Tschalär, Mengia, ‘The Recognition of Lesbian Refugee Protection Claims within the European Union’s Asylum Regime’, 2025

Tschalär, Mengia, ‘The Recognition of Lesbian Refugee Protection Claims within the European Union’s Asylum Regime’ (21 Aug. 2025), in Gökce Yurdakul, and others (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Intersectional Approaches to Migration, Gender, and Sexuality (online edn, Oxford Academic, 24 June 2025 – ).

Abstract

In the European Union (EU), research has highlighted that asylum claims by lesbian-identifying womxn face disproportionately high rejection rates, both during initial interviews and in court proceedings. This pattern indicates significant challenges for lesbian asylum seekers in substantiating the violence they experience based on their sexuality and gender identity as grounds for refugee protection. While there is a growing body of literature examining how sexuality and gender identity are assessed in LGBTQI+ asylum claims, the specific legal vulnerabilities faced by lesbian asylum seekers remain underexplored. This chapter addresses the experiences of lesbian asylum claimants within the context of current EU migration and asylum policies, which increasingly prioritize fast-tracking and outsourcing asylum procedures to unsafe third countries such as Libya, Türkiye, and Rwanda. It argues that these restrictive antimigration policies exacerbate the marginalization of lesbian-identifying womxn, whose experiences of violence and trauma are often rendered invisible within (inter)national asylum systems.