Trans*it: Transgender and gender nonconforming asylum claimants’ narratives in Greece

Abstract

In this article, I reflect on two interviews of transgender/gender nonconforming asylum claimants in the broader West. In the Trans*it documentary that my partners and I created, a non-binary person and a transgender woman, Ilios and Christina, interview each other on the difficulties of being a transgender/gender nonconforming asylum applicant in Greece. Greece is an understudied area with huge migration flows at the border of the EU and has no official data for Sexual Orientation Gender Identity asylum claims. The documentary, this article contends, provides a starting point for reflecting on the experiences of transgender/gender nonconforming applicants at the borders of Europe and their transition from their country of origin to the West/Greece, and for importing non-Western migrant subjectivities into our current thinking on sexuality/gender. In particular, I problematize the legal framework of Refugee Status Determination and explore the decolonization of gender identity/expression in refugee law. Finally, I reflect on the process of making the documentary and my attempt to centre the voices of gender nonconforming asylum claimants while minimizing the impact of my gaze as a white Greek researcher in the field. In doing so, this article shows how documentary film can be used as a means to further considerations of gendered normativities of asylum claims in a key, yet understudied, context. It concludes by arguing for a decolonializing approach that questions the normalization of Western standards of gender, and their transgression, in Refugee Status Determination. [Media: see text]

Psychologists' representations of gender identity between Spain and Greece: A qualitative cross‐cultural study

“…Similarly, the neoimperialist idea that “the West” is a unitary, equally privileged locus of epistemic “progression” on trans rights and protocols of assistance falls short, opening spaces for further intersectional investigation and renewal of the notion of affirmation (Avgeri, 2021; Chondros, 2021; Grzanka & Miles, 2016). Psychologists in the periphery of the Western model of transness risk twofold epistemic marginalization of users, since they use guidelines that are supposedly standardized but may not take into consideration particularities of each cultural context while facing a social group that already counts with significant barriers to health care.…”

“…Universalist pretensions of trans healthcare have managed to maintain a customary logic of transness, one that seemingly applies to all cultural environments (Avgeri, 2021; Suess Schwend, 2020). Research on healthcare inequalities, however, has underscored the relevance of sociocultural barriers to gender identity‐related services (Wallace & Santacruz, 2017).…”

Provision of sexual and reproductive health care services for refugees in Greece in the framework of the Minimum Initial Service Package: a scoping review

“…A total of 16 sources concerns sexual violence prevention, clinical care, and referral mechanisms, as well as the existence of safe spaces [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39]. Three sources report on severe protection risks [24,25,35], whereof two also highlight security gaps [25,35].…”

Credibility Assessment in Asylum Claims Based on Sexual Orientation by the Greek Asylum Service: A Deep-Rooted Culture of Disbelief

“…SO claimants, as third-country nationals and sexual minorities, in Greece face intersectional systemic discrimination and an unhospitable framework that requires proof of their sexuality. This observation, in combination with the scarce research in the topic of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) asylum claims in Greece (Avgeri, 2021), were my main motives to conduct this study. I hope that this study's account of practices applied in Greece and the illustration of their unjust outcomes will contribute to the voices advocating for a review of the relevant guidelines, in compliance with queer, feminist, and postcolonial theories.…”

“…Instead, an essentialist view of sexual identity, as an innate characteristic, which is something more than sexual practice and defines the subject, predominates in the procedure (Giametta, 2017;Lewis and Naples, 2014;Hertoghs and Schinkel, 2018;Avgeri, 2021;Ricard, 2014). However, this normative understanding of a fixed predetermined identity obscures the complexity of applicants' subjectivity (Nasser-Eddin et al, 2018;Shuman and Bohmer, 2014;Saleh, 2020;Ricard, 2014).…”