PHD Candidate Andrea Vige Grønningsæter to defend her thesis

Concealment, Credibility and the Construction of the Sexual Minority Refugee

The dissertation considers how the right to refugee status based on sexual orientation has developed over time, both at a national and international level. Through a critical discourse analysis, Grønningsæter considers how “the sexual minority refugee” is constructed within refugee law.Historically, one of the major obstacles for sexual minorities claiming refugee status has been the widespread notion that queer asylum seekers can be required to conceal their sexual orientation upon a return to the country of origin to avoid being persecuted. Over time, this so-called “discretion requirement” has been rejected. However, the notion of concealment has proven to be an adaptable phenomenon. Following the rejection of the “discretion requirement,” the question of concealment has continued to reappear, often reformulated as a factual assessment of whether it is likely that the asylum seeker will themselves choose to behave “discreetly” upon a return to the country of origin.

The rejection of the “discretion” requirement has moreover resulted in a shift in the assessment of sexuality-based claims. While claims for refugee status was previously often rejected by requiring sexual minorities to refrain from living out their sexual orientation openly, such claims are today instead being rejected because the sexual orientation is not found to be credible. The dissertation shows how Western receiving countries are increasingly expecting queer asylum seekers to present their sexual orientation as an immutable and inherent identity that they wish to live out openly in the liberal receiving country.A key finding of the dissertation is that the rejection of the “discretion” requirement has in practice lead to new challenges for sexual minority refugees. Where receiving states would previously mandate concealment, there is now a growing expectation that in order to be entitled to protection, asylum seekers should present their sexual orientation as an inherent identity that they wish to live out “freely and openly.” Sexuality-based claims can thus be said to have moved from a “norm of invisibility” to a “norm of visibility.”  

Bio

Andrea Vige Grønningsæter completed her master's in jurisprudence at the University of Oslo in June 2016. She was employed as a research fellow at the Faculty of Law in Bergen in 2018. The supervisors for the doctoral project have been Professor Henriette Sindig Aasen (University of Bergen), Professor Thomas Spijkerboer (Vrjie University , Amsterdam) and Ph.D. Jessica Schultz (senior researcher at CMI). Andrea currently works as a university lecturer at the Faculty of Law in Oslo.