Miller, Alice M.
2005 Gay enough: Some tensions in seeking the grant of asylum and protecting global sexual diversity. In Passing Lines. Sexuality and Immigration, Brad Epps, Kaja Valens & Bill Johnson González (eds), 137–189. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Morrish, Liz & Sauntson, Helen.
2007  New Perspectives on Language and Sexual Identity . New York: Palgrave MacMillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Murray, David A.B.
2011 Becoming queer here: Integration and adaptation experiences of sexual minority refugees in Toronto. Refuge 28(2): 127–132.Google Scholar
Nerenberg, Karl
2012 Bogus claims and safe countries: When will Jason Kenney drop the other shoe? http://​rabble​.ca​/blogs​/bloggers​/karl​-nerenberg (November 27 2012)
Organization for Refuge, Asylum & Migration
2013  Blind Alleys. The Unseen Struggles of Lesbians, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Urban Refugees in Mexico, Uganda and South Africa. Part 1 . San Francisco: ORAM.Google Scholar
Quan, Douglas
2012 Immigration officer shoots down residency claimant for failing to prove he’s gay. Ottawa Citizen , July 10 2012 <http://​o​.canada​.com​/2012​/07​/10​/immigration​-officer​-shoots​-down​-residency​-claimant​-for​-failing​-to​-prove​-hes​-gay/ (March 2 2013)
Ramanathan, Erik
1996 Queer cases: A comparative analysis of global sexual orientation-based asylum. Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 11(1): 1–44.Google Scholar
Rehaag, Sean
2008 Patrolling the borders of sexual orientation: Bisexual refugee claimants in Canada. McGill Law Journal 53(1): 59–102.Google Scholar
Rehaag Sean.
2012 2011 Refugee claim data and IRB member recognition rates. http://​ccrweb​.ca​/en​/2011​-refugee​-claim​-data (March 2 2013)
Ricard, Nathalie
2011 Le prix à payer pour devenir sujet de droit: La sélection des réfugiés allosexuels au Canada. Alterstice - Revue Internationale de la Recherche Interculturelle 1(2): 79–96.Google Scholar
Riles, Annelise
(ed) 2006  Documents: Artifacts of Modern Knowledge . Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sauntson, Helen & Kyratzis, Sakis
(eds) 2007  Language, Sexualities & Desires. Cross-Cultural Perspectives . Hampshire: Palgrave MacMillan.. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Showler, Peter
2006  The Refugee Sandwich: Stories of Exile and Asylum . Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press.Google Scholar
Stychin, Carl F.
2004 Same-sex sexualities and the globalization of human rights discourse. McGill Law Journal 491: 951–968.Google Scholar
Thomas, Robert
2006 Assessing the credibility of asylum claims: EU and UK approaches examined. European Journal of Migration and Law 81: 79–96. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
2010  Convention and protocol relating to the status of refugees . http://​www​.unhcr​.org​/protect​/PROTECTION​/3b66c2aa10​.pdf (November 4 2013)
2012  Guidelines on international protection No. 9: Claims to refugee status based on sexual orientation and/or gender identity within the context of Article 1A(2) of the 1951 Convention and/or its 1967 protocol relating to the status of refugees . http://​www​.refworld​.org​/docid​/50348afc2​.html (August 5 2013)
Wilson, Richard A.
(ed) 1997  Human Rights, Culture & Context. Anthropological Perspectives . London: Pluto Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, Richard A. & Brown, Richard D.
2009 Introduction. In Humanitarianism and Suffering. The Mobilization of Empathy , Richard A. Wilson & Richard D. Brown (eds), 1–28. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, Richard A. & Mitchell, Jon P.
(eds) 2003  Human Rights in Global Perspective: Anthropological Studies of Rights, Claims and Entitlements . London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Lee, Edward Ou Jin, Olivia Kamgain, Trish Hafford-Letchfield, Helen Gleeson, Annie Pullen-Sansfaçon & François Luu
2021. Knowledge and Policy About LGBTQI Migrants: a Scoping Review of the Canadian and Global Context. Journal of International Migration and Integration 22:3 ► pp. 831 ff. DOI logo
Zisakou, Sophia
2021. Credibility Assessment in Asylum Claims Based on Sexual Orientation by the Greek Asylum Service: A Deep-Rooted Culture of Disbelief. Frontiers in Human Dynamics 3 DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 19 february 2023. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.