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Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Asylum

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Encyclopedia of Migration

Definition

The process of seeking asylum for persecution on the basis of one’s sexual orientation or gender identity; the challenges to political asylum claims based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Overview

Since the United Nations Refugee Agency published its official guidelines on claims relating to sexual orientation and gender identity in 2008, there has been a growing interest in the treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex refugees and asylum seekers (UNHCR 2008). While the European Union recently recognized sexual orientation as a cause of persecution in Article 10 of the EU Asylum Qualification Directive, in December 2011, the United States issued specific guidelines for the evaluation of asylum claims based on sexual orientation and gender identity (USCIS 2011). Despite recent developments in political asylum policy, it is still difficult for LGBT refugees to translate their experiences of persecution into the kinds of narratives that are...

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References

Further Reading

  • Berg L, Millbank J (2009) Constructing the personal narratives of lesbian, gay and bisexual asylum claimants. J Refug Stud 22(2):195–223

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  • Morgan D (2006) Not gay enough for the government: racial and sexual stereotypes in sexual orientation asylum cases. Law Sex Rev 15:135–161

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  • Randazzo T (2005) Social and legal barriers: sexual orientation and asylum in the United States. In: Luibhéid E, Cantú L (eds) Queer migrations: sexuality, U.S. citizenship, and border crossings. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, pp 30–60

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Women and Gender Studies Program, George Mason University, Fairfax, USA

    Rachel Lewis

Authors
  1. Rachel Lewis
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Correspondence to Rachel Lewis .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Research on Immigration Population and Public Policy, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California, USA

    Frank D. Bean

  2. School of Social Sciences, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California, USA

    Susan K. Brown

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© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Lewis, R. (2015). Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Asylum. In: Bean, F., Brown, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Migration. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6179-7_68-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6179-7_68-2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-007-6179-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Social SciencesReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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