Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI)1 refugees, asylees, and asylum seekers are among the most vulnerable people in the United States today. Unlike most people who flee their homes for safety, these individuals often undergo the integration process almost entirely alone. They are rarely supported by their families or fellow expatriates. Because of their nonconforming sexual orientation or gender identity, they are often excluded from the religious and immigrant communities that form the social safety net for most newly arrived refugees and asylees. Without a support network, these LGBTI refugees struggle to find their way through a complex maze of employment, housing, and social service systems. Attaining stability in their adopted new country is extraordinarily challenging for them.
To address this concern, in 2011 ORAM launched the first pilot program for assisted resettlement of LGBTI refugees in the United States. Located in the San Francisco Bay Area, the program provides vital legal representation in the application for refugee status, as well as directed resettlement assistance. Upon arrival in the Bay Area, ORAM helps in the refugee’s integration. This includes extending a warm welcome to the refugee or asylee, as well as coordinating housing volunteers, the LGBTI community, and direct service providers. To help refugees integrate, ORAM formed “Guardian Groups” within existing LGBTI and allied community groups. ORAM provides training to better equip these Guardian Groups to support LGBTI refugees in accessing social services, establishing roots in their new environment, and becoming economically self-sufficient. Guardian Groups are essential to the resettlement and integration process, and ORAM will continue to provide them with training, technical assistance, and resources such as this manual.
Successfully resettling an LGBTI refugee truly takes a village. This manual shares ORAM’s knowledge, experience, and observations in partnership with several supportive communities. Information about individual cases was culled from ORAM’s hands-on experience assisting and intensively following a small number of LGBTI (or queer) refugees in the San Francisco Bay Area and elsewhere in the United States. In San Francisco, we worked initially with Jewish Family & Children’s Services of the East Bay and Catholic Charities CYO.
This manual seeks to improve the resettlement integration model used for LGBTI refugees and asylees by providing community and faith-based groups with the knowledge they need to help refugees build new lives in the United States. ORAM hopes that its pilot resettlement initiative will be the first of many. As we work toward a world where LGBTI persons are safe in their home countries, we must also work to assure the survival of those who have no choice but to escape.
