The Hare and the Baboon: Intersecting Violences Experienced by African Sexual and Gender-Expansive Individuals in the UK Asylum System.

ABSTRACT

Black African sexual and gender-expansive persons seeking asylum in the UK context face specific barriers because of their intersecting identities and experiences related to race, religion, gender, sexuality, cultural background, language, and geographical origin. With idealised white bodies continuously used as the prototype for LGBTQI+ persons seeking asylum, the legislation that protects LGBTQI+ asylum claimants conflicts with the actuality of African sexual and gender-expansive persons’ identities and experiences. The research explores co-researchers' narratives about their experiences of the UK asylum regime and how structural and symbolic violences are implicated in the shared narratives. Twenty-seven narratives of the UK asylum system were gathered from diverse sources, including forcibly displaced co-researchers, legal caseworkers, NGO workers and substantive interview documents. The gathered experiences demonstrated structural and symbolic violence perpetrated by the state, through narratives of violent uncertainty, exclusion, vulnerabilisation to exploitation and gendered violence, dislocation and, intersectional discrimination and colonial notions of gender and sexuality. These findings reveal the intersecting and distinct migration obstacles underpinned by anti-Black discrimination that creates systems of racialised and gendered violence against applicants – forming part of the UK’s hostile environment and exposing a reality wherein historical legacies of colonialism continue to shape the UK’s asylum regime and bordering practices. The findings demonstrate the UK Home Office’s significant failings in safeguarding sexual and gender-expansive asylum claimants, and how the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated their precarious situation. From a decolonial feminist perspective, the participatory action research methodology and principles contribute to knowledge on decolonial and liberatory research practices and offer suggestions for anti-oppressive practices to support just asylum claims.

摘要

在英国内政背景下，寻求庇护的黑非洲性/性别扩张人群因种族、宗教、性别、性取向、文化背景、语言和地理起源的交叉身份和经历而面临特定的障碍。由于将理想化的白色身体作为寻求庇护的LGBTQI+人群的原型，保护LGBTQI+庇护申请人的法律与非洲性/性别扩张人群的实际情况相冲突。本研究探讨了共同研究者关于他们在英国庇护制度中的经历的叙述，以及结构性和象征性暴力如何在共享的叙述中发挥作用。从包括被迫流离失所的共同研究者、法律案件工作者、非政府组织工作人员和实质性访谈文件在内的多元来源中收集了27个英国庇护制度的叙述。收集到的经验揭示了国家通过暴力不确定性、排斥、易受剥削和性别暴力、流离失所、交叉歧视以及殖民性别和性观念的象征性暴力所实施的结构性暴力。这些发现揭示了由反黑人歧视所支撑的交叉和独特的迁移障碍，这些障碍构成了针对申请人的种族化和性别暴力体系——成为英国敌对环境的一部分，并揭示了殖民主义的历史遗产如何继续塑造英国的庇护制度和边境实践。研究发现，英国内政部在保护性/性别扩张的庇护申请人方面存在重大不足，以及COVID-19大流行如何加剧了他们的脆弱处境。从去殖民化女权主义视角来看，参与式行动研究方法和原则有助于了解去殖民化和解放性研究实践的知识，并为支持公正庇护申请的抗压迫实践提供建议。