Abstract
Criminal violence in El Salvador and Honduras is on the rise, making hundreds of thousands flee. Within this context, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex persons (LGBTI), in particular transgender women, are a small but highly visible and vulnerable group. Transgender women face pervasive discrimination and violence in their countries of origin in great part due to a dominant patriarchal structure that does not allow them to safely express their gender identity. Thus, transgender women flee north to Mexico seeking international protection. However, even with refugee status, they continue to face overall a deeply hostile transphobic society in Mexico, which limits their possibilities of integration. The research question explored in this chapter is to what extent transgender women fleeing Honduras and El Salvador can openly live their gender identity in Mexico and whether this process of self-emancipation serves as a protection mechanism for them. Through a desk review and individual case studies of transgender women from Honduras and El Salvador, this chapter argues that while extremely high risks follow transgender women through their journey and into their integration in Mexico, transgender refugee women find ways for self-emancipation through openly expressing their gender identity in LGBTI safe spaces. Nevertheless, though it is a key protection mechanism, these important efforts are not enough to overcome systematic and systemic challenges they face such as intersectional transphobia and xenophobia.
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Notes
- 1.
Although criminal violence occurs in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras (commonly referred to as the North of Central America), the chapter focuses on transgender refugee women from El Salvador and Honduras.
- 2.
Asylum applications in Mexico rose 1067% from 2011 to 2016, registering a rise of 175% just between 2015 and 2016, from 3424 asylum-seekers in 2015 to 8788 asylum-seekers in 2016. By the end of September 2017, 10,262 asylum applications had been registered. Mexican Refugee Agency (COMAR) Statistics, available here: https://www.gob.mx/cms/uploads/attachment/file/261776/ESTADISTICAS_2013-SEP2017.pdf.
- 3.
Including an increase of 69% in asylum applications just between 2015 and 2016: there were 190,000 refugees and asylum-seekers from Honduras, El Salvador and—to a lesser degree—Guatemala at the beginning of 2017, a tenfold increase throughout the last 5 years.
- 4.
The cases detailed herein were interviewed by the authors in 2017. Names and details have been changed to protect the identities of the persons concerned.
- 5.
In July of 2017, the International Organization for Migrations in Mexico published a directory consisting of 82 migrant shelters across the country (IOM 2017).
- 6.
Asylum-seekers can continue their asylum procedure outside of detention through an alternatives-to-detention program.
- 7.
Acuña, Coahuila; Saltillo, Coahuila; Guadalupe, Nuevo León; Ciudad de México; Tenosique, Tabasco; Guadalajara, Jalisco; San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosi; Arraiga, Chiapas; Tapachula, Chiapas.
- 8.
This problem would also be faced by transgender men, although at this time partners and UNHCR have only identified transgender women, gay men and, to a lesser extent, lesbian women, among the LGBTI refugee population in Mexico.
- 9.
The authors choose to utilize male and female pronouns to describe this case study as Juan/Ana sometimes identifies as a male and sometimes as a transgender woman.
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Romero, M.P.C., Huerta, S.C. (2019). Seeking Protection as a Transgender Refugee Woman: From Honduras and El Salvador to Mexico. In: Güler, A., Shevtsova, M., Venturi, D. (eds) LGBTI Asylum Seekers and Refugees from a Legal and Political Perspective. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91905-8_13
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