The presenters from Rainbow Refugee were referencing Bill C, which was implemented in December The bill also created a list of designated countries that were deemed to be safe and non—refugee producing. Asylum-seekers coming from the designated countries had an even shorter refugee process three months and no right to appeal a negative decision.
I worked with Rainbow Refugee and other refugee activists to organize a widely attended public forum on the impending asylum legislation changes in May I discovered very quickly that Canada was far from the safe haven I had believed. LGBT refugees must navigate structural, social, economic, and political barriers in order to settle in Canada and build homes for themselves.
It is also important to critically investigate the processes, discourses, and structures of settlement in the places they migrate to. Or, to put it another way, one must ask not only where refugees have come from, but also where they have come to Haig-Brown, This has particular significance in settler states like Canada, where research on refugee and forced migration largely ignores the history of colonization that has made settlement possible through the forced occupation of First Nations territories and controlling incoming immigrant groups defined by gender, race, class, ability, and sexuality Haig-Brown, ; Razack, As I show in the next section, Metro Vancouver holds an important place in the history of refugee migration and asylum policy in Canada.
For the past thirty years, refugee immigration in Canada has been highly centralized to urban areas. More than seventy-five per cent of refugees coming into Canada settle in Toronto, Vancouver, or Montreal. The City of Vancouver alone receives more than twenty per cent of all immigrants and refugees. Vancouver is the most densely populated city in the Metro Vancouver area, with the wealthiest residential districts in Canada located in the West End and the western suburbs surrounding the University of British Columbia Kerrisdale, West Point Grey, Kitsilano, Dunbar.
The area also holds a significant place in the history of immigration and refugee settlement in Canada. Metro Vancouver serves as the terminus of the modern Canadian state. The colonization of what would become the Metro Vancouver area by the first white settlers resulted in a displacement of the first inhabitants, the Coast Salish peoples. Despite the efforts by the Canadian state to remove and eradicate Coast Salish peoples, many Coast Salish communities continue to resist against erasure and live in the Metro Vancouver area.
Fighting for their traditional territory has remained a challenge, especially because of the years of structural violence and social inequality that have caused a large percentage of Coast Salish communities to live in poverty. Despite this oppression, Coast Salish communities maintain vocal and active resistance against income inequality and violence against First Nations people in Metro Vancouver and throughout Canada.
Sovereignty over their territories remains the upmost priority for First Nations communities in Metro Vancouver. In , the Komagata Maru steamship, carrying refugees from Punjab, British-controlled India, was denied entry to Canada Johnston, ; Srikanth, The passengers were Sikh, Muslim, and Hindu Indian refugees escaping ethnic and religious persecution under British colonial rule. Many of the passengers died on the return journey, and several were arrested and killed after arriving in Punjab.
The Komagata Maru incident would later be seen as a national disgrace and a rallying point for refugee immigration reform Srikanth, The Komagata Maru incident was just one of a series in Metro Vancouver in which non-European refugees were denied entry Silverman, Until the immigration reform, which removed many of the racial restrictions on immigration, and the adoption of the UN Convention for Refugees in , the majority of asylum seekers allowed into Canada and given refugee status came from Western and Central Europe.
In , Canada became the first country in the world to adopt multiculturalism into its official policy. Multiculturalism began as a bicultural and bilingual compromise between the dominant French- and English-speaking communities. The adoption of multiculturalism into Canadian immigration policy led to the creation of new social services for immigrants and anti-discriminatory policies for immigration and asylum. One very important consequence of the changing immigration and asylum policies in the late s was the rise of non-European immigration to Metro Vancouver, especially from East and South Asia.
Until the late s, sexual minorities were denied entry to Canada. In , the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in A. Canada remains one of the top countries for LGBT refugee-resettlement in the West and maintains a higher average of positive decisions for persons claiming asylum based on sexual orientation and gender identity than do Western Europe, the United States, or Australia.
In , the city recognized Davie Village as the official gay village of Vancouver Ingram, ; Borbridge, That is why we continue to welcome those fleeing persecution, which oftentimes includes certain death, including on the basis of sexual orientation. The Conservative Party, led by former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, became the official opposition after governing for nine years, the last five of them as a majority government. The recent change in government has led to some hope within the refugee and immigrant activist community for the dismantling of the more aggressive and restrictive policies against incoming refugees.
This has racial, class, gender, and sexual underpinnings, as only individuals who are economically and socially privileged can qualify for permanent residency and sponsorship of their families. Women, trans persons, sexual minorities, ethnic minorities, and working-class individuals must overcome greater obstacles in order to qualify for immigration, as they are given less opportunity to build up social resources, educational experience, and economic capital.
The September 11, , attacks in New York added further pressure for the Canadian government to increase border security and restrict immigration. This led to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act IRPA of , which brought in stricter regulations on asylum and allowed for the arbitrary arrest and detainment of incoming asylum claimants Dawson, ; Hari, ; Jantzi, Currently, the United States is the only country designated a safe third country by the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. The Sri Lankan refugees were immediately placed into detention.
The media frenzy surrounding the incident helped spur the creation and implementation of Bill C, an amendment to the IRPA that on the one hand dramatically shortened the refugee process but on the other imposed legislation removing the right for appeal for individuals coming from designated countries. Bill C also gave Canadian Border Services more authority to arbitrarily detain individuals coming in groups of three or more by land or sea. The adoption of the competitive points system and the creation of new streams of immigration based on income and professional skill were based on the belief that the ideal immigrant to Canada was self-sufficient, personally responsible, and able to efficiently participate in the labour market Boyd, Canadians take great pride in the generosity and compassion of our immigration and refugee programs.
But they have no tolerance for those who abuse our generosity or take advantage of our country. Soon after the implementation of Bill C, funding for in-land refugee programs and assistance was drastically cut, and additional changes to health coverage were introduced. Organizations that primarily helped in-land refugee claimants in Metro Vancouver had their budgets reduced. An individual can make an in-land refugee claim either through a port of entry or at a Citizenship and Immigration Canada CIC office.
Those making claims outside of Canada may be government-assisted refugees GAR or privately sponsored refugees.
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The Agreement for Canada—British Columbia Co-operation on Immigration CBCCI turned settlement services into a competitive process in which settlement services were pitted against other provincial and city social services and ranked for their quality and economic efficiency Sherrell, As a result, funds allotted to health care, housing, and employment services for in-land refugees have steadily declined over the past decade Francis, , The IFHP covers emergency hospitalization and restricted medical care as it relates to public health.
Hormone medications and medications for anxiety, depression, and other mental health risk conditions are still not covered. Hormone, anxiety, and depression medications can cost more than a hundred dollars per month, a considerable burden for those on a limited income. This erasure translates into legitimating laws and institutional practices that drastically reduce actual numbers of successful refugees through increased border restrictions, arbitrary detentions, and forced deportations, and the cutting of critical social and health services for in-land refugees.
Refugees are placed in positions of disempowerment, uncertainty, and isolation Macklin, ; Dawson, LGBT asylum seekers must overcome difficult odds to enter Canada and receive asylum on account of their marginalized position in society as sexual and gender minorities Jordan, Refugee claimants now have access to having some of their prescription medication covered, such as medication for diabetes or blood pressure.
These services are similar to what those receiving income assistance would receive. In order to prove persecution, sexual and gender minority claimants may have to inferiorize and pathologize their ethnic communities and home countries Murray, b, By focusing on persecution outside of Canada, the IRB can conveniently overlook the violence that many racialized and Indigenous LGBT and two-spirit persons face within the country.
The problem of violence 26""against sexual and gender minorities becomes a problem that is external to Canada.
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Queer theory deconstructs the supposed stability and naturalness of identity categories and norms around gender and sexuality Epprecht, By interrogating how gender and sexual norms and identities are socially constructed, queer theory works to challenge underlying heteronormativity that places heterosexuality and cisnormativity18 as the natural state of being Halperin, This is especially significant when refugees are all too often depicted as asexual or assumed to be heterosexual and cisgender in the majority of forced migration research LaViolette, State institutions normalize and naturalize heterosexuality and cisnormativity through immigration policies and procedures Cantu, , The denial of same-sex partner """""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""" """"""""""""""""""""18 Cisnormativity refers to the assumption that all individuals have a gender identity that matches the sex they were assigned to at birth.
Those whose gender identity does not match the sex and gender they were assigned to at birth are seen as deviant. Patriarchy and globalized inequality limit the mobility of women, trans persons, and sexual minorities. Refugees are sexualized and gendered beings. The kinds of violence experienced, their migration, and asylum are gendered and sexualized processes, whether a person is claiming asylum on the basis of ethnicity, religion, or political affiliations.
However, with so much attention in Western media and political discourse given to getting LGBT refugees out of other countries, the historical processes of colonialism and imperialism that cause LGBT persons to be forcibly displaced are ignored Haig-Brown, ; Razack, This not only silences the voices and complex experiences of LGBT refugees, but ignores how sexualities and genders are implicated for imperialistic, militaristic, and nationalistic aims Razack, ; Lamble, This narrative reinforces orientalist objectifications of peoples and cultures and further supports the myth of Western exceptionalism.
It also creates a postcolonial amnesia that erases how ongoing imperialism creates power hierarchies, vacuums, and inequalities between the Global North and Global South. Global economic superpowers in the twentieth century have simply redrawn old colonial maps of power and exchange in the interests of economic and capitalistic expansion Morton, , The social, political, and economic structures that were established during colonial rule continue to impact the cultural, political, and economic lives of the postcolonial world Spivak, Postcolonialism was first conceived by political theorists and historians as the historical period after colonial occupation and the establishment of independent states.
Since then the term postcolonialism has widened to incorporate more than the historical period after the independence of former colonized states. Postcolonialism cannot be seen as an all-encompassing or universalizing process or term. Postcolonialism must account for the specific historical processes and the manner in which colonialism has affected a particular population.
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At the same time, although there are distinct historical, geographical, political, social, and cultural differences between Western European and North American colonial empires, the colonies they created worldwide, and inside each individual colony, what can be shared is that colonization 30""fundamentally affects the social structures of both the colonizers and the colonized and altered their histories. Looking at LGBT refugee migration and settlement through a postcolonial lens pushes the recognition of factors that cause persecution to occur and the regulation of migration and asylum from the Global South to the Global North not as isolated or ahistorical events but instead as attached to ongoing systems of inequality and global apartheid brought on by imperialism Richmond, There is an enduring issue that centers on how subjectivity is shaped by postcolonial relations and ideologies: for none of us, whatever our heritage or current position, are outside of or immune from postcolonial relations, values, and belief systems , p.
The United Nations reports that there are forty-three million refugees in the world. Global economic, political, and social inequality, unrest, and deterioration have contributed to the increase in the number of asylum-seekers. As much as the number of refugees claiming asylum in North America and Western Europe is making national headlines, the reality is that the overwhelming majority of refugees are stopped from ever entering these areas.
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The situation that incoming LGBT refugees face when entering Canada and claiming asylum is connected to globalized geopolitical and economic systems of inequality historically rooted in imperialism and colonialism. The geopolitical and economic forces that contribute to the persecution of sexual and gender minorities are not recent developments, but instead are tied to historic and ongoing colonial and imperial processes and relationships.
Anne McClintock argues that gender and sexual dynamics were, from the outset, fundamental to the securing and maintenance of the imperial enterprise. Controlling gender and sexuality of the inhabitants was fundamental in the delegitimizing of local cultures and traditions by colonizers McClintock, Currently, seventy-five states worldwide criminalize same-sex sexuality, with punishments ranging from several years of imprisonment to immediate execution ILGA, The majority of these laws against same-sex sexuality are carryovers from colonial anti-sodomy laws that were never repealed and have since been further enforced Sanders, A case in point is the anti-homosexual propaganda law in Uganda that criminalizes not only sexual minorities for being public about their sexuality, but also non-government organizations who assist sexual and gender minorities.
Media attention and rhetoric by human rights organizations like Amnesty International have consistently condemned the anti-homosexual propaganda bill as a violation of human rights and a contributing factor to the persecution of sexual and gender minorities. Ugandan feminist, Sylvia Tamale, argues that Western research on sexuality in Africa continues to be steeped in racist, moralistic, and paternalistic thinking that ignores the complex and varied ways in which sexual and gender relationships, practices, and identities are shaped by social, economic, political, and cultural structures Tamale, , In order to avoid this, researchers cannot talk about homophobia, anti-queer violence, and anti-homosexual legislation in Africa without first recognizing the impact that European colonialism has had on 33""African sexual and gender minorities.
Same-sex sexualities and gender minorities in these regions were heavily regulated and violently silenced by colonial anti-sodomy and anti-bigamy legislation. These legislations were further supported by the indoctrination of homophobia, patrimony, gender and sexual binaries by Christian missionaries, colonial public education, health, and law.
Homosexuality and psychology
The unequal power and resources between the Global North and Global South reproduce established gender and sexuality hierarchies that in turn marginalize sexual and gender minorities and limit their mobility. To discuss persecution of sexual and gender minorities without understanding the historical and contextual mechanisms of imperialism and colonialism reinforces a post-colonial amnesia and further silences the ongoing colonial violence against LGBT refugees. Postcolonial queer theory challenges research on queer individuals and communities to interrogate colonial hierarchies and ongoing systems of oppression.
It calls on postcolonial research to address how sexuality and gender are intertwined in past and present colonial projects Hawley, Postcolonial queer theory also emphasizes alternative ways of knowing, constructing, and engaging with the world through the experiences and voices of individuals who are often marginalized. It encourages 34""researchers to further unravel narratives of queer migration by participating in dialogue with queer migrants themselves, asking them questions about identity and migration, power and place, oppression and resistance. Settlement can include a wide array of aspects, from access to material resources like food, clothing, and housing to discussions about integration and feelings of belonging.
Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
In order to provide a more defined perspective on settlement, I look at settlement through the lens of the feelings and experiences of home and belonging. I do not frame settlement as a linear process, a singular and solid event, or an end point separate from previous and ongoing experiences of migration and settlement. Instead, settlement is situated in the everyday attachments LGBT refugees make to national and geographical spaces inside and outside of their current locations.
Settlement comprises the attachments LGBT refugees make with the various ethnic, political, economic, sexual, and 35""gendered communities they interact with. Postcolonial theory and postcolonial queer theory assists my understanding of violence against LGBT persons and forced migration. It pushes me to be critical of how I frame certain issues around anti-queer violence and to be cautious of how my analysis may also be contributing to furthering colonial narratives of Western exceptionalism and a postcolonial amnesia.
It is a framework that I work with as both a scholar and an activist. Yet, it is also important to emphasize that as much as this work recognizes the critiques of postcolonial scholars and postcolonial queer theorists it is firmly based in the context of the stories of the here and now by the participants settling in a white colonial settler nation. This project is therefore not a postcolonial project as it is limited in its capacity to fully interrogate and dismantle larger ongoing and historical intersecting imperial discourses and power hierarchies.
Postcolonial and postcolonial queer theory influenced how I analyzed and presented the participants narratives 36""and stories by emphasizing their agency in the research and centering my analysis on their stories rather than on predetermined conclusions. It is my hope with this work that the voices presented in this text will provide counter-narratives that may in the future challenge national norms and political discourse around LGBT asylum in Canada.
Postcolonialism is useful in contextualizing the globalized imperial forces that regulate forced migration. However, it is limited in regards to understanding refugee settlement in the context of settler colonialism. Anne McClintock writes that postcolonialism in many cases is a premature celebration As a settler-colonial state, Canada is not postcolonial.
Settler colonialism in Canada revolves around the seizing and occupation of traditional territories from First Nations peoples. A significant component of settler colonialism is the spreading and enforcing of norms around white supremacy and exceptionalism onto Indigenous and settler populations that in turn is used to create a hierarchical system of subjects. Andrea Smith and Kim Anderson write that settler colonialism was and remains a gendered and sexualized system of violence.
The Indian Act stripped First Nations women of long-established rights and left them with fewer rights than First Nations men Anderson, ; First Nations women were categorically denied the right to vote in band elections, could not hold political office, and would be stripped of rights to their territories if they married a non-First Nations individual. It was not until the s that First Nations women regained the right to vote in provincial and federal elections. The forced removal of First Nations children into Indian Residential Schools was an effort by the Canadian state to destroy First Nations communities, by cutting them off 37""from their cultural centers and further diminishing the important status of First Nations women as caretakers and teachers Culhane, ; Turnel, The sexual and physical abuse the children experienced in these schools caused lasting trauma for generations.