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Article: How Do Legal Aid Cuts in England and Wales Impact LGBTQ+ People Seeking Asylum? Perspectives from Providers and Directly Affected People

TitleHow Do Legal Aid Cuts in England and Wales Impact LGBTQ+ People Seeking Asylum? Perspectives from Providers and Directly Affected People
Authors
Alessi, Edward J.Alexander, LillianLee, Yong GunFletcher, ClaireAziz, AyeshaZadeh, Leila
KeywordsAsylum
Legal aid
LGBTQ+
Structural violence
Trauma-informed lawyering
Issue Date13-Jul-2024
PublisherSpringer
Citation
Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 2024 How to Cite?
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13178-024-01011-5
Abstract

Introduction: LGBTQ+ people seeking asylum in England and Wales may experience disproportionate risk due to recent cutbacks in legal aid services, including inconsistent standards for determining the credibility of asylum claims and the inability to obtain essential resources. Methods: Interviews were conducted with legal, social care, and mental health professionals (n = 17) and directly affected people (n = 9) from January to April 2023 to explore how legal aid cuts shape the experiences of LGBTQ+ people seeking asylum in England and Wales. Results: Guided by the concept of structural violence and employing constructivist grounded theory analysis, this qualitative study identified four themes demonstrating the impact of legal aid cuts: making it difficult to find solicitors with expertise in working with LGBTQ+ people seeking asylum; forcing solicitors to make difficult choices about the clients they accept; compromising the ability of solicitors to build the trust needed to work with LGBTQ+ people seeking asylum; and compounding life instabilities for LGBTQ+ people seeking asylum. Conclusions: Findings reveal that legal aid cuts contribute to structural violence against LGBTQ+ people seeking asylum by constraining the ability of solicitors to properly represent their asylum claims and thus prolonging the deleterious conditions faced by this population. Policy Implications: Efforts are needed to ensure access to legal aid services for LGBTQ+ people seeking asylum in England and Wales. Adequately funding legal aid services would also better enable solicitors to apply trauma-informed legal practices, which is imperative for effectively engaging with and representing LGBTQ+ people seeking asylum.


Persistent Identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/347622
ISSN
1868-9884
2023 Impact Factor: 2.5
2023 SCImago Journal Rankings: 0.874

 

DC FieldValueLanguage
dc.contributor.authorAlessi, Edward J.-
dc.contributor.authorAlexander, Lillian-
dc.contributor.authorLee, Yong Gun-
dc.contributor.authorFletcher, Claire-
dc.contributor.authorAziz, Ayesha-
dc.contributor.authorZadeh, Leila-
dc.date.accessioned2024-09-25T06:05:47Z-
dc.date.available2024-09-25T06:05:47Z-
dc.date.issued2024-07-13-
dc.identifier.citationSexuality Research and Social Policy, 2024-
dc.identifier.issn1868-9884-
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/347622-
dc.description.abstract<p>Introduction: LGBTQ+ people seeking asylum in England and Wales may experience disproportionate risk due to recent cutbacks in legal aid services, including inconsistent standards for determining the credibility of asylum claims and the inability to obtain essential resources. Methods: Interviews were conducted with legal, social care, and mental health professionals (n = 17) and directly affected people (n = 9) from January to April 2023 to explore how legal aid cuts shape the experiences of LGBTQ+ people seeking asylum in England and Wales. Results: Guided by the concept of structural violence and employing constructivist grounded theory analysis, this qualitative study identified four themes demonstrating the impact of legal aid cuts: making it difficult to find solicitors with expertise in working with LGBTQ+ people seeking asylum; forcing solicitors to make difficult choices about the clients they accept; compromising the ability of solicitors to build the trust needed to work with LGBTQ+ people seeking asylum; and compounding life instabilities for LGBTQ+ people seeking asylum. Conclusions: Findings reveal that legal aid cuts contribute to structural violence against LGBTQ+ people seeking asylum by constraining the ability of solicitors to properly represent their asylum claims and thus prolonging the deleterious conditions faced by this population. Policy Implications: Efforts are needed to ensure access to legal aid services for LGBTQ+ people seeking asylum in England and Wales. Adequately funding legal aid services would also better enable solicitors to apply trauma-informed legal practices, which is imperative for effectively engaging with and representing LGBTQ+ people seeking asylum.</p>-
dc.languageeng-
dc.publisherSpringer-
dc.relation.ispartofSexuality Research and Social Policy-
dc.rightsThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.-
dc.subjectAsylum-
dc.subjectLegal aid-
dc.subjectLGBTQ+-
dc.subjectStructural violence-
dc.subjectTrauma-informed lawyering-
dc.titleHow Do Legal Aid Cuts in England and Wales Impact LGBTQ+ People Seeking Asylum? Perspectives from Providers and Directly Affected People-
dc.typeArticle-
dc.identifier.doi10.1007/s13178-024-01011-5-
dc.identifier.scopuseid_2-s2.0-85198367499-
dc.identifier.eissn1553-6610-
dc.identifier.issnl1553-6610-

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