David Murray, Professor, Department of Anthropology, York University

My recent research studies how lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) asylum seekers are viewed and assessed by actors working within and around the Canadian “refugee apparatus”, a term representing how the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) is organized and functions to solidify the liberal nation-state as civilized democratic, and free through particular formations of sexual identity. The book resulting from this research, “Real Queer? Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Refugees in the Canadian Refugee Apparatus” (2015, Rowman and Littlefield), contributes to studies of migration and sexuality, revealing the power of nation-states to regulate and discipline the queer immigrants attempts to settle within their borders.  Part of this research considers the role of the anthropologist as the ‘expert witness’ who is sometimes called on by the IRB or lawyers working on behalf of LGBT refugee claimants to verify and assess the credibility of claims to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender and/or to assess the social and political conditions of sexual and gender minorities in refugee producing nation-states.  My experience in writing these reports illustrates the ways in which anthropologists participate actively (and sometimes problematically) in immigration processes, or the gate-keeping machinery of the nation-state.