Enduring the Everyday: Necropolitics and the Lived Experiences of LGBTQ+ Asylum Seekers

Background and Purpose

Individuals who identify as LGBTQ+ face distinct challenges when seeking asylum–challenges often exacerbated by the state’s cisheteronormative structures. Because these structures affect asylum seekers differently depending on their intersecting social locations and identities, further understanding is needed for researchers, advocates, and policymakers to adequately address this diverse group's priorities. Drawing on Mbembé’s (2001) concept of necropolitics, this qualitative study examines how the state’s power to determine who is deemed disposable or less deserving of support shapes the everyday experiences of LGBTQ+ asylum seekers in England and Wales, which like the United States is a common destination site for people seeking asylum due to persecution of their sexual or gender identity and also relies on necropower to drive immigration policy (Shaw & Verghese, 2022).

Methods

This study was conducted as a collaboration between a U.S.-based university and a community-based NGO serving LGBTQ+ people who seek asylum in the UK. Data collection took place between January and April 2023, as part of a larger project examining the impact of legal aid cuts on this population. We used purposive sampling, with the partner NGO distributing study announcements through its networks and allowing for participant referrals. In total, we conducted 26 qualitative interviews: nine with LGBTQ+ individuals seeking asylum and 17 with legal, social, and mental health providers experienced in supporting this population. We employed constructivist grounded theory and a team-based coding approach, identifying and working through themes through consensus. The analysis was guided and deepened by the sensitizing concept of necropower.

Results

Four themes emerged from the data: (1) Being trapped at the mercy of the state; (2) Perpetuating dehumanization through restricted agency; (3) Relying on informal supports (if they can be found); and (4) “I was always my hero:” Drawing on one’s strength to resist and persist. These themes illustrate how participants experienced necropower, often shaped by their positionality and intersecting social identities in differential and nuanced ways. The data revealed a process through which necropower fuels hostile immigration policies, generating conditions of migration-related stigma that shape the daily lives of LGBTQ+ asylum seekers. Despite these conditions, the findings highlight how participants exercised agency to resist the effects of pervasive stigma and structural harm.

Conclusion and Implications

This study adds to existing literature by illuminating how xenophobia is deeply intertwined with the workings of a cisheteronormative state, one that produces hostile conditions in which certain lives are treated as disposable. Findings are relevant to the U.S., which like the U.K., is commonly seen as a destination site for people seeking asylum, particularly those fleeing persecution due to their sexual or gender identity. Amid ongoing shifts in U.S. immigration and LGBTQ+ policy landscapes, this study highlights a group often excluded from mainstream immigration narratives and underscores the urgent need for policies and practices that resist retraumatization and uphold the dignity of all people seeking asylum.