Schutz- und Sorgepraktiken: Wie LSBT-Organisationen in Deutschland Safer Spaces für ihre Arbeit mit queeren Asylbewerber:innen und Geflüchteten adaptieren

Abstract

Since the “summer of migration” in 2015, LGBT organizations have been actively involved in migration work, particularly in creating safer spaces for queer asylum seekers and refugees. This involvement marks a shift as these organizations previously had limited engagement with queer people of color. German LGBT organizations focus on providing support, security, and community for queer asylum seekers and refugees, drawing upon the concept of safer spaces. While existing literature addresses LGBT organizations in development and the challenges faced by queer asylum seekers, there is limited research on the creation of safer spaces. Research suggests a predominant focus on spatial separation as a means of ensuring safety. This article aims to fill this research gap by exploring how German LGBT organizations are adapting and institutionalizing the concept of safer spaces. It investigates the role of spatial separation, control mechanisms, and potential essentialist and cultural biases in shaping safer spaces. The study contextualizes this within the framework of homonationalism in Germany, followed by a theoretical exploration of safer spaces and an empirical analysis of how LGBT organizations conceptualize them. Drawing on expert interviews with spokespersons of German LGBT organizations and an extensive analysis of their websites, my study shows the ways in which the LGBT organizations construct themselves as saviors of vulnerable queer asylum seekers and migrants, while constructing the non-queer asylum seekers and migrants as a threat through othering. Following the logics of these safer space concepts, spatial separation appears as the ultimate solution to offer safety to queer migrants and refugees. In contrast, I also observe alternative safer spaces offered by LGBT organizations, which, in addition to their purely protective function, also create spaces for caring practices and peer-to-peer empowerment through storytelling.