ABSTRACT
This PhD thesis explores how queer refugees and support organisations navigate the refugee regime in Berlin and Copenhagen. Drawing mainly on interviews with queer refugees, volunteers, and employees at queer refugee support organisations, I analyse experiences beyond the refugee status determination process, both spatially and temporally. I contribute to the emerging field of queer asylum scholarship through empirical and theoretical lenses. Studying queer asylum support in Berlin and Copenhagen allows a nuancing of “exceptional” urban havens. I explore how experiences in these cities differ depending on the intersectional position of those navigating through them. The thesis consists of four articles that analyse how queer refugees and support organisations reproduce, resist, and negotiate the power dynamics established by the refugee regime.

Article I, co-authored with Marie Lunau, introduces the concept of ‘colonial surveillance’, highlighting how the assessment processes for queer refugees in Denmark and Germany are influenced by enduring colonial logics. We also present resistance strategies employed by refugees and support organisations. Article II draws on the material collected in Copenhagen, and analyses how the metaphor of “coming out of the closet” is utilised in the context of queer asylum. Queer refugees are strategic about when and where to “come out”, to balance the refugee regimes’ expectation of normative, Western LGBT(IQ)+ identities with their lived experiences. Article III addresses the experiences of queer refugees amid the uncertain temporality created by the so-called Danish paradigm shift, where obtaining and keeping refugee status is increasingly precarious. I examine queer refugees’ fears of status revocation, that they mediate by essentialising their “queer identity”. Queer refugee support organisations advocate for more secure residence permits for their members, queering the temporality of the Danish refugee regime. Article IV draws on the material collected in Berlin and explores how the “Berlin model” for queer refugee support is negotiated by refugees and support organisations. Recognition as ‘particularly vulnerable’ is necessary for accessing specific resources, thereby reinforcing existing power dynamics. Special attention is given to the experiences of trans, inter, and non-binary individuals, reflecting on their experiences of being positioned as ‘queer space invaders’ within support environments.

MEMBERS OF THE ASSESSMENT COMMITTEE
Associate Professor Lise Rolandsen Augustín, Aalborg University (chair)
Associate Professor Thomas Wimark, Uppsala University, Sweden
Professor Mengia Hong Tschalaer, City University of New York, USA

MODERATOR
Associate professor and Head of the PhD programme Karen Nielsen Breidahl, Aalborg University

CONTACT
If you have any questions regarding the PhD defence, please contact the PhD programme secretary Marianne Høgsbro.