Transgender asylum seekers are transgender people seeking refuge in other countries (or legally distinct regions such as states) due to stigmatization or persecution in their home country. Transgender people oftentimes flee due to dangerous living conditions and discrimination.
Because of their gender non-conformity, transgender asylum seekers face elevated risks to their mental and physical health. Transgender asylum seekers encounter greater challenges in comparison to cisgender asylum seekers those whose gender identity is the same as their sex assigned at birth. The challenges transgender asylum seekers face include higher risks of physical and sexual assault, torture, "conversion therapy" practices, and forced isolation. Research shows that transgender migrants and asylum seekers face intersecting forms of discrimination—related to their being both transgender and migrant people—that can generate health risks for members of the community because of how their "lives [...] are continuously upended by oppressive policies." As a result, transgender people face challenges in the asylum process not experienced by others.
As defined in the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a refugee or asylum seeker is any "person owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion ... [or] membership [to] a particular social group [that cannot] avail himself of the protection of that country" which does not include discrimination on the basis of sex. , there are only 37 countries across the globe that provide asylum to individuals out of concern that they may be persecuted for their sexual orientation and/or gender identity in their country of origin. Only a few of these countries consistently and methodically carry out studies that include sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) measures within their collections of demographic data. Because of this, the pool from which one can collect generalizable information about the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants is extremely limited.
In the US, gender-based discrimination laws are based on the experiences of cisgender women, therefore, transgender migrants are forced to undergo rigid asylum processes that exclude their identities. Additionally, their experiences are not encompassed because the "refugee experience" has been seen through Eurocentric terms due to standardized term and definition of the refugee following World War 2 and it is also a broad category.
For example, asylum claims made by transgender refugees are considered under the basis of persecution because of their involvement in a particular social group in the U.S. This requirement means that membership to a social group is not enough in order to claim asylum, but that refugees must prove that they have been persecuted because of their social group's standing in order to be granted refuge. Transgender asylum seekers are required to provide "proof of gender transition" which reproduces harmful ideas of gender binaries.
The growing restrictive asylum policies and processes include increased periods of mandatory detention and extended processing times. Due to longer processing times, transgender migrants are forced to remain in detention centers while they wait and experience sexual assault due to facilities separated by gender binaries. As a result, transgender asylum seekers are required to navigate complex legal procedures and experience trauma throughout the process.
These processes result in high levels of mental and physical distress as refugees navigate the asylum process.
Countries of origin Transgender persons may have experienced "severe persecution" in the countries they have fled, even where anti-transgender laws do not exist. Regardless of anti-transgender laws, the strict gender norms that exist in many countries, associating masculinity exclusively with men and femininity exclusively with women, perpetuate the violence faced by transgender refugees. Because transgender people often move away from identifying with their sex assigned at birth, or feel as if their gender is fluid, many transgender refugees face persecution, discrimination, and transphobia in their home countries. The stigmatization and violence faced by this group of refugees can take place in a range of places, including within the home, the workplace, with health care providers, or simply from the general population.
Research shows that transgender individuals experience greater socioeconomic disadvantages, more exposure to traumatic events, and more stressors than cisgender individuals within their home countries. These individuals also often face multiple forms of stigmatization related to their employment, health care access, housing, and other areas of life. A document review of asylum applications of Mexican transgender refugees revealed several common themes, focusing on stressors experienced, health consequences of these stressors, and services accessed by transgender asylum seekers. In their place of origin, Mexico, each asylum seeker faced some levels of verbal, physical, and sexual assault, an unstable environment, fear for their safety and security, and economic insecurity.
Transgender asylum seekers seek refuge from many parts of the world.
Mexico The report states that "[w]hile living in Mexico ... verbal assaults often started at a very early age and continued until they escalated to physical assault." Most asylum seekers within the study reported numerous physical assaults by peers, family members, and authority figures, and many reported sexual assaults that started in their early teens.
For example, one asylum seeker explained how "[In Mexico] [m]y father always rejected me throughout my childhood . . . He beat me a lot. He beat me with his hands, kicked me a lot, and often [used] whatever he could find around him to beat me. I lived in fear for my life around my father... because he wanted to have sons that acted like men not women." Focusing on the violence faced because of gender norms, this asylum seeker describes violence within her own household. While living in Mexico, many asylum seekers also reported being kicked out of their homes or fleeing because of violent family members, and many reported living on the streets or with anyone who would take them in. In addition, asylum seekers reported moving multiple times to escape harassment, discrimination, and abuse or to find a more LGBTQ-inclusive environment, creating a lot of environmental instability.
A 2020 public health review determined that transgender women seeking asylum from Mexico were fleeing a situation of "extreme vulnerability." Finally, each asylum seeker reported leaving Mexico because of extreme fear of violence and death since many of them had friends who, because of their identities, were beaten, raped, or even murdered. This report shows the high levels of mental and physical stressors of transgender asylum seekers within their home countries.
Central America
In 2017, Amnesty International released a report on LGBTI people seeking asylum in Mexico, describing El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras as being "no safe place" for transgender people. The countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras form part of the Northern Triangle which is a region in Latin America that is experiences high rates of violence, unemployment, and low levels of economic opportunities due to prolonged instability fueled by US intervention. Alongside the conditions of violence and repression Central American societies produce, transgender individuals face discrimination in employment. Transgender asylum seekers encounter higher rates of hate crimes and homophobia in their countries of origin in Central America due to the machismo and misogyny within Central American societies. For example, maras in Central America have been found to perpetrate hate crimes against transgender migrants by cutting of their hair, which symbolizes transition, in order to strip them from their dignity. As such, Central American transgender migrants can only attain safety from these forces by becoming asylum seekers or migrating from their home countries.
Violence against transgender individuals are not seen as valid claims and perpetrators act with impunity because state forces and authorities do not enforce laws protecting transgender individuals. Most importantly, Central American migrants cross multiple borders from their home countries prior to arriving in Mexico. For instance, at the Mexico/Guatemala Border there is only one migrant shelter that serves LGBTQ migrants, known as La 72. Central American migrants undergo different levels of exploitation in comparison to asylum seekers from Mexico who experience different economic conditions. Transgender Central American migrants are vulnerable to sexual exploitation as well due to their conditions of being undocumented in Central American countries. In Mexico, transgender migrant women are targeted for human and sex trafficking in popular destinations for sex tourism, specifically Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta in Jalisco. Asylum seekers and migrants, therefore, will be subject to kidnappings and extortion from organized crime. After the 1996 Immigration Reform and Control Act, immigration became criminalized in order to surveil asylum seekers and migrants, ultimately to control immigration coming into the U.S.
On their journey north, police and authorities will target transgender migrants. Maras have forced transgender migrants to travel with drugs, hide weapons, and traffick drugs. As such, authorities will surveil and criminalize transgender migrants as they make their journey across Mexico. Following attacks or abuses on the migrant trail, migrants can be denied access to health care and medical attention from healthcare providers and hospitals in Mexico and Central America due to homophobia.
Most transgender asylum seekers arriving in the United States flee from Central American countries. On their journey North, transgender asylum seekers also encounter maras (gangs) who extort, rape, hide weapons, and force them to sell drugs in transit due to the heteronormative gang structure present in many transnational organizations.
Honduras Around 90 LGBTQ+ citizens were killed in Honduras between the years of 2009 to 2012. In the eyes of those sympathetic to the victims, only a portion of the perpetrators have been held accountable. Those asserting that more can be done on behalf of the Honduran government believe that state, federal, and local officials routinely fail to properly investigate and dissect crimes committed against LGBTQ+ citizens—particularly transgender individuals. Such a group argues that these kinds of hateful perpetrations are commonly left unreported on a national and local scale because of the rampant social stigma surrounding queerness in the country.
Recently, however, the Honduran government has taken action to address violence enacted upon the LGBTQ+ community after facing a great amount of social condemnation. Many accused the government of continuously failing to resolve cases of attacks committed against members of the LGBTQ+ community. As a result, the Honduran government created a unit within the Attorney General's Office that is aimed at examining cases containing targeted violence against transgender individuals within the country, and was first established in January 2011 in Tegucigalpa. Since then, a similar unit has been added to the government of San Pedro Sula.
Transportation
Caravans One form of transportation utilized by many in the transgender community across Latin America are caravans. Many use this medium to flee oppression, marginalization, and discrimination in their home countries.