Experimenting with Credibility in Refugee Adjudication: Gaydar

Abstract

Canada offers refugee protection to sexual minorities facing persecution abroad. While success rates for sexual minority refugee claims have generally been higher than the overall average at Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board, hundreds of such claims are nonetheless turned down each year. The most common reason for denying these claims is that assertions about the claimants’ sexual orientations are determined not to be credible. Scholars have raised concerns about how such credibility determinations are made. This article contributes to the critical literature in this area by exploring sexual minority refugee claim credibility assessments through an experimental study involving simulated refugee determinations. The experiment focuses on whether a claimant’s appearance affects the simulated adjudicator’s credibility determinations and written reasons provided to justify those determinations.

Keywords: Refugee, Asylum, Sexual Minorities, LGBTQ, Gender, Sexuality, Credibility, Evidence, Fact-Finding, Gaydar, Experimental, Refugee Law, Canada, Administrative Law