Öykü Aytacoglu, ‘A migration journey between vulnerability and agency: the case of queer exiles in Istanbul’, in Jane Freedman, Alice Latouche, Adelina Miranda, Nina Sahraoui, Glenda Santana de Andrade, Elsa Tyszler (eds.), The Gender of Borders: Embodied Narratives of Migration, Violence and Agency, Routledge, 2023, pp. 119-135 (Chapter 7)

Abstract

This chapter discusses the migration experiences of queer exiles in Turkey. It highlights the impact of national migration policies on their daily lives, before going on to shed light on their place as a minority in at least two respects within this migratory context. It evokes structural violence against queer exiles, emphasising that their migratory journey cannot be dissociated from power relations such as heterosexism and nationalism. Findings obtained through narrative interviews and observation point to the vulnerability of queer exiles in many areas of daily life. Like local queer individuals, they are faced not only with LGBTphobic violence but also with xenophobic violence. Nonetheless, this state of vulnerability may generate the possibility of action. Through an approach that aims to contribute to migration, gender and urban studies, this chapter examines to what extent the city of Istanbul may provide queer exiles with opportunities to cope with structural oppression.