- IPV among LGBTIQ+ displaced persons is not solely interpersonal but structurally produced by migration governance, institutional neglect and heteronormative policy frameworks.
- Immigration systems enable abuse: law weaponised for coercive control, spousal legal dependency causes confinement, and institutional transphobia drives internal displacement.
- Findings call for asylum law reform, targeted LGBTIQ+ service provision and integrated research linking queer IPV, minority stress and migration governance.
J Homosex. 2026 Aug 3:1-27. doi: 10.1080/00918369.2026.2706597. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
This article examines how migration governance and minority stress intersect to shape intimate partner violence (IPV) among LGBTIQ+ displaced persons in Mexico. While existing scholarship has documented the mental health impacts of displacement and discrimination on sexual and gender minorities (SGM), little attention has been paid to how intimate relationships become sites where legal precarity, social isolation, and structural stigma converge to produce vulnerability to abuse. Drawing on a qualitative case study analysis of four theoretically selected cases from a wider sample of 37 LGBTIQ+ displaced persons and 12 civil society actors, the article demonstrates that IPV cannot be understood as a purely interpersonal phenomenon. It is structurally co-produced by migration governance, institutional neglect, and heteronormative policy frameworks. The cases reveal distinct but related causal configurations-from immigration law weaponized as coercive control, to spousal legal dependency producing confinement, to institutional transphobia driving internal displacement. Findings contribute to bridging literatures on queer IPV, minority stress, and migration governance, and carry implications for asylum policy, LGBTIQ+-specific service provision, and future research.
PMID:42546127 | DOI:10.1080/00918369.2026.2706597
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