PhD defence Nisrine Chaer: Queer refugees and the ‘paradox of respectability’

On Thursday 10 September, Nisrine Chaer will defend her dissertation ‘The Paradox of Respectability and the Pitfalls of Gender Queer Migration in Lebanon and the Netherlands’. In this thesis, she examines how queer people in Lebanon and the Netherlands are confronted with the ‘paradox of respectability’.

The paradox of respectability

Governments use respectability (‘decency’) to control refugees, Chaer writes. A queer refugee who conforms to the Western image of what a ‘good’ queer person is supposed to be has a better chance of being granted asylum in the Netherlands. And in Lebanon, those who conform and do not stand out are less at risk of, for example, police violence or deportation.

To evade strict state control and escape oppression, refugees are forced to use respectability as a survival tactic. According to Chaer, this has an unintended consequence: it reinforces the system.

Chaer argues that it is the state, together with the media and the labour market, amongst others, that determines what is ‘respectable’. Conformity also means affirming this dominant norm. This makes others, who are less able to conform, more vulnerable. The result is that they are further marginalised, Chaer explains.

In other words, the system forces refugees, for the sake of their own safety, to cooperate with something that puts other queer people at risk: the ‘paradox of respectability’.

Looking beyond gender and legislation

Chaer carried out fieldwork in Lebanon and the Netherlands. Through her research, she aims to demonstrate that it is not possible to understand queer migration by looking solely at gender and sexuality or legislation, as is often the case. According to her, judgements about respectability are closely linked to other factors, such as state violence, class, ‘race’ and anti-Muslim sentiment.

Furthermore, Chaer demonstrates that refugees are not merely trying to conform to the norm. When this fails, they deliberately employ ‘disobedience’ and vulgarity to disrupt the system.