Religion, queer migration and heteronormativity: narratives of migrants who left and arrived in Lithuania

Abstract

<p>Religion, queer migration, and heteronormativity influence each other in com plex ways as they intersect through social norms, cultural expectations, and power structures. These social phenomena are deeply interconnected in ways that shape the experiences and identities of queer migrants. This paper argues that religion can be one of the main actors reproducing heteronormativity in a concrete society and, in this way, influencing queer migration processes. The pa per draws on theoretical insights on the link between religion, heteronormativ ity and queer migration and the empirical data from semi-structured interviews with twenty migrants from different sociocultural contexts: ten queer migrants who left Lithuania and ten queer migrants who came to Lithuania from Georgia, Iraq, Cameroon, Russia, and Belarus. Using a comparative perspective, the paper attempts to understand how queer migrants from different sociocultural con texts perceive the role and the impact of religion on their migration processes.</p>