Queer Settlers: Questioning Settler Colonialism in LGBT Asylum Processes in Canada

• Published in: Refuge: Canada's Journal on Refugees
• Main Author: Fobear, Katherine
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: York University Libraries 2014
• Subjects: Canada; LGBTQ refugees; sexual and gender minorities; refugee claimants; asylum process; colonialism; settler state; Rendu; First Nations
• Online Access: https://refuge.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/refuge/article/view/38602; https://doi.org/10.25071/1920-7336.38602

Refugee and forced migration studies have focused primarily on the refugees’ countries of origin and the causes for migration. Yet it is also important to also critically investigate the processes, discourses, and structures of settlement in the places they migrate to. This has particular significance in settler states like Canada in which research on refugee and forced migration largely ignores the presence of Indigenous peoples, the history of colonization that has made settlement possible, and ways the nation has shaped its borders through inflicting control and violence on Indigenous persons. What does it mean, then, to file a refugee claim in a state like Canada in which there is ongoing colonial violence against First Nations communities? In this article, we will explore what it means to make a refugee claim based on sexual orientation and gender identity in a settler-state like Canada. For sexual and gender minority refugees in Canada, interconnected structures of colonial discourse and regulation come into force through the Canadian asylum and resettlement process. It is through this exploration that ideas surrounding migration, asylum, and settlement become unsettled. Les études sur les réfugiés et les migrations forcées ont porté principalement sur les pays des réfugiés d’origine et les causes de la migration. Pourtant, il est également important d’aussi étudier de manière critique les proces- sus, les discours et les structures de peuplement dans les endroits vers lesquels ils migrent. Cela a une signification particulière dans les états coloniaux comme le Canada où la recherche sur les réfugiés et la migration forcée ignore en grande partie la présence des peuples autochtones, l’histoire de la colonisation qui a rendu le peuplement possible et les moyens par lesquels la nation a façonné ses frontières en usant de pouvoir et de violence sur les populations autochtones. Quel est le sens, alors, de déposer une demande d’asile dans un état comme le Canada où persiste la violence ...