Understanding Concepts of Home: Photovoice Methodology with LGBTQ+ Refugees in Athens, Greece

Overview: Photovoice methodology was used to capture the lived experiences of LGBTQ+ refugees and asylum seekers living in Athens, Greece. Findings from this research illuminate the ways the participants negotiated identity, expressed hope for a better life, identified needed resources, and grappled with physical, emotional, and symbolic notions of home.Proposal text: Since 2015, Greece has been the main entry point into Europe for refugees and migrants fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and beyond. A report on homophobia in Greece submitted by i-RED (Institute for Rights, Equality and Diversity) found that discrimination, exclusion and verbal violence are frequently met and spread widely throughout the country. At the same time, dated law provisions create a highly negative and hostile landscape that deprives LGBTQ+ undocumented and displaced people of accessing needed resources and creates a discriminatory and violent public space (Pavlou, 2009). This photovoice research study aimed to understand and highlight the lived experiences of undocumented and displaced LGBTQ+ refugees and asylum seekers living in Athens, Greece, from their own perspective through photovoice methodology. Photovoice
methodology entails giving cameras to individuals who use photography to identify, represent, and enhance their community (Wang & Burris, 1997). Through photovoice, we captured the visual voices of 14 LGBTQ+ refugees and asylum seekers living in Athens, Greece. In collaboration with the LGBTQ+ Refugees Welcome Collective, we implemented photovoice methodology in order to place the power to create art & represent knowledge in the hands of the participants themselves. After each participant took their photographs, they engaged in dialogue about the meaning behind their photographs. We will present qualitative research findings from the in-depth dilaogues and photographs produced by the participants to highlight the social, political and economic challenges of displaced LGBTQ+ people from Syria, Iraq, Uganda, Cameroon, Pakistan, and Cuba, who hold intersecting identities related to race, class, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, age, religion, nationality, and citizenship status. Through this dialogue process, a within-case and cross-case content analysis of the photographs served to highlight important themes. The various themes that emerged from this photovoice data highlight the strength and resilience of LGBTQ+ refugees and asylum seekers as they negotiate identity, express hope for a better life, identify needed resources, and grapple with physical, emotional, and symbolic notions of home through photography. Their visual stories document their migration to Greece, the loved ones they left behind and the new communities they formed along the way, as they affirm their identities, build solidarity, create peace within and among themselves, and celebrate their survival.

After the photovoice dialogue sessions were all completed with the LGBTQ+ refugees and asylum seekers, each participant was invited to attend a group dialogue session, where the participants had the opportunity to share their photographs with one another. This process gave participants the chance to voice their individual and collective experiences. They also had the opportunity to plan for two community art exhibits. The photography art exhibits provided a forum for LGBTQ+ refugees and asylum seekers to share their lived experiences, perspectives, and artwork with the broader community. The participants were able to educate various stakeholders and individuals in the community and use art as activism for social change. We will conclude the presentation with a short video clip of the community art exhibit.