Overview

Australia is a country of migrants. People come here for a wide range of reasons. One of those is sexual orientation.

Compared to most countries in the world, Australia is very liberal and accepting of Gay and Lesbian sexual orientation. Sexual orientation can be a motive for migrating to Australia, and is acknowledged as such by the Australian administration in two ways:
- Migrants from countries where homosexuality is punished by death penalty can claim refugee status in Australia
- Gay or Lesbian people in a relationship with an Australian citizen (or resident?) can move to Australia on grounds of that relationship.
There are also cases of individuals who choose to migrate to Australia because of their sexual orientation, but go through different channels, such as skilled migration, studies, etc.

Migration is a long journey that starts overseas and finishes here, with some degree of acceptance and integration in Australian society. As they engage on this journey, migrants develop a story, that they tell themselves and other people, of how they decided to leave and why, and what happened to them along the way. But for that journey to be possible, they also need to engage with the Australian authorities and a – sometimes heavy and harsh – legal and administrative system that will hopefully allow them to remain in Australia. In this exhibition, we want to show the contrast between personal narratives of journeys to Australia, and the bureaucratic process that underlies and accompanies it. Our purpose is to cast light on the complex interaction between administrative frameworks and human lives. We also want to reflect in our exhibition the social, gender, ethnic and generational variety of gay and lesbian migrants to Australia.