Unpacking the Meanings of ‘a Normal Life’ Among Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Eastern Europeans in Scotland

This paper discusses the findings of an ESRC-funded project exploring the experiences of LGB migrants from Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union in Scotland (Jan 2015-Dec 2016). Adopting an intersectional approach, the project explores how sexuality interplays with other factors (such as class, gender, age, migrant status) in shaping decisions to migrate, experiences of transnational migration and settlement, networks of sociability and sense of belonging.  Drawing on biographical interviews with 50 LGB(T) migrants, the paper focuses on the narrative of an  ‘ordinary, normal life’, a common trope in interviews, and unpacks both material and emotional meanings attached to ‘security’ and ‘normality’. Findings are contextualised within the backdrop of post-accession East-West migration, typically framed as economic migration: earlier research has documented the importance of notions of ‘the good life’ in migrants’ accounts of their motivations (Galasinska and Koslowska 2009; McGhee et al 2013). The paper foregrounds LGB migrants’ experiences around sexuality in Scotland, a country that offers greater recognition of LGBT rights than migrants’ countries of origin, reflecting a very uneven policy and legal landscape around LGBT rights in Europe. We explore the ways in which different institutional contexts mattered to LGB migrants, responding to Richardson (2004)’s call to consider the impact of the ‘normalisation’ of non-heterosexual subjects through law and policy reform at the level of everyday interaction. Although interviews were collected before the EU referendum, we also offer some speculative reflections on how Brexit may affect migrants’ sense of security and prospects for the future.