Under the European Asylum Rainbow: Intersectional Queer Challenges 2020

COVID-19 & Queer Asylum is a virtual symposium featuring NGO representatives and lawyers working on queer asylum, LGBTQI+ activists and LGBTQI+ persons seeking asylum/refugees from Germany. The Symposium consists of three panels followed by a counseling forum lead by lawyers and LGBTQI+ asylum practitioners that allows for a Q&A around COVID-19 and LGBTQI+ asylum. 

This symposium is intended to provide a platform for discussing the manner in which such pandemic and its political responses affects a set of people who remain by and large invisible in discussions on COVID-19. While the current coronavirus pandemic increases the uncertainty about the future for most refugees, LGBTQI+ persons on the move are hit particularly hard. For LGBTQI+ refugees in Germany, as elsewhere in Europe, the extreme social isolation and the reliving of certain trauma as experienced in unsafe environments could cost them their mental and economic stability.  

The symposium will explore such questions as:

How does the COVID-19 crisis exacerbate isolation for LGBTQI+ refugees? How does such pandemic re-trigger trauma and affect the mental health of LGBTQI+ refugees? To what extent is access to community and health services compromised? How does COVID-19 strenthen solidarity and community? How do postponed asylum decisions and hearings affect LGBTQI+ persons everyday life? How does the lack of hygiene in cramped asylum camps particularly affect those with autoimmune deficiencies? 

ACCESSIBILITY:

This event is free and everyone is welcome. The event livestream will be available on the queereuropeanasylum.org website. The symposium will be recorded and made available here after the symposium. Please email any additional access needs to mengia.tschalaer@bristol.ac.uk.

More information about the conference and the schedule here. 

Overview

Panels
The first panel on isolation and trauma addresses the manner in which COVID-19 can exacerbate the isolation of LGBTQI+ persons seeking asylum and refugees and could potentially re-trigger trauma. What does social isolation/social distancing mean for LGBTQI+ refugees? How could COVID-19 re-trigger trauma and affect mental and physical health? What does safety mean for LGBTQI+ refugees in light of the pandemic? How does this affect work opportunities? How does COVID-19 affect visions of the future?

The second panel on access to community, health, and legal support seeks to initiate a conversation on how COVID-19 changes LGBTQI+ refugees access to community and social and legal support. What are the concerns that arise with COVID-19 as particularly refugees become increasingly cut off from social and legal services? What kind of community support is still there? What kind of health care is provided for LGBTQI+ refugees as opposed to citizens? What does this mean for trans* who are in need of their hormones and persons with HIV?

The third panel features a European perspective on COVID-19 and queer asylum: This panel intends to further a comparative perspective on COVID-19 and LGBTQI+ asylum. How have governments responded to the COVID-19 crisis as it relates to migration and asylum? How have such responses affected LGBTQI+ persons in different countries? What can we learn from the different practices that exists in different national contexts? How could such comparative perspective contribute to larger discussions on the Common European Asylum System?

Counseling Forum
The 60-minute Counseling Session on COVID-19 and Queer Asylum is an open forum where LGBTQI+ refugees and asylum seekers can either ask questions during the session via the ZOOM chat box or send them to us prior to the symposium using this form.

A Note from the Organizers
COVID-19 and Queer Asylum is an online event that takes place in lieu of the planned face-to-face conference ‘Under the European Asylum Rainbow: Queer Intersectional Challenges 2020” initially scheduled for 29th April 2020, now rescheduled to September 25, 2020. Find out more here. Instead of canceling the conference, we decided to initiate a conversation on how COVID-19 affects one of the most vulnerable minority group; LGBTQI+ persons seeking asylum and refugees.