Double Precarity: The Intersecting Vulnerabilities of LGBTQ+ Asian Migrants

• In Event: Sociology of LGBTQ+ Rights in Times of Crisis

Abstract

While scholarship on queer migration has examined the intersection of sexuality and migration, much of this work has centered on those who moved for reasons related to their sexuality—seeking safety, refuge, or sexual liberation—leaving LGBTQ+ migrants who moved for other reasons, such as work or education, underexplored. Previous studies on migrants’ intimate relationships, meanwhile, have largely focused on heteronormative relationships, overlooking LGBTQ+ migrants. Drawing on the concept of liminal legality, this paper addresses these gaps by examining how LGBTQ+ Asian migrants navigate their intimate relationships under the double vulnerability of precarious legal status and threats to LGBTQ+ rights under intensified enforcement.
This paper analyzes narratives collected from first and 1.5 generation Asian migrants who self-identified as LGBTQ+ living in the Greater New York Metropolitan area (N=18). Asian migrants of liminal legal statuses are living under intensified enforcement under Trump’s administration. In this intensified immigration enforcement era, LGBTQ+ Asian migrants who face immigration enforcement pressures contend with another level of vulnerability due to their sexuality. Given the current political climate that has raised questions of safety for migrants of various legal statuses, this study focuses on those with liminal legal status—a population that is seemingly privileged relative to undocumented migrants, yet whose precarity becomes heightened when their legal belonging depends on the political stability of LGBTQ+ rights. This paper examines how these migrants who migrated for reasons other than safety, refuge, and sexual liberation are faced with multiple layers of vulnerability, focusing on their intimate relationships and family formation. I argue that (1) their immigration status motivates the timing of their decision to marry, (2) their sexuality in turn heightens their fear related to immigration status, and (3) despite the double vulnerability, family and community acceptance of their sexuality mitigates the effects of their everyday precarity.

Author

• Yeeun Hong, University at Albany, SUNY