Towards Another Closet?! The Social Integration-related Experiences of Georgian LGBTQ+ Asylum Seekers in Berlin, Germany.

Abstract: Georgia is among the top 10 nationalities who seek asylum in the EU. Despite not existing the official statistics, LGBTQ+ individuals, too, flee from Georgia due to persecution and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Despite expectations of liberation in European countries, they face intersecting discrimination and maltreatment both as LGBTQ+ individuals and as refugees, which impede their integration. This qualitative research aims to investigate the social integration-related challenges LGBTQ+ asylum seekers face in the European Union and explore their strategies for dealing with them. To reach this goal, I chose a case of the Georgian LGBTQ+ asylum seekers in Berlin, Germany, and conducted eight semi-structured interviews to understand their interaction experiences with local society, state institutions, and fellow Georgians in Berlin. Then I performed a thematic analysis and applied intersectional lenses and an integration framework’s social connections domain to explore the phenomena deeply. This study shows that the social integration experiences of Georgian queer asylum seekers go beyond simplistic binary categorization and are instead characterized by complexity and diversity contingent upon their multifaceted intersecting identities. They face discrimination and maltreatment based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, and refugeeness while interacting with state institutions, local society, and ethnic Georgians. Furthermore, the results also show examples of positive experiences of support and solidarity across these domains. However, trans' asylum seekers appear to face the most challenging circumstances. Overall, the study concludes that the social integration experiences of Georgian LGBTQ+ asylum seekers are ambivalent and ambiguous, contingent upon their sexual orientation, gender identity, and refugeeness. Additionally, religion, class, and other variables seem to play a crucial role too. Furthermore, the study illustrated strong interconnection between different domains of the integration framework.