LGBTQ+ Asylum Claimants and New Homelands Online: Alliance, Precarity and Socialisation
Authors: Pullen, C.
Conference: Console-ing Passions: Forging Social Justice
Dates: 20-22 June 2024
Abstract:This paper explores the significance of online technology for LGBTQ+ asylum claimants, where it may be used as a method to find information and support, and it also may afford the opportunity to develop social connections while arriving in a new homeland. The evidence draws on data gathered from a British Academy research project led by the author, specifically framing the interaction of LGBTQ+ asylum claimants with regional NGOs in the UK. When LGBTQ+ asylum claimants first contact help groups, they inevitably will be offered a range of online services, which may be alliance oriented if the NGO service provider is led by LGBTQ+ staff. At the same time refugees develop new online social skills themselves, as they connect within new communities. LGBTQ+ asylum claimants may create social media identities using mainstream applications such as Facebook, Instagram, Tinder, and Grindr. While often liberty is gained, many conceal their nationality, ethnicity, and asylum claimant status in the pursuit of fitting in, compromising issues of self-esteem and their authenticity. This paper frames theoretical academic writing concerning the vulnerability of refugees using online technology (See Daniel and Anderson 2020; Dohest 2020), alongside using data from the research project. It considers both the ‘alliance type’ of relationship that may be formed between asylum claimants and their volunteer NGO supporters in offering bespoke online help group interactions, and the potential precarity that LGBTQ+ asylum claimants may experience, who conceal their identities within online profiles created as newcomers, whilst potentially gaining sexual and/or social liberty.
Source: Manual