Mental health issues and needs of LGBTQ+ asylum seekers, refugee claimants and refugees in Toronto, Canada

Abstract

ABSTRACT LGBTQ+ people experience mental health challenges due to their minoritized status, systemic inequities and structural disparities. For LGBTQ+ asylum seekers, refugee claimants and refugees the impact on their mental health can be compounding. This study, which featured a series of focus groups with LGBTQ+ asylum seekers, refugee claimants and refugees in Toronto, Canada, was part of a larger international study ‘Envisioning Global LGBT Human Rights’ that looked at colonising effects on LGBTQ people in the Commonwealth. The migration process, – often forced due to persecution in their country of origin based on sexual orientation or gender identity and expression – produced traumatic experiences involving life-changing decisions, accessing information and resources, cultural shifts, conceptualisation of identities, and navigating the refugees claims process. The specialised experiences of LGBTQ+ asylum seekers, refugee claimants and refugees can have a deleterious effect on their mental health that a critical psychology perspective can address clinically by recognising the particularised needs of this population and systemically by addressing the structural inequities.