CRS Seminar: Experiences of LGBTQ+ Migrants: Preliminary Findings from the 2SLGBTQ+ Poverty in Canada Study

February 12, 2026

1:00 - 2:30pm

This is a hybrid event

In person: 626 Kaneff Tower, Keele Campus, York University

Virtually: https://yorku.zoom.us/meeting/register/VmhSi7QIRcaX71NMlhJ9Sw

Guest speakers: Roya Haghiri-Vijeh, Assistant Professor, School of Nursing, York University; Nick Mulé, Project Director, 2SLGBTQ+ Poverty in Canada and Professor, School of Social Work, York University; Hazal Goktas,  Postdoctoral Visitor, 2SLGBTQ+ Poverty project, York University

Abstract

2SLGBTQ+ Poverty in Canada: Improving Livelihood and Social Wellbeing Project is the first nation-wide study that examines the root causes and prevalence of poverty among 2SLGBTQ+ communities in Canada. Within this larger heterogenous demographic, LGBTQ+ migrants appear to be situated at a unique social location, and their experiences of poverty require an intersectional lens. In this talk, we will be presenting the preliminary findings from an arm of our study that shed light on some of the major challenges experienced by LGBTQ+ migrants in Canada, including but not limited to struggles in securing stable and safe housing, dealing with precarious employment, navigating the complicated terrain of bureaucracy and resettlement, and being subjected to anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ+ stereotypes within a rising reactionary sociopolitical landscape.

Bios

Hazal Göktaş is a Postdoctoral Visitor at York University working for the 2SLGBTQ+ Poverty in Canada: Improving Livelihood and Social Wellbeing Project. Within the Project, she leads a working group focused on the LGBTQ+ migrants and their experiences of poverty in Canada. Göktaş is a Turkish academic whose work investigates the rising anti-trans discourses and movements both in Global North and Turkey. Her research interests also include (2S)LGBTQ+ politics, moral panics, vigilantism, and humour/comedy.

Roya Haghiri-Vijeh (She/Her/Hers) is an assistant professor and researcher in the School of Nursing on the treaty lands and the territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. As a first-generation settler and an uninvited guest on this land, Roya is grateful for the opportunity to live and work here. Her scholarship, underpinned by Gadamerian Hermeneutics, interpretive phenomenology, and mixed methodologies, is focused on underserved populations and individuals who identify at the intersection of identities. In particular, her focus is to enhance and advance the health and social care needs of 2S LGBTQIA+ migrants, youths, and older adults. 

Nick J. Mulé, PhD, is a professor in the School of Social Work; cross appointed to the Sexuality Studies Program in the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies; the Department of Sociology; and the Faculty of Health at York University.  He is Project Director of the “2SLGBTQ+ Poverty in Canada: Improving Livelihood and Social Wellbeing” study.  His research interests include the social inclusion/exclusion of LGBTQI populations in social policy and service provision and the degree of their recognition as distinct communities in cultural, systemic, and structural contexts. He also engages in critical analysis of the LGBTQI movement and the development of queer liberation theory.