Resources

This report examines the impact on LGBT asylum seekers in Canada of federal Bill C-31 (December 2012) and the resulting Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act, as well as other recent changes. It explores Canada’s international obligations, Canadian LGBT refugee jurisprudence, stereotyping, credibility assessment, resettlement, refugee health care and concludes with recommendations.

This 2015 report from the Envisioning Global LGBT Human Rights research project looks at the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) asylum seekers living in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) and the experiences of community service providers. It offers 37 recommendations for improving policies and services. For the research, eight community partners organized focus groups with 92 asylum seekers, and service provider focus groups were also held. The research was conducted in 2012-2014, a time of significant change in Canada’s immigration and refugee system.

This article suggests that there are reasons to be concerned about the way relationship history impacts credibility assessments for refugee claims based on sexual orientation. Decision makers’ written assessments often reveal insufficient consideration of the psychosocial barriers that may impinge on sexual minority refugees’ ability to testify on their relationships. The multinational and multicultural setting of refugee-status proceedings poses unique challenges for sexual minority refugee claimants in having their membership in a particular social group established. Understanding and expressing sexual identity spans cultural divides, and therefore, a claimant’s expressed identity may not match the decision maker’s expectations. Notions of love and intimacy may also be culturally construed, and therefore expectations of how these notions manifest in long-term relationships may be inappropriate in the context of refugee status determination.

The article attempts to canvass the potential pitfalls of Canadian adjudication methods in cases of sexual minority refugee claimants, and to propose recommendations for evaluating testimony and evidence of these relationships. 

A change in Canadian immigration law, one can lose both their refugee status and Permanent Residence if the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) decides that they accepted the protection of their home country (known as “re-availment”) and therefore that their refugee status should be removed (known as “cessation” of refugee status).  The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is actively looking for cases in which they can argue that refugees have accepted the protection of their home country.

Paper prepared for the Refugee Protection Division of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada as part of a professional development session on sexual orientation, gender identity and the refugee determination process. This paper reviews developments and issues specific to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and intersex refugees and the Canadian inland refugee determination process. 

In "No Place for Me: the Struggles of Sexual and Gender Minority Refugees", lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) urban refugees in Mexico, Uganda and South Africa tell their stories in their own powerful voices. By ORAM (Organization for Refuge, Asylum, & Migration) International.