Free publications and events on Asylum and Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity

The SOGICA project was completed in October 2020. We are sending this newsletter to give you the exciting news that the SOGICA book – actually books as it is in two volumes – has now been published (see below). It is open access, so please disseminate it widely and tell us what you think. We hope you enjoy it and see it as a valuable contribution to knowledge and also to European policy and practice in the area of SOGI asylum.

This is also an update on our other publications and events. Since the end of the project we have been busy working on articles and taking part in conferences and workshops to ensure our project findings are put to good use.


SOGICA publications

• Danisi, C., Dustin, M., Ferreira, N. and Held, N., ‘Queering asylum in Europe: Legal and social experiences of seeking international protection on grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity‘, Springer, 2021
• Danisi, C., Dustin, M., Ferreira, N., Held, N., and Querton, C. (eds.), Frontiers Research Topic ‘Sexuality, Gender and Asylum: Refugees at a Crossroads‘, 2021
• Danisi, C. and Ferreira, N., ‘Queering Asylum… or Human Rights in Europe?‘, ADIM blog, Editorial, February 2021
• Danisi, C. and Ferreira, N., ‘Legal Violence and (In)Visible Families: How Law Shapes and Erases Family Life in SOGI Asylum in Europe‘, Human Rights Law Review, 2021

• Dustin, M. and Ferreira, N., ‘Improving SOGI Asylum Adjudication: Putting Persecution Ahead of Identity‘, Refugee Survey Quarterly, 2021
• Dustin, M. and Held, N., ‘”They sent me to the mountain”: the role of space, faith and support groups for LGBTIQ+ asylum claimants’, in Richard Mole (ed.), Queer migration and asylum in Europe, UCL Press, 2021, pp. 184-215. 
• Ferreira, N., ‘An exercise in detachment: the Strasbourg Court and sexual minority refugees’, in Richard Mole (ed.), Queer migration and asylum in Europe, UCL Press, 2021, pp. 78-108.
• Ferreira, N. and Danisi, C., ‘Queering International Refugee Law’, in Cathryn Costello, Michelle Foster and Jane McAdam (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of International Refugee Law, OUP.
• Held, N. (forthcoming): ‘”As queer refugees, we are out of category, we do not belong to one, or the other”: LGBTIQ+ refugees’ experiences in “ambivalent” queer spaces’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Special Issue Queer Liberalisms and Marginal Mobility, 2021.

As usual, all publications by the SOGICA team and individual members can be found on the SOGICA website publications page. If you would like access to any of these publications and they are not publicly accessible, please email us and we will be happy to send them to you.


Forthcoming events

• C. Danisi and N. Ferreira, Legal violence and (in)visible families: How law shapes and erases families in SOGI asylum in Europe, UACES annual conference, 6-8 September 2021.
• C. Danisi and N. Ferreira, SOGI Asylum and (In)visible families, (Dis)connecting People? The law and practice of family reunification, Ghent, Belgium, 9-10 September 2021.

• N. Ferreira, presentation at ‘P v S at 25: Exploring LGBT rights at the Court of Justice of the European Union’, Annual SLS seminar, University of Bristol, 18-19 November 2021.
• N. Held, Roundtable Queer migrants & asylum seekers – Everyday bordering and negotiating belonging, GenSeM Online Symposium, 22-23 September 2021.

…. and previous events (in case you have missed them)

• Anbid Zaman, ‘”I don’t fit in anywhere. Where do you place me?” Pre-Summit on Refugees, Borders and Immigration, Copenhagen 2021 WorldPride & EuroGames, 19 August 2021.
• M. Dustin, N. Held and A. Zaman, Queer Asylum in Europe: Representation, Challenges and Activism, IASFM18, Ghana, 29 July 2021.
• M. Dustin, A journey to reconciliation? Asylum, religion and LGBTQI+ identities in the UK, IASFM18, Ghana, 29 July 2021.
• N. Ferreira, Conferência Intermédia Projeto Way Out – Aqui estás segur@ – Asilo e Migração LGBTI+ (panel member), 23 July 2021.
• N. Ferreira, Seeking asylum in Europe: Recommendations on sexual orientation and gender identity asylum claims, IPSA 26th World Congress of Political Science, Lisbon, Portugal, 10-14 July 2021.
• SOGICA team, participation in several sessions and co-chairing of a session in the event ‘2021 Global Roundtable on Protection and Solutions for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer (LGBTIQ+) Persons in Forced Displacement‘, organised by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the UN Independent Expert on Protection Against Violence and Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (UN IE SOGI) (by invitation).
• N. Ferreira, Queer asylum in Europe, at 4th International Congress of Law of Diversity, Brazilian Bar Association (São Paulo), 24 June 2021.
• N. Ferreira, participation at seminar ‘Credibility assessment in refugee status decision-making: Insights from law and psychology’, Royal Holloway University of London Centre for Study of Emotion and Law (CESL), 22 June 2021.
• SOGICA participation in the “News from Nowhere” exhibition, organised by SEAS (Socially Engaged Art Salon), Brighton & Hove – launch event on 13 June 2021, with N. Ferreira joining the panel of artists.

• SOGICA exhibition at the Jubilee Library, Brighton & Hove, 12-24 June 2021 – see the exhibition’s panels here.
• N. Held, Queer Asylum, Space and Intersectionality, lecture series ‘New Insights in Gender and Trans-Studies’, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, 7 June 2021.
• C. Danisi, Le richieste di asilo su base SOGI: la ricerca europea SOGICA, organised by Arcigay Napoli in cooperation with the Italian Government’s Office against Racial Discrimination – UNAR, 21 March 2021.
• C. Danisi and N. Ferreira, Le richieste di protezione internazionale basate sull’orientamento sessuale e sull’identita’ di genere: quali riforme?, roundtable hosted by Accademia Diritto e Immigrazione – ADIM in cooperation with UNHCR Italy, 10 February 2021.
• C. Danisi, ‘SOGICA recommendations on SOGI claims’, EASO Webinar on ‘Asylum procedures related to SOGI claims’, 2 February 2021.
• N. Ferreira, Seeking asylum in Europe: ‘European values’ and queer claims, in lecture series European values, citizenship and belonging, University of Antwerp, 16 December 2020.
• M. Dustin, member of panel on migrants’ experiences and intersectionality, University and College Union Migrant Members’ Annual Conference, 3 December 2020.
• C. Danisi, Le richieste basate sull’identità di genere: una sfida europea sui diritti umani, at Migrazioni Trans: Attivismo, Accoglienza, Ricerca, Festival Divergenti, Bologna, 26 November 2020.

• M. Dustin and N. Ferreira, ‘SOGICA recommendations on reception’, EASO Webinar on ‘Identification, outreach and reception of LGBTI applicants’, 25 November 2020.
• N. Held, Queer Asylum in Europe: Intersectional human rights challenges, UCLan Research Centre for Migration, Diaspora and Exile (MIDEX) research seminar, 7 October 2020. 

Please visit the events page of the website for further information about events over the course of the SOGICA project, including our final conference in July 2020.


Other resources
Since our last mailing, we have added a further 150 items to the SOGICA database which now contains more than 1,240 academic and NGO articles, official reports, case law decisions and other items.

The Life Stories section of our website contains some individual accounts of LGBTQI+ people claiming asylum. In this way, we hope to keep sight of the human cost of flawed asylum processes and provide a space for some of the people involved to share their experiences. If you are seeking international protection on sexual orientation or gender identity grounds, or have done so, feel free to send us contributions (by email to info@sogica.org) to be considered for publication on our website.


Finally …
Our thanks to all our newsletter subscribers and project friends and colleagues. It is wonderful to have had the opportunity to get to know so many of you. We are maintaining our website and our Twitter and Facebook accounts, and hope you will continue to use these to keep in touch with us. And we may well be in touch again in the future with more news about the SOGICA project and SOGI asylum in Europe…

Please feel free to email us with any questions you have about the SOGICA project, or any news which you would like to share.

Best wishes from Nuno, Carmelo, Moira and Nina at SOGICA