EU Member State Policies toward LGBTQ Asylum Seekers and Refugees

Abstract:

This thesis seeks to explain why and how European Union member states repeatedly fail to respectfully evaluate and care for LGBT asylum seekers and refugees under the minimum requirements set forth by both European law and European Court of Justice rulings. Through six weeks of field interviews with national asylum agencies, NGO leaders, and asylum lawyers in twelve different EU member states, my preliminary hypothesis is that member states lack the basic “legal infrastructure” necessary for their asylum agencies to properly process and handle LGBT asylum cases. I also identify a general failure on the part of most national asylum agencies to consider the unique challenges that LGBT asylum seekers face throughout the asylum process—including considering how housing, medical care, and psychosocial support are different for LGBT asylum seekers when compared to their heterosexual or cisgender counterparts, with whom national asylum agencies are much more accustomed to working. I posit that this lack of foresight has led to many LGBT organizations and refugee NGOs to divert their own resources to “fill in the gap” of a lack of LGBT-adapted services that national governments should be providing to LGBT asylum seekers in the first place. Through my field research, I’ve found that when asylum NGOs make such interventions, the asylum process, safety, and overall well-being of LGBT asylum seekers are vastly improved. Thus, national governments have much to learn from civil society and NGOs across Europe on best practices and special considerations to take while working with this particularly vulnerable refugee population.