30-31 October 2025 | Presentation, Queer(y)ing Asylum Symposium – Lund University, Sweden.
Shirin Heidari, Thanasis Tyrovolas, Jinan Usta, Monica Onyango, Ryan Whitacre, Rose Nelson, Marion Bouchetel and Islam Al Khatib
Abstract:
People of diverse sexual orientation, gender identities and expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC)—hereafter referred to as queer refugees—face compounded marginalisation throughout their displacement journeys. Positioned in a liminal space, they are often excluded from refugee communities due to their SOGIESC, while also encountering xenophobia and exclusion from local queer networks and host societies. This research adopts a collaborative, intersectional feminist and queer theoretical lens to explore the lived realities of queer refugees. It examines how the widely used ‘Vulnerability
Criteria’, employed by UN agencies, governments, and humanitarian organisations to assess protection and assistance needs, shapes access to support and recognition. The study is conducted across four diverse sites: Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, and Switzerland. Combining policy analysis, in-depth interviews, and Photovoice, the research interrogates how
vulnerability is constructed, operationalised, and experienced by queer refugees, and how this affects their health and wellbeing. It further explores how (and if) queer refugees navigate humanitarian and health systems to meet their specific and often unmet needs. Crucially, the study centres the voices and agency of queer refugees, co-producing knowledge and
recommendations with affected communities. It aims to identify bottlenecks and propose transformative solutions to inform more gender-responsive, inclusive, and rights-based approaches in humanitarian and migration governance.
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