Authors

Elliot Napier¹;  ¹ University of Glasgow, UK

Discussion

This paper offers an academic examination of queer migration through the eyes of 15 queer people in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Based on in-depth, qualitative interviews conducted with queer people with a range of life experiences and sexual and/or gender identities, all based in Almaty, Kazakhstan, the paper explores factors influencing queer migratory intention and decision-making, pathways, routes and destinations, and how and whether to migrate at all. 

 Through the study’s unusual pre-migration approach, without focus on specific destinations, it opens up the ‘queer lens’ through which aspiring queer migrants view migratory processes and decisions, as well as insight into how their queer, national, linguistic and ethnic identities intersect in these processes. The analysis generates new empirical insights into the factors leading queer people in Kazakhstan to pursue or not pursue migration, and applies the queer lens to concepts of “normality” and temporality of waiting in queer migration.