Queer Central American Migrants Imagining Livable Lives : a study on how vulnerability of LGBTQ migrants is (re)produced during migration in Mexico and the role of religious shelters

The migration of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans- and queer (LGBTQ) people from Central America to or through Mexico has increased in recent years. People are leaving spaces of violence and exclusion related to their sexual and/or gender identity and search conditions for a livable life. Yet, the migration implies an exposure to different sorts of violence, wherefore this thesis explores how the vulnerability of Central American queer people is (re)produced in a situation of human mobility in Mexico. Further, the thesis examines how protection is made (im)possible for the LGBTQ community in religious shelters. The research is based on qualitative research and thirteen semi-structured interviews, carried out in Mexico in 2020, with representatives from shelters, universities and civil society organizations working with migrants and LGBTQ people. Queer people are disproportionally exposed to vulnerability in Mexico and migrating does not necessary imply that life becomes livable. Since their lives are likely to be understood as ungrievable lives by the heteronormative society, the violence and the exposure to vulnerability of this populations becomes largely invisible. Thus, religious shelters both include and exclude LGBTQ people, depending on how they imagine boundaries