LGBT+ migrants’ paths to Chile: intersectional violence and citizenship

This paper analyses the backgrounds of LGBT+ migrants living in Chile, and considers the various types of violence they experience at the intersection of vectors of differentiation: national origin, sexual orientation–gender identity and socioeconomic position, as well as markers of ethnicity and racialisation. The results show that many LGBT+ migrants leave their place of origin not only because of social and economic factors, but also due to the discrimination and violence they experience due to their sexual or gender identity, which is known as sexile. These forms of violence occur throughout their migrant experience in ways that vary but are nevertheless constant. In the context of migrant reception in Chile, the presence of these people poses a double threat to the State’s hetero(cis)patriarchal order, on the one hand, and the national order, on the other, straining the conventional idea of ​​citizenship.