Legal violence and (in)visible families: how law shapes and erases family life in SOGI asylum in Europe

Studies on the Refugee Convention have paid very limited attention to the notion of family and family rights of asylum claimants in connection with asylum claims based on sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI). Drawing on the notion of ‘legal violence’, this article demonstrates the injurious cumulative effect that a heteronormative, homonormative and Western-centered formulation and implementation of asylum and refugee law has on SOGI claimants when it comes to intimate and family relationships. By relying on a solid body of primary and secondary data, it explores the invisibility of SOGI claimants and refugees’ families and how that invisibility is normalized by European legal frameworks, such as the Dublin (III) Regulation and Family Reunification Directive. To end this ‘legal violence’ and reconnect asylum systems with the lived experiences of SOGI claimants, a principled approach based on human rights and specifically the right to respect for family life is suggested.