This thesis investigates the experiences and strategies of queer migrants seeking asylum in Sweden due to sexuality and/or gender identity. By conducting ethnographic fieldwork and biographical interviews within the RFSL Newcomers support network, the thesis analyses how queer migrants navigate the Swedish asylum apparatus. Building on recent research in queer migration studies, it explores how power relations related to class, gender and race affect queer migrants’ strategies. Applying Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network theory, the thesis furthermore analyses the queer migrants in an actor network together with RFSL Newcomers and the asylum apparatus as independent actors. This thesis additionally aims to contribute to the sociological debate on categorization and construction of identity using Ian Hacking’s concept of the looping effect. Lack of social capital, of not having the right networks, gendered possibilities of visibility and speaking about sexuality can establish obstacles for queer migrants in the credibility assessment and the success of the asylum claim. The asymmetric power relation forces queer migrants into conflicting strategies. Forced visibility and hyper hiding are strategies that are specifically produced in relation to the asylum apparatus creating gendered risk and precarious living conditions. This thesis concludes that queer migrants and the RFSL Newcomers network, in their asylum activism both challenge the asylum apparatus and Western narratives of LGBTQ identity. Nevertheless, RFSL and the queer migrants become complicit in the production of official essentialistic LGBTQ identities when navigating the asylum apparatus. By exploring the Swedish context of LGBTQ asylum and categorization of LGBTQ identity in the asylum process, this thesis contributes to the somewhat undertheorized field of queer migration in Swedish academia.

Pour beaucoup de Thaïlandais, les pays occidentaux représentent la richesse, le développement et la modernité. Comme les hommes et les femmes Thaïlandais, les kathoeys ou les personnes transgenres MTF (male-to-female) Thaïlandaises cherchent aussi à partir à l'étranger en espérant réussir leur vie. Cette étude anthropologique, basée sur un travail de terrain dans quatre pays européens : France, Allemagne, Pays-Bas et Suisse, tente de donner une vision globale de la migration des kathoeys et leur lutte pour une meilleure vie dans leur pays d'accueil. Cette recherche considère leur processus migratoire comme une quête de soi, une recherche d'un bien-être et de la vie dont elles rêvent, ce qui n'est pas seulement économique, mais aussi sentimental et personnel : possibilités de devenir une femme, de trouver un partenaire et d'avoir une relation de couple, possibilités de changer leur statut légal etc. Différentes formes d'échanges économiques-sexuels-affectifs entre les kathoeys et leurs partenaires Européens doivent être pris en compte comme faisant partie de leurs stratégies migratoires, ce qui peut contribuer à améliorer leur condition économique et sociale, et les aider à accomplir leur quête intime personnelle et sentimentale. / For many in Thailand, Western Countries evoke visions of wealth, development, and modernity. Like other Thai men and women, kathoeys or transgender MTF persons also strive to go abroad and to attain the life they dream of in the West. This anthropological research, based on three-years of fieldwork in four European countries: France, Germany, The Netherlands, and Switzerland, aims at giving a full account of Thai kathoeys' settlement conditions and shows how they struggle throughout their lives and in terms of their gender. This study, drawn from interviews, discussions, and observations, considers kathoeys' migration process as a search for their own well-being and lifestyle that they long for, which is concerned not only with economical necessities, but also sentimental needs i.e. the possibilities of becoming a woman, finding a partner and having a relationship, or changing their legal status etc. The analytical part of this research explores different strategies, such as the identity camouflage or the mobilization of their social transnational relations which kathoey migrants adopt to be able to live normally as women in their new social environment. The different forms of economical-sexual-emotional relationships between kathoey migrants and European men need to be understood as a part of their migration strategy which gives them a chance to improve their economic and social status as well as to achieve their quest for intimacy.

This dissertation analyzes narratives of queer partner migration, that is, a family-tie migration in which one of the partners of a relationship has migrated in order for the partners to be together, and where the partners queer the migration in the sense that they have a non-normative sexuality and/or gender identity. The purpose of the study is to examine how queer partner migrants and their Swedish partners experience the migration process – which continues also once the administrative process has been completed – by analyzing the emotions and feelings that emerge in the process. The study is a contribution to research on privileged migration as well as intimate migration. The focus is the queer partner migration relationship, and what emotions and feelings ‘do’ to this relationship, but also how emotions and feelings structure the migration process. The study analyzes the work three different emotions – love, loss, and belonging – do in these migration processes, and how this work is described in the participant narratives. Migrant participants have migrated from different parts of the world (Africa, Europe, Latin America, and North America), making it possible to analyze what emotions and feelings do in this particular migration process from the point of view of nationality and, in particular, proximity to ‘Western-ness,’ race, and language as well as how privileges connected to these positions come to matter in the process. The dissertation is an ethnographic interview study in which both migrants and Swedish partners have been interviewed. The interview material consists of a combination of couple interviews and individual interviews. By using affect theories and the concept of queer phenomenology, the dissertation shows how the work that emotions and feelings do in migration processes is connected to gender identity, sexual identity, race and whiteness, nationality, perceived proximity to Western-ness, class, language, and the migration narrative the migrating partner is (or is not) written into by way of the country they have migrated from. This is analyzed in relation to the theoretical frameworks of entanglement, homonationalism, and intimate citizenship. The analysis shows that emotions and feelings structure the migration process for both more privileged and less privileged migrants, but in different ways. The understanding of who ‘is’ a migrant, and the preparedness for the feelings that arise in a migration process, are tied to the positions mentioned above and the privileges these positions give, or do not give, the migrant access to. By focusing on emotions and feelings and what these do, the study also illustrates how the migration process affects the non-migrating partner as this partner engages in emotional labour to ‘make’ the migrating partner ‘Swedish.’ Through their the migrating partner, the non-migrating partner is also aligned in a way that makes them a little bit less ‘Swedish,’ contributing to the non-migrating partner being ‘stopped’ in ways they have usually not experienced before. The study further shows how migration processes produces inequality, and the difficulties that arise when the couples try to live up to the Swedish ideal of the equal relationship. The interviews are analyzed as narratives, and both narratives and storytelling are important throughout the dissertation, not only as the method used in the analysis but as the form of the dissertation, making it a kind of super structure organizing the writing. Writing (how to write accessibly and interesting) and reading (how to write in order to invite an open and active reading) are important aspects of the dissertation. / Avhandlingen analyserar narrativ om queer partnermigration, dvs en familjebandsmigration i vilken en av de två personerna i ett parförhållande migrerar för att de två ska kunna leva i samma land och i vilken de två individerna queerar migrationen på så sätt att de har en icke-normativ sexualitet och/eller könsidentitet. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur queera partnermigranter och deras svenska partners upplever migrationsprocessen – vilken pågår även efter att den administrativa processen är avslutad – genom att analysera de känslor som uppstår i processen. Studien är ett bidrag till forskning om så väl privilegierad migration som intim migration. I fokus står det queera partnermigrationsförhållandet och vad känslor ”gör” med detta förhållande, men också hur känslor strukturerar migrationsprocessen på olika sätt. Studien analyserar det arbete tre olika känslor – kärlek, förlust och tillhörighet – gör i migrationsprocessen och hur detta arbete beskrivs i deltagarnas narrativ. Migrantdeltagarna i studien kommer från olika delar av världen (Afrika, Europa, Latinamerika och Nordamerika), vilket gör det möjligt att analysera vad känslor gör i den här specifika migrationsprocessen utifrån nationalitet, och specifikt närhet till västerländskhet, ras och språkbakgrund samt hur privilegier kopplade till dessa positioner spelar in i processen. Avhandlingen är en etnografisk intervjustudie där både migranter och svenska partners har intervjuats. Intervjumaterialet består av en blandning av parintervjuer och enskilda intervjuer. Genom att använda affektteorier och queer fenomenologi visar avhandlingen hur det arbete känslor utför i migrationsprocesser är kopplat till könsidentitet, sexuell identitet, ras och vithet, nationalitet, upplevd närhet till västerländskhet, klass, språk och det migrationsnarrativ den migrerande partnern är inskriven i (eller inte) genom det land den migrerat från. Detta analyseras i relation till de teoretiska ramverken trassel (entanglement), homonationalism och intimt medborgarskap. I analysen framkommer att känslor strukturerar migrationsprocessen för både mer privilegierade och mindre privilegierade migranter men på olika sätt. Förståelsen av vem som ”är” en migrant och beredskapen för de känslor som uppstår i migrationsprocessen är till stor del kopplade till de positioner som nämns ovan samt de privilegier migranten har tillgång till genom dessa. Genom att fokusera på känslor och vad dessa gör visar studien också att migrationsprocessen påverkar den icke-migrerande partnern genom att denna förutsätts utföra känsloarbete för att ”göra” den migrerande partnern ”svensk.” Samtidigt blir den icke-migrerande partnern själv, genom sin migrerande partner, riktad på ett sätt som gör den lite mindre ”svensk”, vilket bidrar till att också den icke-migrerande partnerns liv ”stoppas” på sätt den vanligtvis inte tidigare upplevt. Studien visar vidare på hur migrationsprocesser producerar ojämlikhet och de svårigheter som då uppstår när paren försöker leva upp till det jämlika svenska idealförhållandet. Intervjuerna är analyserade som narrativ och både narrativ och berättande är genomgående viktiga i avhandlingen, inte bara som metod utan också som avhandlingens form och en slags struktur som organiserar texten. Skrivande (att skriva tillgängligt och intressant) och läsande (att skriva på ett sätt som inbjuder till öppet och aktivt läsande) är viktiga aspekter i avhandlingen.

In recent years, the field of queer asylum studies has slowly been expanding in different contexts across the world, with numerous methodologies and various topics of focus. In Sweden, the academic work in this area has mainly focused on legal perspectives. Providing a different perspective, this thesis examines the situation and experiences of LGBTQ asylum seekers and refugees in Linköping, Sweden through a community-based collage project. It examines how collages can be used as a method for research and a tool for community building within this context, and explores the experiences of LGBTQ asylum seekers and refugees in Linköping, Sweden, using individual and group collages. Using the concept of bricolage, the thesis ties together various artworks with short narratives and analytical interpretations. Together, they form a fragmented, in itself collage-like insight into this community. Through these fragments, the thesis reflects on the themes of migration, belonging, survival, and identity. Additionally, it explores questions of home, family, refugeeness, mess, homonormativity and representation. I argue that commonly used narratives of migration often do not fit this group, as they face highly complex forms of oppression based on their intersecting identities. Furthermore, the thesis examines the use of collage as a method by looking into the ways collage can negotiate methodological issues like accessibility and researcher accountability, how it can function as a tool for community building, and how it can be used to allow a community researcher to negotiate their positionality in an easier way. I argue that the use of collage has many benefits and that the use of the collage method in this thesis has enriched the research.

Ce mémoire se consacre à l’étude de l’expérience du parrainage conjugal, dans ses dimensions affectives et incorporées et les impacts que cette démarche opère sur les individus et le couple. La catégorie de parrainage conjugal (qui se divise en 3 sous-catégories en fonction du « statut conjugal du couple ») est une catégorie d’immigration qui défie les limites privé/public et intimité/institutions, car elle repose sur une exposition intime de la relation (dans le cadre d’un dossier recoupant des « preuves de relation ») dont le but est de prouver son authenticité. Ce dévoilement effectué par les couples se fait dans le cadre normé et codifié d’une procédure légale, procédure par ailleurs remplie de contraintes. En prenant comme point de départ la rencontre entre l’État et les couples, il s’agit de dresser une analyse de l’expérience de cette catégorie d’immigration pour les couples lesbo-queers. De fait, ce mémoire part du constat que la migration de couple n’aborde que très peu les migrations de couples non-hétérosexuels, lorsque les études d’immigration queer se consacrent surtout aux parcours migratoires individuels. Or, avec l’ouverture au début des années 2000 du parrainage conjugal aux couples non-hétérosexuels au Canada (LaViolette 2004), et la croissante suspicion dont sont sujets les couples passant par le parrainage (Geoffrion 2018 ; D’Aoust 2014), il apparait intéressant de questionner comment les modalités de cette procédure agissent dans la vie des couples qui y sont confrontés. En étant une catégorie qui repose sur l’évaluation des relations conjugales allant de légitimes à illégitimes, d’authentiques à frauduleuses, il est porteur d’étudier comment cette expérience normative est vécue par les couples – lesbo-queers en particulier. Cette recherche se base sur les récits de vie de sept personnes ayant été parrainées dans le cadre de relations lesbo-queers, et vise à questionner les effets affectifs, matériels, symboliques que les modalités du parrainage opèrent sur les couples. Cette recherche invite à approfondir les enjeux sous-tendus par cette rencontre singulière entre les couples et l’État, suivant une perspective queer. / This thesis is devoted to the study of the experience of spousal sponsorship, in its affective and embodied dimensions and the impacts that this process has on individuals and the couple. The category of conjugal sponsorship (which is divided into 3 sub-categories according to the "conjugal status of the couple") is an immigration category that defies private/public and privacy/institutional boundaries, as it relies on an intimate exposure of the relationship (in the context of a file of "relationship evidence") whose purpose is to prove its authenticity. The disclosure made by the couples is done within the normed and codified framework of a legal procedure, a procedure that is also full of constraints. Taking as a starting point the encounter between the State and the couples, the aim is to analyze the experience of this immigration category for lesbo-queer couples. In fact, this thesis starts from the observation that couple migration only very rarely addresses the migration of non-heterosexual couples, when queer immigration studies are mainly devoted to individual migratory paths. However, with the opening of conjugal sponsorship to non-heterosexual couples in Canada in the early 2000s (LaViolette 2004), and the growing suspicion of which couples going through sponsorship are subject (Geoffrion 2018; D’Aoust 2014), it seems interesting to question how the modalities of this procedure act in the lives of the couples facing it. Being a category that relies on the evaluation of marital relationships ranging from legitimate to illegitimate, from authentic to fraudulent, it is a carrier to study how this normative experience is lived by couples - lesbo-queer in particular. This research is based on the life stories of seven people who have been sponsored within the framework of lesbo-queer relationships, and aims to question the affective, material and symbolic effects that the modalities of sponsorship have on the couples. This research invites to deepen the stakes underlying this singular meeting between the couples and the State, according to a queer perspective.