In the 1990s in North America, a series of federal court cases and statutory reforms successfully transformed an individual’s sexual orientation and gender identity from being a basis for exclusion to being a basis for immigration relief under international human rights law. Since then, LGBTQ+ asylum seekers immigrants from close to 100 countries around the world where it is unsafe and/or a crime to be a part of this community have claimed asylum in North America on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Although the Canadian Government does not publish records on the exact number LGBTQ+ asylum seekers, a 2004 inquiry has shown that 1,351 asylum claims cited sexual orientation as a reason to seek asylum that year. Aside from the fact that LGBTQ+ asylum seekers share the experience of lived or anticipated persecution in their home countries, after arriving in a destination country they are more likely to experience persecution while seeking services such as legal, housing or employment.

All of these challenges are amplified by language barriers. Research on immigrant populations has found that lower language fluency, combined with insecure immigration status, is associated with generally worse mental health outcomes. Simultaneously, the ability of services and agencies, often already struggling with funding and resources that has been further depleted by the pandemic, to support asylum seekers with language barriers is forcing agencies to think outside of the standard service models to continue advocating for language access.

In a series of virtual panel discussions, LANGUAGE ADVOCACY ON THE PERIPHERY, leading to Ontario’s first virtual Language Advocacy Day on February 4th, 2021, organized by a grassroots coalition of language service providers and like-minded organizations, we are interested in an exploration of less visible segments of language service provisions. The virtual panel discussion: Language Barriers and LGBTQ+ Asylum Seekers gathers practitioners, agencies serving LGBTQ+ communities and other relevant stakeholders to discuss:

• The role of language barriers in understanding intersectionality of identities, oppression and service siloes within the context of LGBTQ+ asylum seeking
• How language barriers amplify communication challenges for agencies serving these communities
• How increasingly limited funding and pandemics is impacting the provision of language-assisted services to LGBTQ+ asylum seekers and changing budgeting strategies
• What the role of language service professionals and agencies is in providing better support to LGBTQ+ asylum seekers accessing their language rights

Please join us for a discussion about this important topic on Wednesday, January 14th, 2021 at 12 noon and invite others by passing on this message and sharing the event details.

Panelists:

Hernán Alonso Sierra Arias, is a lawyer, activist and a lifelong learner with a passion for serving marginalized communities and two decades of experience in the legal sector, ranging from Immigration Law and Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law to Family Law Conciliation and Mediation of civil litigations. Hernan has extensive experience in conflict resolution and worked in areas of international cooperation, non-profits, governments, social services, humanitarian organizations, and with a wide range of audiences, including immigrants, refugees, people with special needs and the LGBTQ+ communities.

Pablo A. Irribarra is an Associate Lawyer at Battista Smith Migration Law Group, specializing in Forced Migration. He routinely represents clients at the Immigration and Refugee Board including refugee protection claims and appeals, in written applications for Pre-Removal Risk Assessment and humanitarian and compassionate applications. ​Pablo graduated from the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law, in June of 2006. Throughout his time in law school, Pablo volunteered with a number of organizations, including as a Student Caseworker with the Center For Spanish Speaking Peoples Legal Clinic, Downtown Legal Services Clinic, and the PRO BONO Student Family Law Program, as well as a Senior Editor with the Indigenous Law Journal.

Sebastian Commock, is a past program participant of The 519 refugee program. He is the current Among Friends Legal initiatives, settlement Support & Outreach Coordinator, at The 519. Additionally, he is the founder of an advocacy group, Canadian Legacy Refugee Advocacy and Alliance, focused on providing help to legacy refugee claimants in Canada. Sebastian manages the 519 refugee mock hearing program, public legal education workshop and building out other legal and settlement initiatives. He is also helping shape the 519’s response to anti-Black racism by being one of the core team members of the organization’s internal Black Collective. He is also a former business manager at Pride Toronto , a trained paralegal and is a volunteer case manager with Rainbow Railroad.

Moderator: Jad Jaber, PhD, is a social-inclusion and gender expert whose work focused on some of the most vulnerable communities in the world and on local economic development projects all over Lebanon, including the Fisherman auction house in Tyre, the 13th century Khan El Askar in Tripoli, and the Syrian migrant community in Akkar and Bekaa, collaborating with government institutions (CDR, MOSA), international funding agencies (DFID- World Bank), and local implementing NGO’s and CSO’s (Save the Children, Palladium). He has also lectured at the Lebanese American University amongst other prestigious academic institutions in controversial and complex subjects such as “Gender and Migration” and “Queer Theory”. Jad Jaber’s book, “Queer Arab Martyr”, will be published in Dec 2018 (Atropos Press).