ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how sexuality shapes, and becomes reshaped by, international migration. It first historicizes the concept of sexuality, and explains why sexuality must be analyzed as distinct from, although deeply intertwined with, gender in shaping international migration. The chapter then reviews major scholarship on sexuality and international migration that addresses the following themes: (1) challenging normative models of migrant sexual assimilation or acculturation and, instead, analyzing relations of power that underpin sexual transformations; (2) understanding the subjectifying, ideological, and material effects of discourses about migrant sexualities; and (3) tracking the interconnections between sexualities and political economies when theorizing causes of migration. The chapter concludes by discussing emerging research that focuses on: the interconnections between dominant sexual norms and migrants’ possibilities for accessing legal status; how migrants become incorporated through norms of sexuality, intimacy, and affect; and contributions by scholarship that centers transgender migrants.
