This ongoing project examines the asylum assessment of individuals who invoke sexual orientation and gender identity (LGBTQI) as grounds for asylum in Sweden. Asylum claims related to sexual orientation or gender identity constitute a distinct category, as they are based on internal processes rather than external events. In the assessment of such claims, not only is the credibility of a person’s actions evaluated, but also their sexual orientation and identity. The investigations may therefore be experienced as intrusive and traumatizing for asylum seekers.
There is currently limited research that analyses this question, particularly robust, quantitative research on how these cases are assessed. Therefore, this policy brief aims to fill the current academic gap by summarising three studies by Wimark (2025) covering the asylum assessment of individuals who claim sexual orientation and gender identity as grounds for asylum. The studies are based on 3,588 randomly selected asylum decisions from the Swedish Migration Agency (2020) and combine descriptive statistics with logistic regression models with the purpose of examining how the likelihood of being granted asylum varies across different grounds of asylum, and which factors influence approval rates.
The policy brief’s author is Thomas Wimark, Associate Professor of Human Geography at Uppsala University.