I had some problems back home with a big group of people and it was not safe for me there anymore so I had to run away : How LGBT asylum seekers move

• Main Author: Östlund, Rosanna
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Stockholms universitet, Kulturgeografiska institutionen 2016
• Subjects: Residental mobility; LGBT; Asylum seekers; Migration; Forced migration; Homophobia; Social network; Freedom
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-131386

Due to the increased number of the amount of asylum-seekers that have migrated to Sweden lately, the topic has received increased attention. This has contributed to housing shortage and policy reforms for new migrants to arise in order to ensure that everybody gets housing. Asylum seekers often experience more difficult patterns to housing, and for LGBT asylum seekers especially since they are such a marginalised group in our society already. Housing is an important part in the initial settlement stage and good housing enables successful resettlement and that will help with the integration process. The aim of this thesis is to look at LGBT asylum seekers mobility and what constrains and opportunities they face in that process. To answer these questions qualitative method and semi-structured life story interviews have been performed with twelve LGBT asylum seekers. The result of these interviews has been presented around four different concepts that were factors contributing to their mobility. These four concepts that were found in the interviews was forced migration, homophobia, social network and freedom. These findings should be of interest for further studies in order for LGBT asylum seekers mobility patters to become more safe and secure.