LGBTQ Forced Migrants\u27 Labor Market Integration In Mexico City: Perspectives From Mexico\u27s Government Agencies, International Organizations, and Mexican Civil Society

Mexico holds a unique position as a country of immigration, emigration, refuge, transit, and return migration. In recent decades, researchers have built awareness on the country’s received migrants’ diverse characteristics by posing questions and tackling the challenges that certain migrants face. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) forced migrants have become increasingly visible since the exodus of asylum-seekers from Central America. Many of these LGBTQ migrants flee state and non-state actors that present life-threatening conditions for the LGBTQ community. Though Mexico as a whole is going through its own evolution on LGBTQ and migrants’ rights, its capital city has emerged as an attractive possibility for an inclusive future in which LGBTQ forced migrants can flourish under the city’s progressive political culture and LGBTQ counterparts. While Mexican society as whole faces its own reckoning with gender diversity and identity, Mexico’s capital is seen as the LGBTQ Mecca of Latin America, offering a suitable glimpse into how LGBTQ migrants integrate into the local labor market. This paper aims to highlight the promotion of labor market integration of LGBTQ forced migrants in Mexico City through the lens of local and federal government agencies, international organizations, and local civil society groups. Through semi-structured interviews with the aforementioned actors, this paper aims to shed light on the extent to which LGBTQ forced migrants are included in recent concerted efforts to advance labor market integration for Mexico City’s forced migrant community