PolicyBRIEFING

ISSUE 118 • MAY 2016

Migration, Mobility and
Marginalisation: Consequences
for Sexual and Gender Minorities
As a strategy to avoid discrimination, violence and economic marginalisation,
sexual and gender non-conforming people often turn to migration as a
route to achieve independence and build social capital. Recent studies by the
IDS Sexuality, Poverty and Law programme demonstrate that while migration
can provide liberation from some experiences of marginalisation and an
ability to contribute economically towards family households, for many it
leads to a precarious existence. To ensure these groups are not ‘left behind’
in development, policymakers and aid programming must recognise and
address marginalisation of these groups as part of overall strategies to reduce
risks of migration.
Within a rapidly evolving global context
of instability around conflict, climate
change and extreme poverty and
marginalisation, migration has moved up
the political agenda. There is currently
very little examination, however, of the
consequences of migration for those
people marginalised as a result of their
sexual and gender identities.

Whether forced or strategic, there
are costs and opportunities linked to
migration. These are explored in this
briefing, specifically in relation to social
mobility, which might entail upward
or downward mobility depending
upon the context that individuals find
themselves moving away from or
towards.

Studies undertaken by the IDS Sexuality,
Poverty and Law (SPL) programme
in 15 countries demonstrate that the
effects of social, economic and political
marginalisation can ‘force’ people to
move either within their country or
overseas. People can also choose to
migrate for strategic reasons in order
to counteract existing marginalisation,
by moving to more accepting locations
where they can economically contribute
to families remotely and express their
identities freely.

Forced migration

Traditionally, there is a greater likelihood
of movement from smaller towns or
rural communities to urban contexts.
This is primarily due to greater financial
prospects being available in urban as
opposed to rural contexts as labour
tends to flow naturally from low-wage
regions to high-wage areas.

For many, migration might necessitate
a move as economic migrants, refugees
or asylum seekers to more tolerant
countries where opportunities for
a safe, authentic and economically
productive life are more possible.
An increasing number of countries
are now considering persecution of
homosexuality as a ground for seeking
asylum, although there is now a body
of documented cases highlighting
how the process can be onerous,
inappropriately intrusive for applicants
and has low rates of success.

“There is
currently
very little
examination,
however, of the
consequences
of migration for
those people
Those individuals whose sexual and
marginalised
gender identities do not conform to
as a result of
traditional expectations (non-conforming)
their sexual
often face compounded barriers and
and gender
challenges in migrating, especially when
identities.”
borne of necessity. Ensuring you have
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official recognition of legal personhood on
arrival is crucial to being able to obtain state
support or enter many occupations. Being a
newcomer to a country can complicate the
process of obtaining travel documents, with
cultural and language barriers impacting on
their ability to negotiate the job market and
state support on arrival.
Additionally, in countries (as outlined in the
SPL Ethiopia case studies) where internal
travel can be incredibly hard to negotiate
without proper ID documents, individuals
who need to travel away from their place
of origin can find their ability to access
state benefits or support curtailed by the
difficulties of establishing legal personhood
in a new municipality. Long-held residential
addresses might be required before
registration for these can be successful, which
can be problematic for those who change
location regularly for work purposes or
because of discrimination.
In some countries, activists operating in
nascent lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender
and intersex (LGBTI) organisations can find
themselves forced to leave their countries as
a result of their campaigning. For example
the organisation Rainbow-Ethiopia formed
and made attempts to establish itself within
the public health field, but this ended when
its leader, Dereje Teferi, fled the country
after talking about men who have sex with
men (MSM) issues at an international AIDS
conference. The departure of such activists can
have a detrimental effect on the building of
capacity and credibility of the sexual activism
networks they leave behind. This inability to
retain expertise and organisational continuity
is compounded by the difficulties faced by
these organisations in obtaining long-term
and secure funding.

Strategic migration

Evidence shows that migration patterns
have traditionally represented the migrants
(and the motivating reasons that underscore
their choices) in tightly defined traditional
gender and sexual roles. Yet, migration also
has the potential to be sexually liberating
and alongside the economic advantages
there can be an important contribution to
levels of wellbeing, with the consequent
virtuous impacts upon health and productivity
outcomes. Establishing a life within a new
environment allows individuals to cast

aside some of the social expectations and
surveillance that characterises the lives of
gender and sexual non-conforming individuals,
although rigid gender norms may still impact
on their lives.
The SPL programme found, too, that for
some of those in contexts of entrenched
poverty, who have a limited range of
economic options in front of them and
consequently choose to engage in sex
work, the choice to migrate is essential.
The majority of sex workers tend to travel
away from their home areas to work. Whilst
this may be for purely economic reasons,
anecdotal evidence from Ethiopian research
with sex workers illustrates that it is also a
means of expressing a sexual orientation
safely within a more anonymous environment.
In recent years, this has become a less
gendered activity, with the numbers of
men engaging in sex work in major cities in
Ethiopia for example, also rising significantly.
When looking at female migration,
there is an increasing awareness among
development professionals of the harmful
care deficits that can be created through
migration. For example, when women from
developing countries migrate it can result
in a domestic or childcare deficit within the
familial home which is then usually borne
by female relatives and peer networks. For
gender and sexual non-conforming migrants,
this trend can place a similar burden on
women, but migration can also provide
significant strategic benefits in terms of
transforming familial relationships. Earning
financial resources that can contribute to
the family household can often lead to
acceptance for many sexual and gender
non-conforming individuals.
Remittance payments from migrating
workers back to their households have
become a staple element of migratory
behaviour and the influx of this capital
back to the country of origin can have a
positive effect on offsetting inequality and
boosting employment. In the Philippines
context, respondents reported that family
members, whilst still not accepting their
sexual or gender identity, would provide
tacit acceptance of their lives if they could
provide a regular income. The option to work
abroad and significantly increase earning
power is therefore seen as a legitimate route

“In some countries,
activists operating
in nascent lesbian,
gay, bisexual,
transgender and
intersex (LGBTI)
organisations can
find themselves
forced to leave
their countries as
a result of their
campaigning.”

MIGRATION, MOBILITY AND MARGINALISATION: CONSEQUENCES FOR SEXUAL AND GENDER MINORITIES ISSUE 118 • MAY 2016	

by which LGBTI people can obtain a degree
of acceptance from their kin. Findings from
Nepal and the Philippines highlighted the
role of remittance payments as a strategy to
bridge conflicts around their gender or sexual
non-conformity.

Costs and opportunities of
migration

The choice to migrate entails balancing the risk
of discrimination at home with the potential
loss of established social networks. For many,
the loss of existing networks at ‘home’ can
be offset by the formation and growth of
fresh networks amongst their peers following
migration to another city or country. These
can allow them fresh opportunities to access
resources and build social capital amongst
other sexual and gender non-conforming
individuals. That said, moving away from one’s
family or community inevitably involves some
loss of status and informal assistance that
others would take for granted in making their
way in the world.
Evidence from Brazil, India, the Philippines,
South Africa and Ethiopia has illustrated that
identifying as LGBTI can lead to restrictions in
health, education, housing, employment and
civil participation and can affect individuals’
ability to access and build upon the social
capital available to others. This might be
within the family itself, such as a refusal by
family to support school attendance, or forced
marriage (particularly amongst women) to
avoid bringing shame to families. Within the
wider community, it can impact upon the
ability to access decent housing and/or result
in harassment from neighbours, police or
landlords.
Findings from the SPL programme chime
with other international studies, and
indicate that in societies with strong social
and/or legal opposition to same-sex or
non-traditional gender expression, the
individual who is ‘outed’ publicly (especially
if this takes place within the workplace)
can experience the fall-out as an economic
shock. Traditionally, such shocks would be
understood to be micro-level events such
as an illness or the death of a principal
breadwinner. Some interviewees from
Ethiopia acknowledged that such exposure
of gender or sexual non-conformity could
prove to be similarly ‘fatal’ to their ability to
support themselves.

The availability of obtaining an education
both prior to and as part of a migratory
experience represents a key principle for
many in broadening their ability to obtain a
decent livelihood. The experience of those
individuals who undertake this in a more
progressive environment can flourish, but
this is usually reserved for those who can
afford the significant cost this entails. As
may be expected, for those without family
support, this can be hard to secure and the
balancing act of studying coupled with the
necessity of survival can make this a distant
dream for many.
Migration is frequently a problematic process.
Findings from Nepal highlight that many
migrant workers experience abuse, are
underpaid and can experience horrendous
working conditions or are forced back into
normative roles by employers. Those that
choose to migrate to countries that also have
restrictive cultural practices around sexuality
and gender expression, such as parts of
the Middle East, can often find themselves
with even less ability to express themselves.
Even in countries with a more progressive
environment, the cold reality is that obtaining
legal rights from the government to remain
and obtain employment there as a migrant
worker can be exceptionally difficult.

“Establishing a
life within a new
environment
allows individuals
to cast aside
some of the social
expectations and
surveillance that
characterises the
lives of gender
and sexual nonconforming
individuals,
although rigid
gender norms may
still impact on
their lives.”

Migration and sex work can also be
quite precarious, with workers facing
exploitation, abuse and police harassment,
leading them to remain mobile and not put
down roots in communities. Young male
sex workers in Ethiopia have been described
as ‘the most marginalised of the marginalised’
because they suffer the double burden of
dealing with their stigmatised sex trade and
sexual practices.
Even those who have completed a high
level of educational achievement can
find themselves experiencing workplace
discrimination. Consequently, many of
them find themselves having to take
low-paid or informal employment and
for those moving into the global North,
the majority of opportunities remain in
labour-intensive industries. Interviewees
who had moved from the Philippines to
Hong Kong reported that due to the way
they looked or dressed, they were unable to
attain gainful employment in spite of having
professional credentials.

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Policy recommendations
Whilst migration has challenges for everyone who attempts it, there are particular
measures that would assist in ensuring it has a positive impact on economic and
social prosperity of sexual and gender minority communities:

Further reading
Overs, C. (2015) BOOSHTEE!
Survival and Resilience in Ethiopia,
IDS Evidence Report 129,
Brighton: IDS

•	 International organisations should become more sensitive to the reality that
all international development activity affects those with non-normative sexual
and gender identities and reflect this in their approach in designing, assigning
resources and measuring the effectiveness of all aid programming.

Coyle, D. and Boyce, P. (2015)
Same-sex Sexualities, Gender
Variance and Livelihood in Nepal:
Exclusions, Subjectivity and
Development, IDS Evidence
Report 109, Brighton: IDS

•	 International donors should introduce mechanisms to support ‘underground’
forms of LGBTI activism, even when this is with young organisations that might
represent a small element of financial risk or where measurements of success
are harder to quantify.

GALANG Philippines (2015)
How Filipino LBTs Cope with
Economic Disadvantage, IDS
Evidence Report 120, Brighton:
IDS

•	 Same-sex relations should be decriminalised as a step towards securing the
social, political and economic rights of gender and sexual non-conforming
individuals and shifting public and familial attitudes.

Overs, C. (2014) Sex Workers,
Empowerment and Poverty
Alleviation in Ethiopia, IDS
Evidence Report 80, Brighton:
IDS

•	 Development programmes should not aim to discourage migration or sex
work (and other forms of livelihood strategies), but instead work to resolve
the multiple barriers faced by gender and sexual minorities, alongside offering
diverse skills training, language and employment options.
•	 Invest in research that helps to provide a greater understanding of the particular
experiences of gender and sexual minorities living in rural contexts, as current
evidence around exclusion is dominated by that undertaken in urban contexts. In
addition, policymakers should make recommendations for improvements that
can mitigate the push-and-pull factors that encourage migration.
•	 Support strategies to simplify the process of obtaining identification papers for
people from gender and sexual minorities (such as sex workers) who need to
migrate regularly.
•	 Invest further in increasing population research studies around social mobility
and migration of gender and sexual non-conforming individuals.
•	 Encourage and fund time for LGBTI organisations to form strong alliances
with the rest of the international SOGIE (sexual orientation and gender
identity and expression) community (especially regional partnerships), so that
when individuals migrate to another country there is a network available to
support them in the transition and the possibility of joint campaigning around
common issues.

Credits
This IDS Policy Briefing was written
by Stephen Wood as part of the
IDS Sexuality, Poverty and Law
programme, supported with UK
Aid from the UK Department
for International Development.
It was edited by Carol Smithyes,
reviewed by Dr Elizabeth Mills,
with contributions from
Ntokozo Yingwana, Kimberly
Wied and Aimen Majeedullah.
The opinions expressed are
those of the authors and do not
necessarily reflect the views of
IDS or the UK government’s
official policies.
Readers are encouraged to
quote and reproduce material
from the IDS Policy Briefing series.
In return, IDS requests due
acknowledgement and quotes
to be referenced as above.
AG Level 2 Output ID: 605
© Institute of Development Studies, 2016
ISSN 1479-974X

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IDS POLICY BRIEFING ISSUE 118 • MAY 2016	

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