Four Challenges, Three Identities and a Double Movement in Asylum Law: Queering the ‘Particular Social Group’ after Mx M

ABSTRACT

This article examines the construction of identity and the ‘particular social group’ (PSG) under the 1951 Refugee Convention. In particular, it analyses the ways in which the identity of a non-binary asylum claimant is discussed in the Mx M case in the UK, and what the implications of this might be for the project of queering the PSG. The article identifies four central challenges for queering and navigating the PSG, informed by Judith Butler’s notion of a ‘double movement’. These are the demand for recognition; the threat of erasure and/or misrepresentation; the contestation of universal, objective and/or essentialist categories; and the inseparability of violence from resistance. The article argues that strategic flexibility offers the greatest potential for individual claimants and for the wider project of queering the PSG, rather than trying to resolve the challenges by consistently adopting any single approach to PSG construction.

KEYWORDS:

• Asylum law
• queer theory
• Judith Butler
• membership of a particular social group
• Refugee Convention

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 This article uses the term ‘sexual minorities’ as an umbrella for all minority sexual orientations, gender identities, gender expressions and/or sex characteristics. The term ‘LGBTI’ to refer to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people is used only in reference to its use in asylum law.

2 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees(adopted 28 July 1951, entered into force 22 April 1954) 189 UNTS 137 (UN Refugee Convention)

3 Moira Dustin, ‘Many Rivers to Cross: The Recognition of LGBTQI Asylum in the UK’ (2018) 30 International Journal of Refugee Law 104.

4 This article uses the terms ‘gender [identity]’ and ‘trans*’ in specific reference to their usage by Dianne Otto and Jack Halberstam, respectively. Otto uses the term ‘gender [identity]’ to challenge divisions between feminist and queer approaches to gender-related violence. Halberstam uses the term ‘trans*’ to indicate transition and transitivity without situating them in relation to a final destination. See Dianne Otto, ‘Queering Gender [Identity] in International Law’ (2015) 33 Nordic Journal of Human Rights 299; Jack Halberstam, Trans*: A Quick and Quirky Account of Gender Variability (University of California Press 2018).

5 UN Refugee Convention (n 3), art 1(a).

6 Calogero Giametta, ‘New Asylum Protection Categories and Elusive Filtering Devices: The Case of “Queer Asylum” in France and the UK’ (2020) 46 Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 142.

7 Laurie Berg and Jenni Millbank, ‘Constructing the Personal Narratives of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Asylum Claimants’ (2009) 22 Journal of Refugee Studies 195.

8 Stefan Vogler, ‘Determining Transgender: Adjudicating Gender Identity in U.S. Asylum Law’ (2019) 33 Gender & Society 439.

9 Mx M v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] UKUT(IAC) 313. The decisions of the FTT are not generally made public but the UT’s decision in this case contains references and insights into the reasoning adopted by the FTT.

10 ibid.

11 ibid.

12 ibid.

13 Hélène Lambert, ‘Transnational Judicial Dialogue, Harmonization and the Common European Asylum System’ (2009) 58(3) International and Comparative Law Quarterly 519, 520.

14 Eddie Bruce-Jones, ‘Death Zones, Comfort Zones: Queering the Refugee Question’ (2015) 22 International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 101.

15 HJ (Iran) and HT (Cameroon) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2010] UK Supreme Court 31.

16 Vogler (n 9); Bruce-Jones (n 15); Mariza Avgeri, ‘Trans*it: Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Asylum Claimants’ Narratives in Greece’ (2021) 0 Sexualities 1; Nof Nasser-Eddin and Nour Abu-Assab, ‘Decolonial Approaches to Refugee Migration’ (2020) 3 Migration and Society 190; Judith Butler, Undoing Gender (Routledge 2004); Judith Butler, Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of ‘Sex’ (Routledge 1993).

17 Andrew Sharpe, ‘Transgender Jurisprudence and the Spectre of Homosexuality’ (2000) 14 Australian Feminist Law Journal 23.

18 Diana P Garcés Amaya, ‘Rethinking Articulations of Nation and Gender through Asylum Policies: Discourses and Representations of Women Seeking Asylum in Spain’ in Angeliki Sifaki, CL Quinan and Katarina Lončarević (eds), Homonationalism, Femonationalism and Ablenationalism: critical pedagogies contextualised (Routledge 2022); Nasser-Eddin and Abu-Assab (n 17); Dean Spade, Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law (Duke University Press 2015); Bruce-Jones (n 15); David AB Murray, ‘The (Not so) Straight Story: Queering Migration Narratives of Sexual Orientation and Gendered Identity Refugee Claimants’ (2014) 17 Sexualities 451; David AB Murray, ‘Real Queer: “Authentic” LGBT Refugee Claimants and Homonationalism in the Canadian Refugee System’ (2014) 56 Anthropologica 21; Melissa Autumn White, ‘Ambivalent Homonationalisms: Transnational Queer Intimacies and Territorialized Belongings’ (2013) 15 Interventions 37; Ainsley Jenicek and others, ‘Dangerous Shortcuts: Representations of Sexual Minority Refugees in the Post-9/11 Canadian Press’ (2009) 34 Canadian Journal of Communication 635.

19 Riki Anne Wilchins, ‘It’s Your Gender, Stupid!’ in Joan Nestle, Clare Howell and Riki Anne Wilchins (eds), GenderQueer: voices from beyond the sexual binary (Alyson Books 2002) 73. See also Carmelo Danisi and others, ‘A Theoretical Framework: A Human Rights Reading of SOGI Asylum Based on Feminist and Queer Studies’, Queering Asylum in Europe: Legal and Social Experiences of Seeking International Protection on grounds of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (Springer International Publishing 2021).

20 Nasser-Eddin and Abu-Assab (n 17) 193.

21 Stefan Vogler, ‘Legally Queer: The Construction of Sexuality in LGBQ Asylum Claims’ (2016) 50 Law & Society Review 856, 884.

22 Adam P Romero, ‘Methodological Descriptions: “Feminist” and “Queer” Legal Theories’ in Martha Fineman, Jack E Jackson and Adam P Romero (eds), Feminist and queer legal theory: intimate encounters, uncomfortable conversations (Ashgate 2009) 186.

23 Butler, Bodies That Matter (n 17) 221.

24 Alex Powell, ‘“Sexuality” through the Kaleidoscope: Sexual Orientation, Identity, and Behaviour in Asylum Claims in the United Kingdom’ (2021) 10 Laws 90; M Dustin and N Held, ‘In or out? A Queer Intersectional Approach to “Particular Social Group” Membership and Credibility in SOGI Asylum Claims in Germany and the UK’ [2018] GenIUS 74; Marita Eastmond, ‘Stories as Lived Experience: Narratives in Forced Migration Research’ (2007) 20 Journal of Refugee Studies 248.

25 Moira Dustin and Nuno Ferreira, ‘Improving SOGI Asylum Adjudication: Putting Persecution Ahead of Identity’ (2021) 40 Refugee Survey Quarterly 315; Danisi and others (n 20); Mariza Avgeri, ‘Assessing Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Asylum Claims: Towards a Transgender Studies Framework for Particular Social Group and Persecution’ (2021) 3 Frontiers in Human Dynamics; Nasser-Eddin and Abu-Assab (n 17); Dustin and Held (n 25); Dustin (n 4); Senthorun Raj, ‘A/Effective Adjudications: Queer Refugees and the Law’ (2017) 38 Journal of Intercultural Studies 453; Bruce-Jones (n 15); Jenicek and others (n 19); Pamela Heller, ‘Challenges Facing LGBT Asylum-Seekers: The Role of Social Work in Correcting Oppressive Immigration Processes’ (2009) 21 Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services 294.

26 Avgeri (n 17) 7.

27 ibid; Nasser-Eddin and Abu-Assab (n 17); Bruce-Jones (n 15); Murray, ‘Real Queer’ (n 19); Murray, ‘The (Not so) Straight Story’ (n 19); Jenicek and others (n 19).

28 Avgeri (n 17).

29 Romero (n 23).

30 Michelle Foster, ‘The “Ground with the Least Clarity”: A Comparative Study of Jurisprudential Developments Relating to “Membership of a Particular Social Group”’ (UNHCR 2012) 25.

31 Dustin (n 4).

32 UNHCR, ‘Guidelines on International Protection: “Membership of a Particular Social Group” within the Context of Article 1A(2) of the 1951 Convention and/or Its 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees’ (7 May 2002) UN Doc HCR/GIP/02/02, 2.

33 Dustin (n 4).

34 UNHCR Guidelines on International Protection (n 33) 3.

35 Calogero Giametta, The Sexual Politics of Asylum (Routledge 2017) 3; Bruce-Jones (n 15).

36 Raj (n 26).

37 See Avgeri (n 17); Nasser-Eddin and Abu-Assab (n 17); Bruce-Jones (n 15); Murray, ‘Real Queer’ (n 19); Murray, ‘The (Not so) Straight Story’ (n 19); Jenicek and others (n 19).

38 Adena L Wayne, ‘Unique Identities and Vulnerabilities: The Case for Transgender Identity as a Basis for Asylum Notes’ (2016) 102(1) Cornell Law Review 241, 253.

39 Dustin and Held (n 25).

40 Laurie Berg and Jenni Millbank, ‘Developing a Jurisprudence of Transgender Particular Social Group’ in Thomas Spijkerboer (ed), Fleeing Homophobia: Sexual orientation, gender identity and asylum (Routledge 2013); Talia Mae Bettcher, ‘Trapped in the Wrong Theory: Rethinking Trans Oppression and Resistance’ (2014) 39(2) Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 383; Halberstam (n 5); Butler, Undoing Gender (n 17).

41 Mx M v Secretary of State for the Home Department (n 10).

42 Powell (n 25); Halberstam (n 5); Butler, Undoing Gender (n 17); Ben Vincent, Non-Binary Genders: Navigating Communities, Identities, and Healthcare (Policy press 2020).

43 Janna Wessels, The Concealment Controversy (Cambridge University Press 2021); Toni AM Johnson, ‘Flamers, Flaunting and Permissible Persecution’ (2007) 15 Feminist Legal Studies 99; Jenni Millbank, ‘The Right of Lesbians and Gay Men to Live Freely, Openly, and on Equal Terms Is Not Bad Law: A Reply to Hathaway and Pobjoy’ (2011) 44 New York University Journal of International Law and Politics 497.

44 Nasser-Eddin and Abu-Assab (n 17) 197.

45 Abby Field and others, ‘Naming and Shaming: Harmful Asylum Procedures for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Claims on Lesvos’ (Fenix Humanitarian Legal Aid 2022).

46 Vogler (n 9); Wayne (n 39).

47 Vogler (n 9) 452.

48 Avgeri (n 26); Berg and Millbank (n 41).

49 James C Hathaway and Michelle Foster, The Law of Refugee Status (2nd edn, Cambridge University Press 2014); Foster (n 31); UNHCR Guidelines on International Protection (n 33).

50 Mx M v Secretary of State for the Home Department (n 10).

51 Internal Displacement Monitoring Service, ‘An Atomised Crisis - Reframing Displacement Caused by Crime and Violence in El Salvador’ (Research Report, 2018) 16.

52 Dustin (n 4) 119.

53 Mx M v Secretary of State for the Home Department (n 10).

54 Lauren Sudeall Lucas, ‘Identity as Proxy’ (2015) 115 Columbia Law Review 1605, 1636.

55 Maria Lee, ‘Being Wary of Categories: Is It Possible to Move Away from Categorisations in Anti-Discrimination Law?’ (2017) 1 University of Vienna Law Review 107.

56 Dustin and Held (n 25).

57 Nora Markard, ‘Persecution for Reasons of Membership of a Particular Social Group: Intersectionality Avant La Lettre?’ (2016) 2 Sociologia Del Diritto 45.

58 Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality Vol. 1: An Introduction (Pantheon Books 1978); Butler, Undoing Gender (n 17); Avgeri (n 17); Halberstam (n 5); Vogler (n 22); Jenicek and others (n 19); Nasser-Eddin and Abu-Assab (n 17); Bruce-Jones (n 15); Murray, ‘Real Queer’ (n 19); Murray, ‘The (Not so) Straight Story’ (n 19).

59 UN Refugee Convention (n3), art 1(a).

60 Mx M v Secretary of State for the Home Department (n 10) at 23.

61 Lee (n 56) 120.

62 Dustin and Ferreira (n 26).

63 Dustin and Held (n 25); Avgeri (n 17).

64 Butler, Undoing Gender (n 17).

65 Kimberlé Crenshaw, ‘Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color’ (1991) 43(6) Stanford Law Review 1241.

66 Markard (n 58) 53.

67 Sharpe (n 18).

68 Reyes-Reyes v Ashcroft [2004] US Court of Appeal (Ninth Circuit) case no. 03-72100, at 13547.

69 Wessels (n 44) 251.

Additional information

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Samuel Ballin

Samuel Ballin (he/any) is a PhD candidate in migration law at Radboud University. His interests include migration law, queer theory, climate change and sociolegal research.