(SOM6a) Queering im/migration, place-making, and belonging I

Non-cisheteronormative migrants to Canada face complex, intersectional vulnerabilities as they pursue place-making and belonging, while gender and sexual alterities intersecting with race, ethnicity, class, and sociopolitical status can increase marginalization, economic insecurity, and sociocultural exclusion. Papers in this session focus on the experiences of sexual orientation, gender identity, expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC) refugees and other im/migrants as they navigate processes of refuge and settlement. This includes accessing social welfare services, navigating socioeconomic and political precarity, and sociological analysis of border and social policy regimes. Papers also foreground queer/trans/non-binary relationalities, kinships, community re/creation, and belonging. Tags: Genre, Migration et Immigration, Sexualité

Organizers: Sarah Vanderveer, York University, Paulie McDermid, York University; Chairs: Sarah Vanderveer, York University, Paulie McDermid, York University

Presentations

Azar Masoumi, Carleton University

The Language of Sexual Imperialism: Queer Refugees and Language Interpretation in Canada

This presentation examines the role of language in naturalizing and advancing global sexual imperialism through the process of language interpretation for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression (SOGIE) refugees in Canada. Language is a necessary tool in determination of SOGIE refugee cases. Indeed, the ability of queer refugee claimants to secure protection relies on successful communication of credible stories of desire and persecution to Canadian state officials, lawyers, service providers and community support workers. For claimants who are not fluent in English or French, language interpretation remains the only means of communicating their need for protection. In other words, cross-lingual interpretation, which is often assisted by a third-party speaker, is critical to refugees’ ability to secure access to safety. As this presentation will suggest, cross-lingual communication is also a site of involved geopolitical and intercultural dynamics and inequalities. As post-colonial translation studies scholars have long argued (Niranjana 1992; Spivak 1993; Bassnett and Trivedi 1999; Wolf 2000; Rao 2006), translation is not a neutral vehicle for transmitting content between languages, but an active and power-ridden process that commonly involves intricate forms of cultural subjugation. In the case of SOGIE refugees, cross-lingual interaction occurs under conditions of remarkable inequality: in a context of unmistakable desperation and power imbalance, SOGIE refugees have no choice but to make their stories, including their accounts of gender and sexuality, intelligible to the reigning Euro-American-centric cultural frameworks of adjudicators. This is while a large scholarship on transnational sexualities has documented the rapid erosion and intensified subjugation of diverse local indigenous sexualities in the Global South due to colonialization and ongoing neo-colonial sexual imperialism (Murray and Rosecoe 1998; Findlay 1999; Najmabadi 2005; Horswell 2005; Slater and Yarbrough 2011; Human Rights Watch 2008; Gunkel 2010; Kaoma 2018; Rao 2020). This presentation draws on these insights to argue that cross-lingual interpretation furthers sexual imperialism by naturalizing and advancing Euro-American-centric sexual and gender discourses and terminologies through the SOGIE refugee claim adjudication process. I draw on research interviews with refugee language interpreters across Canada (Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver) to show that the practices of language interpreters commonly ignore or flatten distinctions between disparate cultural understandings of gender and sexuality in order to conform them to the cultural frameworks of Canadian actors and adjudicators in the refugee claim adjudication process. While this subjugation is largely un-noticed and unintended, the work of interpretation remains a fraught site in which questions of “appropriate” and “real” terms of identity and experience are one-sidedly decided, and even used to train the refugee in adopting Euro-American-centric frames of sexual and gender identification. The presentation concludes by suggesting an alternative approach to language interpretation that displaces the assumed primacy of Euro-American-Centric discourses and disrupts or minimizes the impact of sexual imperialism in determination of SOGIE refugee cases.

Shannon Mok, Western University

Queering the Canadian Dream: Labour Market Outcomes for Immigrant Sexual Minorities in Canada

As a nation, Canada has a large immigrant population, with nearly one in four individuals being immigrants in 2021. Canada is also known as a leading country for human rights, openly welcoming sexual minorities as refugees or asylum seekers and promoting ethnic diversity through multiculturalism. Yet, immigrants have been found to experience significant challenges when migrating to Canada. These challenges include difficulties in credential recognition, obtaining jobs, wage gaps, and language barriers. Sexual minorities in Canada also experience many difficulties, including barriers to employment, healthcare access, and wage penalties. For sexual minority migrants, specific challenges have been found, such as community barriers, lower employment rates, discrimination, and isolation. This includes feeling isolated from their ethnic communities due to their sexual orientation and feeling isolated from the LGBTQ+ community due to their ethnic background. Community isolation can lead to difficulties in social and economic integration, which can hinder their employment opportunities and lead to lower income. However, limited quantitative research has been conducted on the labour market outcomes of immigrant sexual minorities in Canada. This paper utilizes confidential data from the 2001-2021 Canadian Censuses and the 2011 National Household Survey and examines the labour market outcomes of same-sex coupled individuals by immigrant status, age at arrival, and generation status, compared to their opposite-sex coupled counterparts. Specifically, using an intersectional framework, this paper analyzes the employment status, employment income, and sources of employment income for these groups, and uses logistic regressions, ordinary least squares regressions, and Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions. The analytic sample for the logistic regressions is comprised of coupled individuals between the ages of 18 to 65, while the analytic sample for the ordinary least squares regressions and Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions also includes those who are not unemployed and who have an income of more than $5000. Employment status and income were found to vary by sexual orientation and sex. Similar to previous research, 2nd generation immigrants were found to earn the most compared to other generation immigrants for opposite-sex coupled men and women; however, for same-sex coupled men and women, 1.5 generation immigrants were found to earn the most. The sources of income differences highlight the importance of intersectionality and its non-additive approach to marginalization. Compared to the opposite-sex coupled men of the 3rd+ generation, all groups were found to earn less. However, when making comparisons within immigrant categories and within sexual orientation groups, same-sex coupled men and women were found to earn more than opposite-sex coupled men and the 3rd+ generation in some cases. Compared to opposite-sex coupled men within the same immigrant category, same-sex coupled men who arrived at the age of 18 or older were found to earn more, as were same-sex coupled women who arrived at the age of 40 or older. This indicates that opposite-sex and same-sex coupled individuals may experience different pathways to economic integration in Canada, and that different methods may be needed to assist same-sex coupled individuals’ economic integration.

Tasha Stansbury, University of Windsor

Exploring the social service experiences and needs of LGBTQ newcomers, immigrants, and refugees in Windsor-Essex

This paper is based on 13 semi-structured interviews conducted between April and September of 2023 with individuals who identify as both members of the LGBTQ+ community and as newcomers, immigrants, and/or refugees, and who have accessed social services within Windsor-Essex within the past 5 years. The study was designed with the intention to ultimately facilitate an understanding of the specific needs of this group to better inform social services supporting LGBTQ people and newcomers, immigrants, and refugees in Windsor-Essex. The paper is based on a study of the experiences of LGBTQ+ immigrants, refugees, and newcomers to the Windsor-Essex area, and particularly touches on the intersection of migrant and queer identities in shaping social service access experiences. Notably, this study is the first of its kind focused on Windsor-Essex, as many similar studies focus on the experiences of queer and trans migrants in larger urban centres. Small cities and rural areas present unique difficulties and experiences for queer and trans migrants, including a smaller pool of resources, smaller queer and trans communities, and less openly available information available services. The paper and the study on which it is based are grounded in an intersectional theoretical approach. Developed by Black feminist scholars, intersectionality theory stipulates that the critical insights of race, gender, class, sexuality, ethnicity, nation, migration status, ability, and age are mutually constitutive processes that shape complex social inequalities. Intersectionality emphasizes the multiple intersections of power and oppression that influence social, political, and economic relations across societies, as well as individual experiences. An intersectional approach guided the data collection, analysis, and interpretation to illuminate the multiple and mutually constitutive systems of oppression that affect LGBTQ migrants. Systems of oppression such as racism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, and classism inform the structural barriers that these communities face when accessing social services. Thus, an intersectional approach informs policy and programing recommendations aimed at addressing the needs and improving social services to support LGBTQ migrants. Participant responses across a range of question topics demonstrated an overwhelmingly common experience of isolation and alienation in their time adjusting to life in Canada. In the context of access to social services, this experience has two primary causes: First, an overall lack of services targeted specifically to LGBTQ+ newcomers, immigrants and refugees; and second, a lack of training in service provision for members of one group in organizations targeting the other. Experiences reported by the participants demonstrate that this gap in service provision results in incidents of cultural incompetency, insensitivity to sexual and gender identities, and incidents of outright discrimination from service providers. Consequently, the lack of services specific to the needs of LGBTQ+ migrants has contributed to a sense of isolation from both the LGBTQ+ community and the immigrant community in individuals who are members of both. All participants identified a need for social connection and social support. The main conclusion of the paper is that the lack of intersectional approaches to service provision focused on the LGBTQ+ and migrant communities is connected to a sense of isolation and barriers to access to services for individuals who are members of both communities. Recommendations include the establishment of partnerships between organizations in Windsor-Essex serving LGBTQ+ and newcomer, immigrant and refugee communities, both in supporting one another’s existing services through competency training, and through the creation of new programming to support and create connections between individuals and their communities.

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Non-presenting authors: Merrick Pilling, Toronto Metropolitan University; Michelle Tam, University of Toronto; Jane Ku, University of Windsor; Derrick Biso, Trans Wellness Ontario; Andrew Chapados, University of Windsor

Nick Mulé, York University

Homonationalizing LGBTQI+ Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Canada: Policy, Service, & Mental Health Implications

Canada touts itself a ‘safe haven’ for LGBTQI+ asylum seekers and refugees, given Canada is one of a limited number of countries that will accept asylum seekers and refugee claims on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or expression. Yet, to what extent does Canada live up to the notion of an inclusive new homeland for such individuals? This paper is based on findings from an international study in which qualitative, semi-structured individual interviews and focus groups were conducted with LGBTQI+ asylum seekers and refugee claimants and service providers in Toronto, Canada. The critical analysis of the data was premised on queer liberation theory that celebrates the diversity of 2SLGBTQI+ communities and their varied authenticities. LGBTQI+ asylum seekers and refugee claimants face extensive challenges from arduous journeys, port of entry issues, to seeking status processes, and attaining proper resources and supports. Often these journeys are traumatic both pre- and post-arrival, resulting in serious mental health challenges that digress from inclusion. Upon arrival, LGBTQI+ migrants soon face accessibility issues in finding culturally sensitive services. The refugee system and social services often perpetuate stereotypical understandings of sexual/gender identity/expression that are insensitive to cultural diversity. Refugees endure the anxiety inducing claims process wherein they must “prove” their LGBTQI+ identities to Canadian officials, the same identities that forced them to escape authorities in their homeland. Such policy clauses are implemented during the asylum and/or refugee review process undertaken by the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) of Canada. Despite undertaking ongoing reviews and releasing updated guidelines, the IRB has chosen to maintain its proceedings calling for LGBTQ asylum seekers and refugee claimants to prove their sexual orientation and gender identity/expression over their experiences of persecution, at once exposing the discriminatory and homonationalist elements of the process. No other grounds for which asylum seekers and refugee claimants base their cases require such proof. Given that essentialist and binary notions of sexual orientation and gender identity/expression are the criteria utilized, such procedures impose traditional Westernized notions of these characteristics with recolonizing effects on individuals who are attempting to resettle in Canada. While seeking credibility of its claimants, the IRB is contributing to the mainstreaming of LGBTQs to fit homonormative expectations simultaneously undermining the diversity of these populations. The personal life experience of seeking asylum or refugee status has multi-level implications on the mental health of such individuals, particularly if they have LGBTQI+ sensibilities or identify as such. Although Canadian asylum and refugee policies have shifted between conservative and liberal federal governments, the promise of openness and possible acceptance, is not materially matched by existing health care and social services upon arrival. A major reason for such incongruencies are systemic service gaps that fall short of adequately addressing LGBTQI+ issues. Additionally, the IRB’s refusal to remove the proof of sexual orientation and/or gender identity/expression policy is both discriminatory and homonationalist towards such claimants. This paper is relevant to the theme of the session as it will provide findings from an international study that focuses on the experiences of LGBTQI+ asylum seekers and/or refugees and service providers in the migration sector in Toronto. The findings speak to serious policy flaws, an under resourced newcomer services sector, and importantly the discriminatory and homonationalist implications of our refugee process regarding LGBTQI+ claimants. The paper is also closely aligned with the Conference theme as the critical analysis exposes subtle forms of ongoing hate towards LGBTQI+ asylum seekers and refugees and the vulnerability of a shared future in their attempts to resettle in Canada.

Sarah Vanderveer, York University

Queering Refugee Settlement in Canada

SOGIE (sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression) refugee claimants, protected persons, and permanent residents who have recently been granted PR status face many challenges as they adjust to a new life in Canada. Significant research has been produced that addresses claimants experiences within the Canadian refugee apparatus, the role of homonormative beliefs and practices within determination processes and relational interrogation of non-cisheteronormative bodies and identities (Brotman and Lee, 2011; Kinsman, 2018; LaViolette, 2004, 2014; Murray, 2014, 2015; Masoumi, 2019; Mulé and Gates-Gasse (2012); Mulé and Gamble, 2018); but there is less research focusing on post-claim life. This research project addresses the need for a processual study of SOGIE settlement by focusing on everyday life for SOGIE claimants/post-claim refugees in Toronto. The objective of this research is to study the challenges and intersectional vulnerabilities experienced by SOGIE RCs, PPs and PRs as they make claims, access eligible supports, and engage in settlement. These questions investigate whether intersectional vulnerabilities are reproduced through settlement supports/programs, and if so, how supports designed to assist settlement may at the same time contribute to reproducing vulnerabilities and re-traumatization. To do so, this study centres on participant dis/engagement with support services/settlement programs, and ask the following research questions: How are SOGIE RCs, PPs and PRs navigating settlement challenges? Do participants perceive their queer identity/social location impacts access to supports, if so, in what way(s), and is this impacting their settlement? Are the support services/settlement programs they know of/access a source for dis/engagement? Do they understand/support participant’s SOGIE (and potentially other intersectional) identities? Do support services for SOGIE RCs, PPs and PRs in/directly foster, pathologize, or diminish non-heteronormative and/or non-homonormative bodies and identities? This research raises questions about the subjugation of non-cisheteronormative identities within support services, the role and impact of policies, processes, and perspectives in the sustaining of normative queerphobia within the settlement services and broader Canadian culture. These questions present an opportunity to investigate whether services designed to support SOGIE newcomers are reinforcing homonormative, homonationalist, and/or queerphobic beliefs, potentially retraumatizing and/or producing new trauma(s) to a vulnerable population as they navigate a new environment of ‘safety’. This study engages with theoretical framework advanced by Butler (1999) who identifies the “heterosexual matrix” (p. 208) as necessitating the integration and ascription of dominant heterosexual characteristics onto queer bodies and identities as a process for naturalizing homonormativity by making them non-cisheteronormative sexualities and genders intelligible though compulsory of sex, gender, and sexual characteristics. Puar’s (2017) construction of homonationalist ideologies wherein gender and sexual identities are simultaneously inscribed by race, ethnicity, gender, and class reinforcing discourse(s) of tolerance, benevolence on the part of ‘Western’ nations, thus reinforcing racist ascriptions onto Othered nations. Combined with accompanying intersectional differences of race, ethnicity, class, and ability, queer bodies and identities are rendered increasingly vulnerable to necropolitical power relations that categorize acceptability and authenticity along homonormative, homonational, and necropolitical lines, delineating who is ‘legitimately deserving’ of protection or abandonment (Haritaworn et al., 2014, p. 5). This requires queer bodies and identities to be made visible, interrogated, classified, assessed, and legitimized. When compounded with insecure refugee claimant or residency status, the presence of formalized state-controlled de/legitimization re/produces structural violence, legal liminality, thereby validating protection or erasure. Applied to the Canadian context, integration of homosexuality into sociopolitical and cultural norms, and its gradual progression towards “naturalizing” LGBTQ+ identities and bodies in national identity is a gradual transition of absorbing some characterizations of queer identity. It is a process that simultaneously presents sociopolitical notions of ‘tolerance’ and beneficence, while reinforcing queerness as the non-cisheteronormative Other (Haritaworn et al., 2014, p. 5). This study focuses on the lived, experiential knowledge of participants, the exploration of inherent biases within systems, policies, and social supports, and the social implications of un/intentionally re/producing trauma. This multi-sited study includes research connected to several community-based organizations in Toronto, each providing social support services for SOGIE refugees. Data collection includes in-person, open-ended, semi-structured interviews, policy and processual analysis. This research is in-process, and my presentation will summarize theoretical frameworks and methodologies, followed by a discussion of preliminary findings.