Sogica - Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Claims of Asylum

02/09/2026

Very interesting contribution by Kirill Polkov on ‘Russian q***r migrants in Sweden: Navigating multiple closets through q***r tactics of discretion’, out on open access in Sexualities 2026 - congratulations, Kirill!

Abstract

Based on 25 in-depth interviews with Russian LGBTQ migrants in Sweden, the article explores how decisions to (not) come out contribute to navigating precarity induced by geopolitical polarization around LGBTQ rights. This article highlights the agentic and empowering potential of multiple q***r (in)visibility practices in transnational contexts and the ways in which material conditions influence decisions to (not) come out. The analysis focuses on how Russian q***r migrants deliberately use various q***r tactics of discretion, preferring partial disclosure and remaining unintelligible across the public, familial, diasporic, and institutional domains. It shows that coming out is not a linear or individual act, but a context-sensitive strategy for negotiating geographical and social contexts and material realities.

https://www.sogica.org/database/polkov-russian-q***r-migrants-in-sweden-2026/

01/09/2026

Hats off to Sara Cesaro for her article ‘Undoing intimacy, redrawing borders: Dealing with s*xual violence in q***r asylum support organizations’, out in Emotion, Space and Society, Volume 60, 2026, 101213 - a really powerful and important piece of work, well done, Sara!

Abstract

This article addresses how an organization providing legal and social support to q***r asylum seekers’ based in a major city in France fights against s*xual violence, committed by volunteers on migrants. More specifically, it focuses on the framing processes (Benford and Snow, 2000) of both the organization’s action and space. The article highlights how intimacy is produced and understood among the organization, be it s*xual and affective relations or a social proximity framed as familial. It shows, however, how intimacy can allow the production of s*xual violence. It then focuses on the strategies used to minimize and euphemize this violence, by framing asylum seekers as dangerous and threatening, by drawing on an anti-migrant and racist rhetorics, seemingly paradoxical for such an organization. The article subsequently shows how the strategies to counter these discourses are based on a problematization of the whiteness in the organization: expliciting race, in a context that is apparently colourblind (Bonilla-Silva, 2012), functions as a tool for framing relations between volunteers and asylum seekers. If focusing on the treatment of s*xual violence shows how this support organization constitute a continuum of s*xual violence (Kelly, 1987), I argue for the necessity of extending this classic notion to encompass their spatial and racial dimensions, which intersect with the patriarchal one. In order to exit the organization from this continuum of violence, volunteers create new intimacy boundaries.

Keywords: Intimacy; Sexual violence; Framing processes; SOGI asylum

https://www.sogica.org/database/cesaro-undoing-intimacy-redrawing-borders-2026/

01/09/2026

What an interesting contribution to the field of SOGIESC asylum - don't miss the latest article by Sophia Zisakou, ‘Dis-comfort as method in q***r migration research’, in Feminist Theory.

Abstract

This article reflects on unresolved affective tensions in the field, not as failures or impasses but as analytical tools for (un)doing research. Shifting from a distant and detached analysis of my interlocutors’ narratives towards a decentred account of myself, I trace my disorientations, discomforts and troubles in encounters with q***r refugees and asylum seekers. Through this ephemeral self-accounting, I approach the self as an aporetic, political and theoretical space of (un)becoming, examining how (non-)normativities emerged in my PhD research and how I navigated them while oscillating between affirmation and resistance. From this autotheoretical standpoint, and in confronting the inescapability of discursivity, I write through uncertainties, ambivalences and affective conflicts, approaching writing not as closure or as a constraint to ‘write what we already know’ but as an invitation to relate and (un)learn through the performative act of writing itself.

https://www.sogica.org/database/zisakou-dis-comfort-as-method-in-q***r-migration-research-2026/

01/09/2026

Check out the latest article from Raawiyah Rifath, entitled ‘”Manufacturing Vulnerability” in UK Asylum: Shifting Standards of Proof and Sexual Diversity’, out on open access in Laws. Many congratulations, Raawiyah!

Abstract

The Nationality and Borders Act (NABA) 2022 changed the application of the standard of proof in asylum claims. Previously, the standard of proof applied to the whole claim was ‘to a reasonable degree of likelihood’. Following NABA for claims lodged on or after June 28 2022, the new standard applied utilises a two-pronged approach: The decision-maker must first decide on a ‘balance of probabilities’ whether the asylum seeker has a characteristic which could cause them to fear persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. Next, the decision-maker must determine whether ‘to a reasonable degree of likelihood’ that the claimant would be persecuted if returned to their country of nationality. The shift in the standard of proof reverts back to pre-Karanakaran where it had been decided that one standard should be used holistically. The two-pronged approach will inevitably cause the same confusions it did prior to Karanakaran as well as have a particularly disproportionate impact on people who are basing their asylum claims on their s*xual orientation. This article investigates this disproportionate impact and argues that the shift in the standard of proof manufactures vulnerability and is a missed opportunity to rectify issues already existing with the standard of proof.

Keywords: asylum; s*xual diversity; standard of proof; vulnerability; Nationality and Borders Act 2022

https://www.sogica.org/database/rifath-manufacturing-vulnerability-in-uk-asylum-2026/

01/09/2026

Many congratulations to Maryna Shevtsova on her new publication: ‘Fragmented identities: legal recognition of same-s*x unions and life trajectories of q***r Ukrainian refugees in EU member states’, out in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies - just added to our database too!

Abstract

This article examines how the legal recognition of same-s*x relationships shaped the migration choices and settlement experiences of q***r Ukrainian refugees displaced by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Drawing on qualitative interviews conducted with LGBTQI+ Ukrainians who received temporary protection in European Union Member States, the analysis focuses on q***r women and trans people who migrated with partners or children. It compares experiences in Austria and Germany, where same-s*x relationships are legally recognised, with those in Poland and Slovakia, where they are not. The findings show that legal recognition rarely determined the initial destination, which was more strongly influenced by existing social networks, safety and practical considerations. However, it became increasingly important for long-term settlement, enabling greater social legitimacy, institutional recognition and family security. By contrast, participants in Poland and Slovakia described the need to conceal their relationships, greater economic precarity, and persistent fears of discrimination despite access to temporary protection. The article also highlights the experiences of mixed nationality couples, trans people, and polyamorous families whose situations expose the limits of existing refugee and family migration frameworks. It argues that, beyond being a formal right, legal recognition also matters as a mechanism through which belonging, care and family legitimacy are negotiated in conditions of forced migration.

https://www.sogica.org/database/shevtsova-fragmented-identities-2026/

01/09/2026

Remember the EU Agency for Asylum - EUAA's Practical Guide on applicants with diverse s*xual orientations, gender identities, gender expressions and s*x characteristics? The one that we contributed to, and that importantly encourages national authorities to collect reliable statistical data on SOGIESC asylum?

Well, besides English, it is now also available in Czech, French, German, Greek, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Slovak and Spanish! Just click on each one of the three parts of the Guide and choose the language you prefer. We hope this will facilitate the use of this Guide across Europe and beyond, and spread good practices at a domestic level in many countries.

The European Union Agency for Asylum - EUAA is an agency of the European Union mandated with supporting Member States in applying the package of EU laws that governs asylum and international protection.

01/09/2026

https://www.ilga-europe.org/news/ceuta-fundamental-rights-cannot-be-suspended/

ILGA-Europe stands with the organisations in Spain, Morocco and across Europe calling on Spain to respect the rights of people arriving in Ceuta.

10/08/2026

https://shuddhashar.com/from-unsafe-journeys-to-proving-your-story-the-burden-of-proof-for-s*xual-and-gender-diverse-refugees

The burden of proof to prove their gender identity is not just a legal requirement but also a lived burden and struggle for s*xual and gender diverse people when they seek protection from persecution.

03/08/2026

Congratulations to Ronja Marie Aust for her Master's thesis entitled 'Q***rness: How Credibility Assessments regulate Q***r Persons seeking Asylum'. Check it out in the SOGICA database!

Abstract

This thesis examines the role of credibility assessments in regulating which q***r persons seeking asylum can attain international protection. The study departs from international guidelines that frame credibility assessment to investigate how these establish a regulatory regime of s*xual truth. This is produced and reproduced by a culture of disbelief, both in the wider societal and political environment and in the structure and practice of credibility assessment. Moreover, this mechanism creates ‘good’ s*xual citizens as opposed to the ‘bogus’ other, regulating who becomes deserving of international protection based on their perceived potential to assimilate to the image of q***rness in their country of asylum application. The findings show that rigid and fixed categories, notions of objective and credible evidence, language, and decision makers shape how persons seeking asylum become legible to the system. Within this system, there is a systemic and systematic culture of disbelief towards q***r persons seeking asylum, where suspicion has become institutionalised and normalised. Overall, credibility assessments produce unintelligibility, excluding those who do not conform to dominant normative imaginaries of q***r persons seeking asylum, ultimately creating a self-justificatory apparatus. Truth, in the end, is illusory, and while credibility assessment guidelines produce s*xual truth, it is enforced through practices of disbelief and unintelligibility, making credibility assessments epistemic regulators of q***rness.

Keywords: credibility, q***r, refugee, legibility, regulation

https://www.sogica.org/database/aust-q***rness-2026/