Proposed Panel Title: Crossing Boundaries, crossing borders: forced migration and resettlement for queer refugees

Whither Refugees? Restrictionism, Crises and Precarity Writ Large
Department of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies,
University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece and the
Laboratory for the Study of Culture, Gender and Borders
Thessaloniki, Greece

24-27- July 2018

Theme 1. Crises, Precarity and Refugeeness

Panel Title: Crossing Boundaries, crossing borders: Forced migration and resettlement for queer refugees
A panel proposed to the 17th Conference of the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM), in Thessaloniki, Greece, July 24-27, 2018.
Panel Organizers: Sarilee Kahn (McGill University), Edward J. Alessi (Rutgers University)

Background and objectives:
Over the past 20 years, growing awareness of the global situation of LGBTI individuals has led some nations to extend asylum and refugee protections to individuals fleeing persecution on the basis of sexual orientation and/or gender identity (United Nations High Commission for Refugees 2008). Emerging research on sexual and gender minority (SGM) forced migrants has demonstrated that they have experienced severe and pervasive abuse that begins in childhood and continues into adulthood (Alessi, Kahn, & Chatterji, 2016; Alessi, Kahn, & Van Der Horn, 2016). These abuse experiences have contributed to traumatic stress and other mental health problems, making it difficult for them to meet the demands of the asylum and resettlement process (Shidlo & Aloha, 2013). Furthermore, tensions arising from growing up in their country of origin as well as religious doctrine can impact their sense of of belonging in the host country (Kahn, 2015; Lee & Brotman, 2011).

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