In this paper I explore the intersectional situation of post-Soviet LGBTIQ asylum seekers and migrants in Berlin in 2018.
In times of a global shift to the political right and the local popularity of the right-wing populist party AfD in Germany it is more than necessary to understand the needs and difficulties of queer migrants. Classism, anti-migrant resentments, racism, homophobia, transphobia and interphobia affect LGBTIQ refugees and migrants and shape their daily experiences as well as their possibilities to process traumatic experiences.

What unites post-Soviet LGBTIQ refugees and migrants? In what do they differ from refugees from other contexts? Which support networks are needed and which knowledge is lacking?

I allude to my work as a counselor and group facilitator at Quarteera e.V. (2011-2016) and Lesbenberatung e.V. (2016-2018) and my research for my master thesis „Discrimination experiences of Russian speaking LGBT refugees in Germany“ as well as to my personal experience as a queer lesbian migrant from Ukraine. The intersectional situation of LGBTIQ asylum seekers requires an approach in counseling, group facilitating and therapy that is aware of both discrimination and trauma. The number of persons from post-Soviet countries applying for asylum because of persecution due to their sexual orientation or gender identity has been growing since 2013, when the first gay asylum seeker was given refugee status in Berlin. Seeking relief and protection in Germany queer refugees repeatedly encounter multiple and interconnected forms of discrimination and retraumatization – also within their support network. Focusing on institutional difficulties and structural discrimination I will explain the necessity of cooperations between NGOs/social institutions and queer communities, illustrating my argument with the example of translation/mediation for LGBTIQ asylum seekers. By lighting up best practice examples and lack of support I will suggest ideas for practical solidarity within NGOs and queer communities.

Masha Beketova, M.A. studied Gender Studies/Slavonic Studies and contemporary Russian literature in Berlin and Moscow. Masha is currently working on their PhD thesis in Slavonic Cultural Studies at Humboldt University in Berlin. Their research focuses on queer migration and asylum, migrant literature, queer readings of modern Ukrainian and Russian literature and intersectionality. Masha wrote their M.A. thesis about/for LGBTIQ refugees from the post-Soviet space in Germany. Masha works as a psycho-social counselor with LGBTIQ refugees and migrants at an outreach project for queers (Lesbenberatung e.V.). and is attending a course in systemic therapy at INSA Berlin.
Born 1989 in the Soviet Ukraine and raised in the independent Ukraine, Masha moved to Germany in 2004.
As a queerfeminist and migrant activist Masha focuses on community work, the intersections of queerness and migration as well as the empowerment of queer migrants in Germany.

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