Lecture | CMGI Brown Bag Seminar
Sub-Saharan Queer Migrants in the Netherlands - Migration motives, trajectories and lived experiences, 1980-now
- Date
- Wednesday 10 May 2023
- Time
- Serie
- CMGI Brown Bag Seminars 2022-2023
- Address
-
Johan Huizinga
Doelensteeg 16
2311 VL Leiden - Room
- Conference room (2.60)
This research highlights personal experiences of Sub-Saharan African queer migrants in the Netherlands. With a focus on the period from 1980 – present, it explores the migration motives, expectations, trajectories and lived experiences of Black Sub-Saharan African Queer migrants in the Netherlands. It looks at developments in the policy and asylum domain, local and international media and artistic representation and LGBTIQ+ and migrant support organisations. By using the oral history method, the project aims to centralise migrants’ personal narratives. The project explores how an intersection of race, sexuality, gender, class, religion and other categories of identity and power shape the experiences of queer black Sub-Saharan African migrants in a Dutch context. By zooming in on this context, this research critically analyses the Dutch self-image of tolerance, by shedding light on the experiences of queer migrants of colour. It explores how the Dutch colonial legacy plays out in modern times and influences the framing and lived experiences of queer black Sub-Saharan Africans in the Netherlands. Moreover, it explores how rather recent developments, such as rising ‘homonationalism’, the combination of pro-gay and anti-immigrant rhetoric, impact the lives of queer black Sub-Saharan African migrants and diaspora communities in the Netherlands.