Conference Programme (PDF, 1019KB) - Trinity College Dublin

abstracts by stream and session
Session 6h Identity
Sexing Up Migration Studies : Homosexual Identity and Stigma Management in Contemporary Migration Flows to Belgium
Wim Peumans, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium
This paper will focus on an exploratory ethnographic study on homosexual and lesbian immigrants of first generation in Belgium. The
objective was to question the heteronormativity of migration studies through an intersectional approach. Although migration scholars
have frequently treated the issues of ‘race’/ethnicity, class and gender within migration processes, sexuality is generally not a topic of
interest.
Concerning methodology, the narrative method was employed. The aim of this inductive method is to gain an understanding of the
perceptions of participants of specific life experiences. Data collection was done through semi-structured in-depth interviewing and
participant observation in a support group for queer asylum seekers and refugees.
Two research questions were central: Firstly, in what way was migration used as a stigma management strategy? Or put differently,
what role did their sexuality play in the decision to migrate? Secondly, what was the influence of migration on their sexual identity and
the choice of stigma management strategies employed? The results of the study showed that most participants fell under the category
‘sexual migrant’. The influence of migration on their sexual identity was very diverse. For those who used migration consciously as
a stigma management strategy, the difference between life in the land of origin and arrival was often considerable. For all of them
migration brought along the freedom for which they had hoped. The participants from countries where homosexuality was strongly
intolerated legally and culturally, disposed in Belgium of a wider choice of stigma management strategies. For some however Belgium
stood for (nearly) complete freedom, while for others there was more freedom, but this was strongly limited by experiences with
discrimination and exclusion. The limitations of their freedom were strongly variable depending on the intersectionality of ethnicity/ ‘race’,
class and citizenship status. The absence of legal recognition with the adjacent low socio-economic position, living in neighbourhoods
where certain ethnic minority groups live (of which some members are hostile towards homosexuality) and the dependence of ethnic
solidarity led to more discrimination and exclusion. Furthermore belonging to a certain ethnic group/ ‘race’ led to more discrimination
within the gay world and the world outside.
Transnational migrant identity and networks: the case of migrants from the former Soviet Union in Portugal
Demyan Belyaev, Lusophone University of Humanities and Technologies, Portugal
The process of globalisation has turned international migration into a constantly growing phenomenon around the world. Different
to countries with long immigration traditions, for Europe this is still a fairly recent experience, which in addition is highly unequally
distributed across various European countries. Some countries, those with colonial pasts, have already lived with people coming from
other cultures for decades, while for others it is still a novelty that only became noticeable 10-15 years ago.
Whenever migration becomes a subject of public discussion, it is usually assumed that the primary motives behind the migration decision
are mostly economic in nature. Politicians, economists and social scientists alike tend to analyze migration in the first place in terms of
its impact on the labour market in host countries, migrant employment patterns, need for adjustment of regulatory policies etc. However,
along with economic reasons, the family also plays an important role in migration processes, and more so when it concerns not simply
the economic, but also the social and cultural impact of migrants on both sending and receiving societies.
Family-driven migration can take various forms, from reunification with one of the family members (usually male) who temporarily
migrated for economic reasons some time ago, over interethnic marriages to return to the country of the family’s historical origin (for
example, the case of so called “Russian Germans”, ethnic Germans who are in fact bearers of Russian culture and migrated to Germany
in large numbers in 1990s and 2000s).
Different to a single-person migration for work or study purposes which often turns out to be temporary, family-driven migration tends to
have a more permanent character. This kind of migration also brings with it a stable set of social and cultural traits which then interact
with the traits of the host society, both within the migrant family and outside of it. Migrants often end up feeling they “belong to nowhere”:
in part maintaining their original culture and social structures and in part replacing them with those of the host society, they become
“transnational” or “transcultural” persons.
From this theoretical perspective, the paper analyzes the experience of transnational migrants from the former Soviet Union in Portugal.
In the 1990s, collapse of the Soviet Union and rapid economic growth achieved by Portugal owing to abundant financial support from the
EU created a situation in which tens of thousands of Russians, Ukrainians and Moldovans chose to move to Portugal for work and life.
Obviously, such migration involved a radical change of social and cultural milieu and posed a number of serious challenges.
This paper focuses on the social, economic and cultural situation of migrants from the former Soviet Union in Portugal today, after over
a decade of stay in this country. Based on a recent survey of Russian-speaking migrants in Portugal, it seeks to reconstruct how their
identities are being shaped and how far they have managed to adjust to the host country environment from social and cultural point of
view. Keeping in mind the integration challenge, the paper also addresses the question in what areas these migrants’ integration into the
host society has been successful, in what it has not occurred and in what it can be best described precisely by their “transnational” status.
Finally, the paper explains the structure of the social networks in which these migrants are involved and what functions these networks
fulfil for them.
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