What is the Rainbow Refugee Society?
Rainbow Refugee Society (RRS) is Vancouver based, not-for-profit community group that works to support persons seeking refugee protection in Canada because of persecution based on sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression of HIV states. In 2011, Rainbow Refugee entered into a partnership Federal government called the Rainbow Refugee Assistance Project (RRAP). Through this national project, Rainbow Refugee has the responsibility of bringing together volunteers, mentors and community organizations across Canada to sponsor LGBT+ asylum seekers. The groups are called Circles of Hope and directly aid refugees to gain entrance into Canada, “[to] settle in a much more accepting and safer country” (Rainbow Refugee, 2017).
Responsibilities of the Circle of Hope in British Columbia:
Before a refugee arrives in Vancouver, the Circle is responsible for: raising funds, completing application forms, creating a settlement plan to support the newcomer for 12 months, communication with the sponsored person and providing encouragement and emotional support. After the refugee arrives in Vancouver, the Circle assist in their transition into life in Canada through the provision of emotional and settlement assistance. They teach asylum seekers about the rights and responsibilities of permanent residents in Canada, and help them to learn English and find employment (Rainbow Refugee, 2017).
Implications of Refuge in a Settler State:
In another post, one of my colleagues discusses in greater length the external consequence of colonialism in constructing the global borders and boundaries of states and citizens, that are implicated in creating the frameworks and conflict that cause queer and non-queer refugees to flee in the first place. It is based on a process that includes some persons and excludes others. The differential inequalities of such a system ensure state power over its citizens, and sustains the global north’s power over the global south.
These inequalities are replicated in the definition and grounds that refugees make their claim are informed by nationalistic thinking. For queer persons to be considered a “legitimate” refugee in Canada (Fobear, 2014) their claims to queerness must fit within the parameters set forth by the state; but even then, the degree of belonging available to refugees is dependent on two things:
- Their proximity to the attributes of the ‘proper’ Canadian citizen—cisgender, heterosexual, white, and male.
- Their ability to perform the responsibilities of a citizen—or, their ability to assimilate.
Queer asylum seekers of Canada must convincingly and repetitively narratives that assert their proximity to normative notions of gender and sexuality (Shakshari 2014, 103). Subsequently, they must prove the ‘immutability of their character,’ and of their experiences, through essentialist notions required by the state to verify their queer identity. In turn, this forces queer refugees and asylum seekers into singular, timeless and universally homogenous identities that fail to account for varying intersections within experience (Shakshari 2014, 100). Consequently, the narratives of refugees are altered and reduced to the rational and linear definitions sanctioned by the state and reified by diasporic queer organizations that coach queer refugees in ‘homonormativity’(Shakshari, 100)—perhaps, evidenced here through the responsibilities of the Circle of Hope.
What does it mean to be a Refugee on Unceded Land?
It is important to realize that seeking refuge in a “more accepting and safer country” is imbued within a broader framework of violence. Escaping one kind of violence, results in violence of another kind. The desire for inclusion and belonging on the part of refugee person, is part of a project of settler colonialism. Safety and a new home is created on the lands of Indigenous people who continue to be denied nationhood and access to their own lands. However, this is not to say that indigenous communities would disallow refugees from finding refuge on their land, but rather that recognition as refugee is informed by the mechanism of the state—evident in the responsibilities of the Circle of Hope. The relationship between racialized queer subjects and settler colonialism is a complex one. Through political recognition, racialized queer subjects can access colonial power in Canada but remain socially and politically unrecognized as settlers (due to the impossibility of ever being a ‘proper’ citizen)(Jafri, 2013). The result of the settler-desires, belonging to or accessing the benefits of settler societies, does the work of sustaining colonial power (Jafri, 2013) Conclusively, the terms of asylum are decided by the settler state, rather than indigenous communities. As such, the state’s ability to manage the life of certain populations is dependent on “the discipline, control, and ultimately, death and diminishment of the other who stands outside and threatens the interests of the population whose life is worth saving and which may or may not have territorial boundedness” (Shakshari 103). This is to say, that migration to different spaces also posits new considerations to prevent the reiteration of similar violences through the complicity.
Works Cited:
Fobear, K. (2014). Queer settlers: Questioning settler colonialism in LGBT asylum processes in canada. Refuge, 30(1), 47
Jafri, Beenash and Patrick Wolfe. (2013). Desire, settler colonialism and the racialized cowboy. American Indian Culture and Research Journal, 37(2): 73-86.
Rainbow Refugee. (n.d.). Retrieved November 9, 2017, from https://www.rainbowrefugee.com/
Shakhsari, Sima. (2014). Killing me softly with your rights: queer death and the politics of rightful killing. In Jin Haritaworn et. al. (eds.), Queer necropolitics, pp. 93-110.