Sex on the move: Gender, subjectivity and differential inclusion

Heterosexuality and patriarchal social arrangements built within immigration regulations signal the undiminished urgency of feminist engagement to rethink migration through the perspective of sexuality and gender. At the same time, feminist analysis of contemporary migration remains bound to the analytical framework centred on control, and approaches borders and immigration regulations primarily in terms of exclusion. Yet, the contemporary transformations of state borders, labour relations and citizenship question the currency and adequacy of the exclusion-based interpretative model. This article brings together feminist and queer migration studies with literature on the transformation of borders, sovereignty and citizenship as developed in critical political theory with the aim of broadening the interpretative scope and political relevance of feminist and queer migration scholarship. The stakes are both theoretical and political in that such a reading allows for a more nuanced account of the changing forms of governing as well as of emerging political subjectivity

‘I’ve got to go somewhere’: queer displacement in northern Central America and southern Mexico

This chapter seeks to understand the complex, damaging contexts that provoke increasing numbers of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and queer population in northern Central America to flee their homes. Through personal accounts of queer mobility in the region, displacement is analysed not as a one-off or exceptional event, but as a constantly shifting process (moving out of place) and condition (being out of place). Queer mobility is seen here in terms of the quest for placement, rather than as movement per se. Continuous negotiations to stay put, to make a place for oneself, were based in disadvantage which often resulted in complex displacements. Displacement in these terms is an intrinsic part of marginal queer experience. While the ruptures associated with these displacements can cause damage, so they can disrupt established oppressions and allow room to re-accommodate one’s personal social location. Yet, since this re-accommodation is the result of complex constellations of marginalised existence, it is fragile, and hard-won gains can be short-lived. In particular, the intersection between gender and sexual transgression, economic and social marginalization, and rampant organized and targeted hate violence all translate into pervasive precarity. The gravity and complexity of the experiences shared here highlight the need to ensure that the growing body of work on queer migration and asylum does not overshadow other spatial and temporal scales of displacement which are a crucial dynamic of the relationship between queer mobility and survival