Moving on

Homosexuality is criminalised in more than 70 countries in the world and society persecutes and discriminates against LGBTI people in even more countries. Those LGBTI people who fear for their lives are sometimes able to reach the UK and claim asylum on the basis of their sexual orientation, and/or their gender identity, and/or the way their bodies looks. After going through the asylum determination process, successful LGBTI claimants are subject to a number of further issues, including poverty, that extend their experience of marginalisation and exclusion in their new country.

Micro Rainbow’s work and consultations with LGBTI refugees show that:

• they often live in poverty
• the major obstacles to finding employment are:
  • the lack of UK-based work experience as well as their refugee status, race, sexuality and gender which are intersecting issues that put them at the fringes of the job market
  • the qualifications that they have gained in their countries of origin are often not valid in the UK
  • low confidence and self-esteem
• the material hardships of their everyday lives emerging from the simple fact of being an LGBTI refugee include:
  • opening a bank account when presenting their refugee documents;
  • the sudden suspicion of potential employers as soon as they became aware that they are refugees; and
  • the rejection of their family members, co-nationals and places of faith in the UK.

 After piloting and testing activities for over ten years, we have shaped an LGBTI-refugee centred moving on programme which is already showing three interesting results:

• it creates new, practical and life-changing opportunities for LGBTI refugees
• it changes social attitudes and the negative stereotypes that society often associates with LGBTI refugees
• it provides new data and life stories that are powerful tools for advocacy.