“As queer refugees, we are out of category, we do not belong to one, or the other”: LGBTIQ+ refugees’ experiences in “ambivalent” queer spaces

Abstract

While over the last twenty years, geographers of sexuality have explored the racialization of queer spaces, the experiences of LGBTIQ+ refugees in those spaces are rather absent in these studies. At the same time, while in recent years there has been an increasing amount of research on LGBTIQ+ asylum in Europe and beyond, the social experiences of LGBTIQ+ claimants and refugees in their host countries, including queer spaces, have only recently started to be examined. Drawing on research carried out in Germany, Italy and the UK, this article explores LGBTIQ+ refugees’ experiences in different spaces such as LGBTIQ+ support groups and night-time leisure spaces, as well as intimate relationships. The article argues that these are “ambivalent” spaces for LGBTIQ+ asylum claimants and refugees and that to fully understand these spatial experiences, we need to look at the inter-dynamic relationship between gender, sexuality, (dis)ability, “race”, religion and “refugeeness”.