Self‑Selection Among Sexual Orientation Refugees to Sweden: The Role of Support Organisations in Destination Countries

In recent years, scholarly attention on sexual orientation asylum‑seekers has markedly increased. However, the role of support organisations in destination countries remains unclear. Organisations are central, both as much research relies on LGBTQ+ organisations within receiving countries for knowledge production, which may skew perspectives and limit generalizability, and as migration authorities often depend on these organisations to ensure the well‑being of asylum‑seekers. This article explores the role of support organisations, specifically LGBTQ+ organisations, by analysing their presence in a representative sample of asylum decisions from Sweden. The aim is to clarify their function in sorting processes among sexual orientation asylum‑seekers. The findings reveal that sexual orientation claimants involved in LGBTQ+ organisations originate from a narrower range of countries, submit more written evidence and are processed differently by the Swedish Migration Agency relative to regular sexual orientation claimants. These insights highlight both the potential limited outreach of such organisations and the potential risks in current knowledge‑production methods that may fail to adequately capture the diversity and complexities of the broader queer community.