Résumé. SOGI asylum has received increa­sing poli­tical and academic atten­tion. Focu­sing on refugee status deter­mi­na­tion, acade­mics have empha­sized how norma­tive repre­sen­ta­tions of sexual and gender mino­ri­ties in Northern asylum insti­tu­tions lead to the exclu­sion of many SOGI asylum appli­cants. To broaden the unders­tan­ding of queer people’s expe­riences of forced migra­tion and asylum, this paper shifts atten­tion to what happens just before the asylum exami­na­tion, namely the fact of applying for SOGI asylum itself. Based on 3 years’ ethno­gra­phic field­work, this research inves­ti­gates how queer exiles come to apply for SOGI asylum in France. By empha­si­zing the variety of factors, besides their expe­riences of perse­cu­tion, leading them to apply for SOGI asylum, this paper decom­part­men­ta­lizes asylum from below, dena­tu­ra­li­zing the cate­gory of LGBT+ refu­gees by rein­ser­ting the asylum appli­ca­tion into more general and diver­si­fied indi­vi­dual expe­riences of migra­tion. Doing so, it also coun­ters libe­ra­tio­nist and huma­ni­ta­rian narra­tives asso­ciated with SOGI asylum seekers.

See the dedi­cated page on Journal of Refugee Studies website.