At the crossroads of intersectional discrimination: gendered and racialised experiences of housing and asylum in the UK

Abstract

The global displacement crisis has reached unprecedented levels, with millions of individuals forced to flee conflict and persecution in search of safety and basic human rights. This research critically examines the lived experiences of female asylum seekers in Glasgow, exploring their navigation of the UK’s asylum system and their ongoing struggle to secure the fundamental right to adequate housing. Coming from patriarchal societies where their voices are stifled, these women encounter new, compounded forms of marginalisation shaped by intersecting factors such as gender, race, ethnicity, immigration status, class, age, disability, and religion. Through an intersectional lens, this study exposes how systemic discrimination, gendered violence, institutional neglect, and racialised stigma severely impact their housing experiences, contributing to pervasive insecurity, loss of autonomy, and a profound sense of alienation. The research highlights not only the practical barriers women face in accessing safe housing but also the broader implications for their safety, dignity, and freedom of movement. Using qualitative methods, including in-depth semi-structured interviews with female asylum seekers and service providers, this study uncovers the deeply entrenched inequalities within asylum housing practices. Focusing on Glasgow, Scotland’s primary dispersal city, it provides a critical lens into the systemic failures of the asylum process and its gendered, racialised effects. By amplifying the voices of female asylum seekers and foregrounding the gendered and racialised dimensions of their marginalisation, this research makes a compelling case for urgent, rights-based reforms in asylum housing policies. It calls for a paradigm shift, one that prioritises dignity, equality, and the fundamental right to belonging at the heart of housing and asylum support systems. This research also incorporates an autoethnographic approach, drawing on my own lived experience as a Black female asylum seeker navigating the UK’s asylum and housing system. By situating myself within the research, I acknowledge the ways my positionality shapes the inquiry, enhances empathetic engagement with participants, and deepens the analysis of structural violence and everyday forms of exclusion. My journey offers a reflexive lens through which to interpret the narratives shared by other women, revealing both shared struggles and individual nuances that further illuminate the complexities of seeking asylum in a racialised and gendered system.