“We're in this together” - NGO advocacy and LGBTQ+ asylum claimants: Intimate/care citizenship as co-presence and imagined equality.

Abstract

This paper explores the work of regional NGO organisations in the UK that explicitly support LGBTQ + asylum claimants, framing the testimonials of both service providers and service users, in considering issues of co-presence, and imagined equality, that may be experienced between the parties. While framing the cultural and political environment at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, and critiquing citizenship as a purely hegemonic nationalistic concept by drawing from theories of “intimate citizenship” and “Care-tizenship”, this paper considers the dynamics of collective advocacy. Offering an intersectional approach that frames issues of sexuality, gender, race, ethnicity, religion and regionality, the authors consider the significance of co-presence related to citizenship, that affords an optimistic sense of equality when LGBTQ + service providers support LGBTQ + asylum claimants.