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This book examines the role of hook-up apps in the lives of gay, bi, trans, and queer immigrants and refugees, and how the online culture of these platforms promotes belonging or exclusion. Within the context of the so-called European refugee crisis, this research focuses on the experiences of immigrants from especially Muslim-majority countries to the greater Copenhagen area, a region known for both its progressive ideologies and its anti-immigrant practices. Grindr and similar platforms connect newcomers with not only dates and sex, but also friends, roommates and other logistical contacts. But these socio-sexual platforms also become spaces of racialization and othering. Weaving together analyses of real Grindr profile texts, immigrant narratives, political rhetoric, and popular media, Immigrants on Grindr provides an in-depth look at the complex interplay between online and offline cultures, and between technology and society.
List of contents
1. The Politics of Rescuing Gay Immigrants in Denmark: "We all have a responsibility... to save them...".- 2. Reflections on Ethnographic Work About and Via Grindr: "Your skin is white... You will receive like 14 messages in one hour".- 3. Newcomers and Logistical Uses of Socio-Sexual Media: "Looking for friends and maybe more".- 4. Racist Speech in a Socio-Sexual Culture: "Looking for North Europeans only".- 5. Drop-down Menus, Racial Identification and the Weight of Labels: "White is a colour, Middle Eastern is not a colour".- 6. Challenging Political and Socio-Sexual Online Cultures: "Vi Hygger Os".
About the author
Andrew D.J. Shield is Assistant Professor at Leiden University, Netherlands, where he specializes in sexuality, migration, and diversity studies. He is the author of
Immigrants in the Sexual Revolution (2017),
and co-founder of the Leiden Queer History Network. He lives and bikes in Amsterdam and Copenhagen.
