Rethinking Queer Migration: The Case of Skilled Chinese LGBTQ+ Migrants in North America

Abstract

Queer migration scholarship has established sexuality as an important axis of power that shapes and is shaped by migration processes. To further conceptualize how and when sexuality matters, this article bridges queer migration with other modes of migration. Drawing from in-depth interviews with 48 skilled Chinese LGBTQ+ migrants in North America, I examine the organization of sexuality in queer migration through the pathway of international student migration/mobility. My findings reveal how sexuality has transitioned from hidden to affirmed, and finally to unconstrained across three stages of the migration trajectory in shifting institutional contexts. By examining the temporal variation of queerness in the process of migration, I show the co-evolution of identity and mobility mediated by migration pathways.