Sexual Minority Refugees in Canada Article Review

Sexual Minority Refugees in Canada Article Review

Article

Identity, Refugeeness, Belonging: Experiences of Sexual

Minority Refugees in Canada

EDWARD OU JIN LEE AND SHARI BROTMAN

McGill School of Social Work, 2011.

Article Review

The article “Experiences of Sexua lMinority Refugees in Canada” focuses on discovering the results of a community-based qualitative research project on experiences of refugees and, in particular sexual minority refugees who live in Canada. It also analyses themes on identity, belonging, and refugees and a further study on ways in which refugees in Canada contribute to the construction of sociopolitical sexual minority refugees and concludes by looking at strategies that can be implemented to offer protection to sexual minority refugees in Canada.

According to the article, Canada was the first western nation to award itself a refugee statusin terms of gender identity and sexual orientation, and since that time, (Canadian Refugee Protection Division) has adjudicated many refugee claims based on gender identity and sexual orientation.

The study, according to the article, takes a research program that is community-based and adapted “grounded theory” methodology. The purpose of the study is to uncover the many experiences which come up in the migration involvements of sexual minority refugees. With the help of the Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR), the study is conducted by engaging a snowball sampling strategy. This process involves a stepwise iteration of interviewing. The success of this study is majorly due to the connection the interviewees have with community groups. The interviews lasted for 1.5-2 hours per each participant and transcribed and recorded. Because the study is qualitative in nature, thickness, and credibility in the description are followed in order to attain the transferability of findings.

According to the article, interviews are carried out for two years on sexual minority refugees and people who work with sexual minority refugees with settlement programs and advocacy initiatives. A total of 28 people are interviewed, with 22 of them being sexual minority refugees, four support advocates and workers, and two who are from both parties. The findings majorly focus on themes ofrefugeeness, identity, and belonging. The theme of refugeeness suggests that the sexual minority refugees have past experiences of persecution due to their gender identity and sexual orientation in their native countries. Belonging as a theme looks at how the sexual minority refugeesexperience forms of exclusion and marginalization within the community. For identity, sexual minority refugees do not have a clear identity within the community as people majorly identify people as male or female. For gay, lesbian, and transgender are not well known in the community.

The finding reveals the hard ways which sexual minorities go through when migrating. The three themes of refugeeness, identity, and belonging show overlapping and many facets of subjectivities of sexual minority refugees in Canada. Findings also reveal that sexual minority refugees’ gender and sexual identity change and shift over time—instances of racial discrimination, especially towards Mexican refugees by landlords, doctors, social workers, and immigration officers.

As the study concludes, it shed light on potential strategies for uplifting the protection of Canadian sexual minority refugees. The strategies will major in producing knowledge which deals with the experiences of sexual minority refugees and including cautionary engagement, which is described as queer asylum advocacy. The main purpose of these queer asylum advocates is to come up with strategies that will counteract the oppressive structures within the political and policy arena. According to the article, for them to accomplish the transformation and social justice, they must concentrate solely on sexual minority refugees.

Conclusion

The article itself is well written, and it has fulfilled its objective, conducted a well-organized study, and given conclusive findings, shows that the authors were not biased in any way, and there was no conflict of interest whatsoever.