Introduction

1Between 1819 and the end of the 1940s, Brazil received approximately five million immigrants, mainly Italians, Portuguese, Spaniards, Germans and Japanese, as well as numerically expressive migratory groups, such as Russians, Austrians, Syrians and Lebanese (Seyferth 2007). However, as a recipient of immigrants, Brazil registered a significant reduction in migratory flows in the post-war period. In the 1970s and 1980s, there was an increase in the presence of Hispanic-American immigrants (Argentines, Uruguayans, Bolivians, Paraguayans, etc.) exiled from the Southern Cone dictatorships, as well as Colombian refugees (Silva 2008).

2Since 2008, the country has again become a destination for several migratory groups and, more expressively, for immigrants and refugees from the so-called Global South (Santos 2010), such as Haitians, Senegalese, Congolese, Angolans, Chinese and Syrians. Among the factors which have contributed to this migration growth in the country are the intensification of immigration policies in the North, the global economic crisis that hit the United States of America and Europe in the first decade of the 2000s, the increase in the number of refugees from countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Syria, the improvement of the Brazilian economy and the execution of infrastructure works related to two major international events—the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games (Cogo and Badet 2013).

5The approach thus contemplates the relationships between the trajectories and the migratory projects of LGBTQI+ migrant subjects, the uses of ICTs and the consequences of abjection due to non-hegemonic sexual orientation and/or gender identity (Butler 2011). That is, we ponder that the experiences of displacement influence both the way LGBTQI+ subjects experience this process and their gender and/or sexuality expressions.

6The qualitative methodology was based on the collection of data related to two instances: 1. Migrant subjects and collectives; and 2. Mediatic materialities.

8The second instance concentrates on the interrelations between the (in)visibilities of LGBTQI+ migrant subjects and ICTs. Its purpose is to understand the dynamics of media consumption and its uses by LGBTQI+ immigrants and refugees and also its incidence on the dynamics of (in)visibility and on the exercise of citizenship of those immigrants. We can point out in this instance the role of the media in the (dis)constructions of imaginaries about Brazil as a destination country and the use of social networking sites for establishing interactions, both of migrant subjects and collectives.

9From those two instances, we have adopted three methodological procedures of data collection in the research:

10a) Semi-structured interviews conducted with six LGBTQI+ immigrants and refugees residents in the city of São Paulo, carried out during the year 2018. The main objective is related to obtaining information about their migratory projects: the reasons for coming to Brazil, the arrival in the country, the adaptation, the difficulties, the similarities and differences with the country of origin, the interaction with the—symbolic and physical—spaces of the city and the uses and appropriations of media in this process.

11As a criterion for the selection of those subjects, we only stipulated that they come from countries of the Global South. Although South-North flows are more visibilized in the approach to migration, flows towards the South of the planet are already numerically equated with South-North dislocations, pointing to a redistribution of their dynamics (De Waden 2016). In addition to that, among the countries which have some type of penalty in relation to LGBTQI+ subjects, most of them are also found in the Global South.

12It should be noted that the invisibility of those subjects in the public space also impacts the development of the research itself, since it impairs its location, access and approach with a view to its participation in the study. Therefore, the establishment of other selection criteria, such as age, nationality, residence time in the country, etc., could interfere in the continuity of the research.

Table 1. General information about the interviewed

Interviwee*	Country of Origin	Age	Migratory Condition	Time residing in Brazil**	Data of the interview
Antônia	Mozambique	34	In situation of refuge	5 years	apr. 2018
Carla	Colombia	44	Immigrant	15 years	may. 2018
Cesar	Bolivia	32	Immigrant	4 years	nov. 2018
Jorge	Argentina	37	Immigrant	6 years	nov. 2018
José	Peru	23	Immigrant	4 months	mar. 2018
Lucas	Cuba	29	In situation of refuge	1 year and 5 months	oct. 2018

* The name of the interviewees was changed to preserve anonymity.

** At the moment of the interview.

Source: of own elaboration.

13b) Observation of three communicational interaction spaces of LGBTQI+ immigrants and refugees in the city of São Paulo. We have found a shortage of initiatives targeted specifically at those subjects in the city of São Paulo, both by public authorities and by migratory social movements, such as immigrant associations or NGOs.

Table 2. General information about interaction spaces observed.

Nome of the event	Realization	Place and Date
Sarau Troca & Ação	Keyllen Nieto and Lorena Cascallana, with support from Casa 1 and from Centro de Referência e Atendimento ao Imigrante (CRAI)	Galpão da Casa 1, central region of the city of São Paulo, 11/11/2017
Roda de Conversa Refugiados LGBTQIA+	3rd International Conference [SSEX-BBOX]	Centro Cultural São Paulo, 11/17/2017
2nd Meeting of Lesbian and Bisexual Immigrant Women from São Paulo	Lesbian and Bisexual Immigrant Women from São Paulo Network	Galpão da Casa 1, central region of the city of São Paulo, 05/26/2018

Source: of own elaboration.

14The observation aimed to identify the existence of spaces in the city of São Paulo created by institutions or migrant collectives, specifically to articulate and debate the experiences of LGBTIQ+ immigrants and refugees. We aim to understand how, in these spaces, the dynamics of (in)visibility and the communicational interactions of these subjects are developed.

15c) Collection on digital media of materials produced and/or directed to LGBTQI+ migrant subjects. They come from events related to the LGBTQI+ immigration issue in the city of São Paulo. The collection was made on the social networking site Facebook, since it has a tool which allows events creation, where it is possible to disclose basic information (such as date, location, organizers, etc.) and details about its accomplishment (objectives, contact details data of the organizers, discussion page, etc.). The three events that we have analyzed in this work were publicly disclosed on Facebook.

Table 3. General information on collection of materials produced and / or directed at LGBTQI+ migrant subjects

Material	Source	Type of material	Tools for collection	Collection date
Sarau Troca & Ação	Personal profile of Keyllen Nieto on social networking site Facebook	Disclosure of event	Facebook	Nov. 2017
Refugees LGBTQIA+	3rd International Conference [SSEX-BBOX]	Disclosure of event	Facebook	Nov. 2017
2nd Meeting of Lesbian and Bisexual Immigrant Women from São Paulo	Lesbian and Bisexual Immigrant Women Network	Disclosure of event	Facebook	Mai. 2018

Source: of own elaboration.

16From these instances that make up the corpus of analysis, the objective is to verify how the dynamics of (in)visibility operate in the experience of LGBTIQ+ immigrants and refugees. By articulating the observation of experiences of LGBTIQ+ migrant subjects in the urban context of the city of São Paulo, spaces of communicational interaction and media uses and appropriations for the elaboration of contents produced by and/or directed to LGBTIQ+ migrant subjects, it is possible to compose a multifactorial approach analysis of how the (in)visibility of a non-hegemonic sexual orientation and/or gender identity in the public space produces concrete impacts on the migratory experience of these subjects.

17Next, we initially developed a theoretical reflection on the interrelationships among globalization, capitalism and ICTs and also on the concept of abjection, to think about the specificities of the migration of LGBTQI+ subjects and the (in)visibility paradoxes. Subsequently, we present and analyze the set of empirical data collected.

Globalization, ICTs and migratory movements

19Being immersed in this context, we may find it hard to assimilate the continuous progress of shortening of distances and the consequent time acceleration, which reshapes both flows of capital (encompassing goods and services) and ways of experiencing a new configuration of multiple spatiality and temporalities (Harvey 2011). Therefore, if migrations have always been a constant in the history of humanity, from the establishment of this scenario, it would be naive to assume that they would not intensify: the dynamics that integrate the (techno)capital are closely accompanied by the flows of life in motion (Retis 2012).

20We see increasing accentuation on the joining of capital (and its productive system), of technique and subject, guiding the conformation of a globalized world. This world is above all, based on an extremely interconnected technosphere: images, ideas, values, institutions, markets, people, the reality itself mediated permanently by the primacy of the technological (Silverstone 2010). Product of an ever-changing economic and political order, globalization is shaped by a multifaceted imperialism, strongly anchored in capital and technique. However, we must not ignore the inequalities involved in the process—and which are for it, structuring.

21As Santos (2017) specifies, on the one hand, we can verify that globalization is characterized mainly by expressive increases in trade and financial exchanges, within an international economy which breaks the traditional boundaries of the modern world (including those of the Nation States). Its dynamism and core strength reside in the supremacy of economic integration engendered and coordinated by rules that are based on a (neo)liberalist ideology. On the other hand, we must not abstain from considering it as a phenomenon that is partial, asymmetrical and always unfinished, presenting a series of difficulties and slowness in the fulfillment of the promises of a more interconnected and equitable world.

22Flexible accumulation, indirect production course, financialization and dematerialisation of capital, ephemerality, disposability and rupture of border fixity are just some of the consequences (Harvey 2011). Increasingly sustained and potentialized by the domain of ICTs, capital is laid as a key element of social organization, which enables it to create its own geographies. It is for this reason that our sociabilities become more permeated by the circulations of capital, to remodel even the way of experiencing the spatiality and temporalities. There is then scope for a new conformation of both political-economic practices and social and cultural life, reaching the dimension of the subject in their ways of thinking, feeling and acting (Harvey 2011).

23Fed by the dynamics of capital, the globalization process promotes and at the same time is a direct beneficiary of ICT advances, stimulating a constant deterritorialization and reterritorialization of social life in the contemporaneity. In this context, the resulting technical developments from there, foster the bonds established between, in and by the migratory flows (Retis 2012). This conjunction, especially in its mediatic sphere, has profound reflexes in the production-circulation-consumption of images and imaginary that also resonate in migratory movements. Such reflexes are produced both at individual level—as a factor in the decision to migrate, in the migratory project, in the insertion of the destination locality—and collective—in the establishment of transnational sociocommunication networks, in the (de)construction of representations, in activism.

24Such complexities invite us to consider that the migratory flows are extremely permeated by communication practices, crossed by multiple technological mediations. Their uses and appropriations remain as background to the geographic dispersions of subjects and communities in the contemporainety, re-echoing and incorporating their undeniable diversity (Retis 2012). The sociocommunicabilities encompassed in the diasporic context that we see intensify, generate experiences strictly mediated by the tekné, which resemantize in everyday life (De Certeau 1990). It is not just about an access to media tools, but also about a sharing of human experiences which articulate and reiteratedly (re)compose different forms of sociability (Retis 2012).

25Therefore, migratory flows are crossed by the use, appropriation and mediation of ICTs, which construct and disseminate representations about migrations, allow the constitution and/or maintenance of social networks (local, national, inter and transnational) and the linkage and visibility of demands for immigrants’ rights and citizenship (Cogo, ElHajji, Huertas 2012). As a social movement, migrations possess strong relations with communication technologies, mainly due to their articulation with the exercise of citizenship.

26ICTs media potentialities are part of the life experiences of those who migrate. They are essential for the architecture of strategic spaces of citizenship in different areas, such as the production and maintenance of sociability bonds, relations with the country of origin, demands for public policies, activism and even in the symbolic and representational construction of both Nation-state and social relations that each migrant establishes in their displacements. ICTs thus allow the structure and maintenance of social networks and their greater spatial-temporal integration at all levels, from local to transnational. However, they are not exempt from certain conditionings (social, economic, political, institutional, etc.) and hierarchies that can restrict their access and uses, making interactions difficult among those subjects.

27Being primordial instances of symbolic representation, the media may be suitable to reaffirm or challenge the countless borders that are established in relation to this Other-migrant. This means that this communication order is not exempt from power relations which establish inequalities with respect to what Georgiou (2018) calls «bordering power». Bordering power is reflected in a hierarchical disposition of migrants and refugees’ humanity, contributing to a series of precariousness, such as mobility control, conditional recognition and even the risk of death.

28Therefore, ICTs media potentialities in mediation of voice and silencing, visibility and invisibility, are fundamental for the construction of public representations on the thematic of migration, which reverberate in the fields of politics, ethics, economics and security. In this sense, they are capable at the same time of reinforcing or destabilizing the recognition of migrants and refugees as subjects of law and possessors of a human condition (Georgiou 2018).

29In the case of LGBTQI+ subjects immigration, there is an element that complicates this whole process, which we call (in)visibility paradox. If, on the one hand, it is necessary to become publicly and mediatically visible so that demands, claims or even social existence are at least manifested, on the other, this visibility is susceptible to a heterogeneity of frameworks (not always positive) and precariousness that the public exposure of a gender identity and/or non-hegemonic sexual orientation may entail. In short, the visibility of the experiences of LGBTQI+ immigrants might be of use to claim a condition of resistance and (r)existence, including the claim for social and public policies, but might also aggravate a framework of vulnerability. On the opposite bias, invisibility can both represent a form of violence (as it produces the erasure of the life experiences of those subjects) and a protective locus which guarantees the recognition of existence and rights.

30In addition, in a world system increasingly based on the imagery ordering of reality (Rancière 2003), the fights for rights and citizenship for minority groups, such as LGBTQI+ subjects and LGBTQI+ migrants, are now conditioned by visibility processes (Rocha 2009). However, the dominance of visualities in contemporary societies also obey the logic of capital and globalization, which usually leads to a profusion, spectacularization and stereotypy of images to be produced, conveyed and consumed. This can lead to an emptying of its political force of transformation, which becomes more of a trap to the clashes around difference issues.

From abjection to (in)visibility

32When addressing the issue of migration as an object of study, it is very important to keep in mind the dimension of the subject involved in the experiences of geographical displacement. It is in this sense that Mezzadra (2005) argues that we must understand migrations as a social movement, since they are laid on a historically, socially and culturally achictetured basis of experience. That is fundamental to avoid falling into the risk of reducing it to its «objective» causes, conditioning it exclusively to economic metrics or demographic estimates. Obviously, taking into account the subjective scope of migrants’ experiences does not mean eliminating objective causes, nor disregarding the fact that their condition may be pretermitted by circumstances of symbolic or material deprivation, by processes of exploitation and domination, not to mention the dynamics exclusion and expulsion (Mezzadra 2005, Sassen 2014). Nevertheless, it is the subjective aspects that distinguish the experiences of those who migrate and to whom we must direct our gaze, especially when dealing with the migration of LGBTQI+ subjects.

34Abjection is deeply linked to the transgression of the boundaries of what is socioculturally conceived as «normality» (Butler 2011). Ambiguity, pollution and danger are its main characteristics, which gives it a disturbing strength of identities, of order, of the hegemonic system. Abject subjectivity thus represents an «anomaly» in the processes of regulation of this normality, and the abject subject becomes a being whose social legibility begins to collapse. The main consequence is an ostensive rejection which impels them to a space of non-existence, aggravated by invisibilities or harmful visibilities and silencing (De Genova 2010). To a greater or lesser extent, abjection interweaves the experiences of every LGBTQI+ subject, and might be accentuated by migratory processes.

36Regarding internal displacements (within the border of the nation-state), migration from rural to urban areas and from small to large cities was and continues to recur to LGBTQI+ subjects (La Fountain-Stokes 2009). By giving greater freedom to the expression of differences, a minor social vigilance and a relative anonymity, large urban spaces, especially metropolitan conglomerates, exert a strong attractiveness to these subjects, representing a singular ambience (spatial and symbolic) to the architecture of subjectivities «dissidents». But, evidently, the violence targeted at LGBTQI+ subjects does not cease to occur in those places.

37As in what concerns inter or transnational migrations, it is necessary to consider two variables. The first refers to migrations of a voluntary nature, which may result from varied migratory projects: studies, work, family bonds, cultural and socioeconomic factors, etc. In this category of human mobility, the migrant is not strictly compelled to leave their country of origin. In fact, it undertakes a migratory project encompassing a set of objective and subjective factors, both material and immaterial, although the question of sexual orientation and/or gender identity may also be indirectly present, operating as a decisive principle for migration.

38The second variable is relative to a specific category of human displacement, which encompasses conditioning to a regulated migratory status: the refuge. In 1951, in the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, it was agreed to characterize the refugee as a person who «fears persecution on grounds of race, religion, nationality, social group or political opinion, is outside the country of their nationality and who cannot, or due to this fear, does not wish to avail themselves of the protection of that country» (UN 1951). In 1967, with the Protocol on the Status of Refugees, these criteria became more widely applicable under international law for the acceptability of refugee applications. However, in none of the documents, sexual orientation or gender identity are explicitly listed as reasons pertinent to the application and granting of refugee status (Nascimento 2018).

40Nevertheless, in the absence of a legal specification guaranteeing the full protection of LGBTQI+ refugees, the acceptability of the request for refuge and its granting are subject to a subjective understanding on the part of the legal body of the destination State. In the United States, for example, it is sometimes necessary to prove that the LGBTQI+ refugee applicant has (or has had) individualized social visibility (Nascimento 2018)—which demonstrates the communicational dimension of such visibility. In this case, disregarding the criterion of «social group», it is not enough to be LGBTQI+, one must look LGBTQI+, that is, to express legibility characteristics which show a non-hegemonic sexual orientation and/or gender identity, which goes through the public visibility of subjectivity in codes preconceived and formatted according to the reverse of «normality» standard. As can be seen, this process is extremely intricate and subordinate to a series of institutional «approvals» in the country of destination, going strictly through both the grounds for the fear of persecution and the (often «visual») evidence of a certain sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

41This scenario allows us to verify that the (in)visibilities of and in the migratory experiences of LGBTQI+ subjects have a significant relevance. This is because it is in the game between the becoming to be visible or to remain invisible that possibilities of resistance or of (re)existence are processed, individually or collectively. In this sense, it is also worth mentioning that the abjection, from the unintelligibility within the economy of normative and normalizing distinctions of the hegemonic order, has a political potential. Its destabilizing force produces and reconfigures political spaces, questioning precisely what and who can be political and do politics (De Genova 2010). Consequently, it confronts political regimes based on a supposed impossibility for second-class citizens or «non-citizens» to be able to become visible, speak and occupy public spaces in their fights for rights and citizenship. When its added to that the problematization about mobility, for example, one must recognize that abjection is equally capable of shaking the constituent borders of the Nation-state, other factor that causes LGBTQI+ subjects to be often perceived as a threat.

42We must not forget that all those instances are interspersed by the uses, mediations and appropriations of ICTs, which are central to the architecture of visibility policies. Wesling (2008) points out, for example, that the increased visibility of LGBTQI+ subjects in the globalized media circulation has fostered the recognition of differences and mobilizations so that they are not only «tolerated», but also accepted as an integral part of our human condition. Obviously, we must not abstain from problematizing the ways in which these visibilities are produced, conveyed and consumed, since, as previously discussed, not all visibility is in itself positive, and there is always the risk of a naturalization or spectacularization of the imagery, which leads to a concealment of the power games and of the control mechanisms that go through it (Rocha 2009). Again, we are faced with traps and dilemmas implicated in (in)visibility regimes, as a result of the tensioning between the scarcity and excessiveness of visuality, active both in the sense of an «essentialization» of difference and of political fights for access to rights and promotion of the exercise of citizenship.

43In a context that is increasingly mediatized and mediated by ICTs, there is a need of reflecting not only on the configuration of the production-circulation-consumption of visibilities, but also equally on the dimension of the subject contained in them. Such considerations emphasize that, when regarding life experiences of LGBTQI+ migrant subjects, the inequalities, asymmetries and discriminations that the compulsory order of sex/gender/desire triggers (Butler 2011) must be taken into account. What becomes fundamental so that migratory flows are not perceived as an amorphous mass of subjects, nor to make invisible the minority representative groups which integrate them.

44Therefore, amid these intricate (in)visibility paradoxes, there are few certainties and many challenges. What is in fact acknowledged are the dilemmas between becoming visibilized or not, how oneself becomes visibilized minimizing the risks of an even more serious precarization of existence, or even, when and in which places, to promote this visibility of difference. The tensions between visibility and invisibility of and in the migration of LGBTQI+ subjects, as well as their engenderings in the exercise of citizenship, are configured in the daily (political) practices of the interactions between social actors, in their doing, in resistance tactics (De Certeau 1990). In the case of migration of LGBTQI+ subjects, it becomes paramount the problematization of the construction of meanings entangled in their (in)visibilities, since it is from this that we can think of policies of visibility as a field of dispute for citizenship.

Data analysis

45Oriented by the previous theoretical reflections, we have structured in two axes the analysis of the empirical data of the research:

1. Consume and use of ICTs in the construction of mobility projects. We analyzed how immigrants and LGBTQI+ refugees residents in the city of São Paulo seize the communication potential of ICTs in the planning of their geographic displacements. We focused on the choice of migratory destinations, demarcated by the dynamics of (in)visibility, and on the (de)construction of imaginaries about Brazil and the city of São Paulo as a context of international immigration.

2. Consumption and uses of ICTs in visibility dynamics. We verified the impacts of ICTs on the communication and visibility of the singularities of the experiences of LGBTQI+ migrant subjects in the city of São Paulo. It is highlighted the role of ICTs, especially digital networks, as mediators in the insertion and construction of interaction spaces by LGBTQI+ migrant subjects in Brazil and in the city of São Paulo.

Consumption and use of ICTs in the construction of mobility projects

46From the data obtained in the semi-structured interviews, we carried out a survey on the consumption and uses of ICTs by the six immigrants and refugees residing in the city of São Paulo, as it can be seen on table 4.

Table 4. ICT consumption and uses by LGBTQI+ immigrants

Interviwee	Country of Origin	Age	Consume and use of ICTs
Antônia	Mozambique	34	* Soup Operas: important in the decision to immigration to Brazil, due to the representation of homosexuality * TV: construction of imaginaries about Brazil and the city of Sao Paulo (freedom and respect for LGBTQI+ subjects and generalized violence, respectively)
Carla	Colombia	44	* Internet: source of information that impacts the decision to migrate to São Paulo * ICT: construction of imaginaries and stereotypes about Brazil (racial democracy, welcoming people, samba, caipirinha, football) * Social Networking Sites: Political Positions and Activism
Cesar	Bolivia	32	* Internet: important in the process of insertion in the country (information about the city, job search, knowledge about rights) * Internet: establishment of affective bonds (family and friends) and transnational migration networks (support to other immigrants) * Soup Operas: important for the creation of artistic performances like drag queen * TV: with emphasis on the consumption of news programs
Jorge	Argentina	37	* ICTs: construction of a «romanticized» imaginary on Brazil (carnival and sexual freedom, racial democracy, Brazilian popular culture) * TV and brazilian news portals
José	Peru	23	* Internet: source of information that impacts the decision to migrate to São Paulo * ICTs: important in the process of adaptation * Social networking sites: participation in online community of countrymen
Lucas	Cuba	29	* Soap Opera: construction of imaginerirs about Brazil * TV: mportant in the process of insertion in the country (language learning and information on local events) * Internet: establishment of affective bonds (family and friends) and transnational migration networks (support to other immigrants)

Source: own elaboration

47We can see that the consumption of television products is quite present. It is related to the different uses that those migrants make of their contents, highlighting the obtaining of information about the current situation of the country and the learning of the Portuguese language. Other television media product that proves to be relevant mainly in the construction of the imaginary about Brazil are the soap operas. This is evident when Antonia, for example, explains how she started her migratory project:

It was one of the soap operas I watched there in Mozambique that also encouraged me to come to Brazil. [...] There [on the soap opera] there was a lesbian couple, but one of them was afraid of talking to her father about it, out of fear of rejection. But in the end, everything went well. This approach issue, to me, was very important. Because if you are in a country where people talk about it, it is easier for you to get along with people, it is easier for you to demand respect, which is the basis (Antônia 2018).

49From the consumption of the soap opera, new forms of (re)signification can be deduced, as it is evident in Antonia’s case. Only the fact of being able to see the existence of a women couple in a mediatic production represented for her a fundamental element in the decision to come to Brazil. As Antonia points out, visibility is a breakthrough itself. At another moment of the interview, she corroborates such apprehension by stating that:

The soap opera directed me. Like, in Brazil homosexuality is approached, people know that homosexuals exist. In Mozambique, not, it does not exist. This is a matter of the devil; it is a matter of spirit. So that weighed heavily in my decision. I must be in a country where that is spoken about, so I can also speak. So that’s what weighed to me.

50The reports of Lucas and Cesar, in turn, confirm the impact of the use of soap operas in the construction of an imaginary about Brazil. Lucas affirms that on the public TV channel in Cuba, two soap operas are daily broadcast, a Cuban one and a Brazilian one: «That’s why we know all the Brazilian actors, we know many places in Brazil because of the soap opera. That’s why every Cuban dreams of seeing carnival, the avenues, you know? That is why every Cuban dreams of traveling to Brazil» (Lucas 2018). While Cesar states: «The knowledge of Brazil I had, was samba, Bahia, Xuxa, Pelé and the soap operas, period. Xica da Silva, Hilda Hurricane, Family ties, The clone. [...] Through the soap operas, we learn about the culture of this country, about the traditions» (Cesar 2018).

51Studies such as those developed by Borelli (2001) and Lopes (2009), for example, confirm this understanding by demonstrating how the soap opera can be considered one of the most representative communicational phenomena of Brazilian media culture, precisely because it combines the archaic and the contemporary, articulates anachronistic narratives, (de)constructs imaginary and has their history strongly marked by the dialectic of nationality-mediatization. The domains of telenovela fiction are fundamental in the process of construction of mediations between the productive system, products and audiences (Borelli 2001, Lopes 2009), from which their insertion in the daily life of migrant subjects in the country. Cogo and Brignol (2009) add that the Brazilian soap opera is also characterized as a transnational export media product, which helps to compose a network of mediations, imaginary and representations regarding Brazil.

52Another highlight point is Internet consumption. In the experiences of immigrants and refugees interviewees, the Internet appears as a digital communication space of extreme importance in their migratory projects. Its use is correlated with a) the search for information about Brazil and the city of São Paulo; b) a source of information on procedures necessary for regularization in the country or on rights; c) the establishment and/or maintenance of transnational social networks; d) support for migration projects of third subjects; and e) forms of activism. Beyond that, social networking sites also manifest as important communicational tools to their sociabilities.

53An example of such uses can be seen in the experiences of Carla and José. Carla explains that when she decided to immigrate, she began to search the Internet about possible places of destination: «I had wanted to leave the United States, but I did not know where in Latin America. I thought of Argentina, Mexico ... I was not ready to go back to Colombia. [...] I entered the Internet, I typed ‘city’, ‘work’, ‘cosmopolitan’, ‘nightlife’, enter». The result, according to her, was the city of São Paulo, showing classic images of São Paulo Art Museum and Paulista Avenue, which was also important in the decision process of the migratory destination.

54Whereas José, when asked about his decision to migrate to Brazil, he stated that he had conducted searches on Google.com online search: «I searched for Paulista Avenue, Ibirapuera Park, Rio, Bahia» (José 2018). Those searches also focused on aspects of the LGBTQI+ question: «Then I learned that it was freer, more liberal. [...] In the cultural sense, in the case of gay people, they are much freer than in my country» (José 2018). This shows a strong relation between the uses and consumption of ICTs with forms of difference visibility mediated by their digital technical supports.

55This consumption is related to the expansion of digital technologies and their impact on the experience of multi-territorial experiences by international immigrants who have been highlighted by researchers dedicated to analyzing it in different aspects of human mobility experiences: in the planning and implementation of migration projects; in the insertion processes in the new immigration contexts (countries and cities); the dynamics of interaction with family and friends in the countries of origin (as, for example, in the experience of the so-called “transnational families”); sending money remittances to countries of origin; in the development of cultural and entertainment policies in destination countries that include the uniqueness of migratory cultures (Brignol, Costa 2018, Cogo, ElHajji, Huertas 2012, Georgiou 2018, Jolivet 2017, Navarro García 2014, Scopsi 2009, Varela Huerta 2013).

56Researches on the use of media and communication technologies have also included the analysis of experiences of mobilization and activism of migratory networks that often articulate countries of origin and destination in search of deconstructing media representations that criminalize immigrants and refugees. Another important point is that they foster (trans)national mobilizations and struggles for rights and recognition such as those related to universal or global citizenship, defined as the defense of mobility and free human movement and the enforcement of immigrants’ social rights from a supranational perspective, regardless of the country of birth or origin (Cortina 2005). “The idea of global citizenship, on the other hand, cannot be separated from the transnational migratory phenomenon and the intensification of symbolic exchanges facilitated by ICTs, the material basis of a new, naturally transnational public sphere” (ElHajji, 2013, p. 151).

57In this way, we investigate how the consumption of ICTs is closely associated with the constitution of communicative structures that support the migrant projects of the LGTBQI+ immigrants and refugees subjects we interviewed. Their uses and appropriations are rooted in the imaginary about Brazil and the city of São Paulo as a migratory destination, the establishment of transnational sociocommunication links (family, friends, other migrants) and the process of insertion into the country. Its importance is also associated with the dynamics of (in)visibility of these subjects, as we will see in the following section.

Consumption and uses of ICTs in dynamics of visibility

58In the city of São Paulo, we observed the emergence for having some interaction spaces around the issue of the migration of LGBTQI+ subjects, in which the uses and appropriations of ICTs are relevant. This is the case of Sarau Troca & Ação, the 3rd International Conference [SSEX-BBOX] and the 2^nd Meeting of Lesbian and Bisexual Immigrant Women of São Paulo.

59Promoted by LGBTQI+ immigrants in the city of São Paulo on November 11, 2017, Sarau Troca & Ação featured musical shows, performances, dances, poetry recitals and photo exhibitions.

60Migrant artists from Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia and Peru joined in, highlighting a greater presence of the South-South migration axis. According to text of the announcement:

• 11 Available on: https://www.facebook.com/events/338256483313807/. Access on: aug. 2018.

The project TROCA & AÇÃO arises from the need to offer concrete actions that will benefit the LGBTIQ community in a practical way, both from immigrants and refugees from São Paulo and from the local LGBTIQ community, through: awareness and approach activities and artistic cultural projects created in partnerships between those two groups. Immigrant and refugee people most often come from places and cultures in which being homosexual, bisexual, intersexual or travesty and transgender is subject to strong discrimination, if not to physical integrity threat. We believe that the local LGBTIQ+ community can and should welcome immigrants and refugees from diverse sexual orientations and gender identities in the city of São Paulo. We want to encourage, through joint action, the exchange of information, offer a rich experience of collaborative creation and raise the awareness of the local community to the needs and challenges faced by immigrants and refugees.11

61In a conversation with Keyllen Nieto (one of the organizers of the event) about the Sarau Troca & Ação project, she says:

[The idea] came from wanting to do some projects. I said, ‘I need to move and do something new, to dialogue with myself, with my interests’. Then I thought: I am an immigrant and I am LGBT. Who are those people? It’s time for a sense of immigrant LGBT community. And I think it will do very well for the LGBT community to begin to recognize, from within, their own diversities.

62The objective of a greater integration between LGBTQI+ immigrants living in the city of São Paulo and the local LGBTQI+ community is in line with Manalansan IV (2006) pointing out that LGBTQI+ immigrants generally experience discrimination and stigma also from the part of what he calls «Mainstream culture»—that is, the culture of the destination country—extending marginalization, even within the local LGBTQI+ community. Manalansan IV (2006) points out that the vulnerability framework can be further aggravated by an intersectional crossing of social markers of difference, as, for example, in the case of LGBTQI+ black immigrants.

63Thus, this articulation, which is also of a political nature, is fundamental to breaking a first layer of invisibility and silencing. Becoming visible and demanding a place of speech in the context of local LGBTQI+ movements seems to be a way of solidifying a (micro)policy of (re)existence. But it is undoubtfully, a challenge for the local LGBTQI+ community, for it remains to be seen whether it is ready to accept the claims and demands of LGBTQI+ immigrants on the causes it advocates and the struggles it fosters in our society.

64Sarau Troca & Ação, therefore demonstrates the capacity of the LGBTQI+ immigrant agency in the city of São Paulo and of transformational engagements which concern the LGBTQI+ community as a whole. By means of art, of an artivism, of a cultural production of its own, they demand spaces and possibility of existence, which goes unfailingly not only through the guarantee of rights, but also through the exercise of citizenship, which contributes to the production of a sense of belonging to the cultures and societies in which migrants are established.

66The main issues discussed were UNHCR’s role in raising awareness about the thematic, the capacitation of professionals from different institutions (state and non-governmental) dealing with immigrants and refugees, the role of Nation-states in the whole process of acceptability and analysis of requests for refuge based on the applicant’s sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Also were highlighted some contradictions caused by the visibility of the migration of LGBTQI+ subjects, problematizing the difficulties in becoming aware of it without properly implying a visibility of the migrant subject, since it can generate a worsening of precariousness.

67Finally, we have the 2nd Meeting of Lesbian and Bisexual Immigrant Women of São Paulo, which took place on May 26, 2018, in the Galpão Casa 1, in the city of São Paulo. It was organized by the Lesbian and Bisexual Immigrant Women Network—SP. Targeted at immigrant, refugee, stateless or Brazilian women, the meeting-debate aimed at discussing the meaning of being a lesbian or bisexual immigrant woman in São Paulo, as well as ensuring visibility in relation to the various identities (cultural, national, sexual, etc.) that those women possess and the existence of spaces where they can obtain information that considers their migratory reality and, at the same time, respect their sexual and/or gender identity beyond the heteronormative pattern.

68According to information disclosed on Facebook network event page:

• 14 Available on https://www.facebook.com/events/210536792879315/. Access in: aug. 2018.

This is the second opportunity to bring to light the experiences of lesbian and bisexual women who were born in other countries and who live in the city of São Paulo nowadays. From the first meeting, held in October last year organized by the Warmis Base Team—Convergence of Cultures, resulted in the creation of an autonomous network which is the Lesbian and Bisexual Immigrant Women Network of São Paulo (MILBI). This second one seeks to deepen issues raised in the first meeting, beyond strengthening the network itself.14

69The accomplishment of all these events highlights the capacity of the LGBTQI+ immigrant and refugee agency in the city of São Paulo to promote visibility spaces. Those, in turn, are based on the articulation of migrant collectives, which is based on the consumption, uses and appropriations of ICT, with emphasis on digital social networks. Thus, it is pertinent to point out the role of ICTs, with emphasis on the use of the social networking site Facebook, in the process of realization, dissemination and visibility of such events and the migration thematic of LGBTQI+ subjects in the city of São Paulo. They are, therefore, an instrument of production, circulation and consumption of mediatic contents related to the actions of social movements which activities are focused on the issue of immigration and LGBTQI+ refuge.

70In the experiences of LGBTIQ+ immigrants and refugees in the city of São Paulo, we found that the uses and appropriations of ICTs are not only instrumental; on the contrary, they correspond to mediation strategies of their socio-communicational (in)visibility. In this sense, ICTs enable spaces for interaction, agency and visibility to these subjects, becoming a dimension of political struggle for social transformations of the precarious ontological condition to which they are susceptible (Butler 2011).

71In this sense, it is clear how the exercise of citizenship is intimately rooted in socio-communicative practices, especially those mediated by ICTs. In addition to promoting new and efficient ways of navigating cultural, racial, class differences (Manalansan IV 2006), the ICTs communicational potentialities are essential to the engagement and activism of LGBTQI+ migrant individuals and groups, which are extremely relevant to their insertion in the target society. In short, the visibility of immigration and of refuge of LGBTQI+ subjects in the city of São Paulo appears, in these events, as a collective and citizenship dimension.

Final Considerations

72In this article, we analyzed the socio-communicative interactions of LGBTQI+ immigrants and refugees in the city of São Paulo (Brazil), focusing especially on how the consumption and use of ICTs by those subjects are conditioned by (in)visibility dynamics which demarcate their migratory experiences and trajectories. In the current context of South-South migrations, it is shown that the singularities of the experience of LGBTQI+ immigrants and refugees demand specific forms of consumption and uses of ICTs. This is because they are crossed by the need that those subjects have to face the dilemmas arising from the (in)visibility paradoxes of non-hegemonic sexual orientation and or gender identity, which, in that case, is associated with their migrant status, also invested with precariousness.

73In the migration of LGBTQI+ subjects to the city of São Paulo, we verified that the consumption and use of ICTs are linked to agency spaces that are being built by them. These spaces, in turn, are conditioned by the dynamics of (in)visibilities, generating impacts in the search process for information and knowledge about the city of São Paulo and Brazil and, consequently, on the migratory destination choice.

74In its insertion processes in the city of São Paulo, the uses of ICTs by LGBTQI+ immigrants and refugees become very important in the mediation of individual and collective interactions, as well as in the articulation of spaces of visibility in relation to the theme. The visibility of their experiences in the public sphere thus becomes a political struggle. However, its scarcity also reveals that the emergence of those spaces of collective mobilization and citizenship which contemplate and articulate the singularities of LGBTQI+ immigrants or refugees’ condition, whether in the context of social movements or in the context of institutionalized public policies, is very recent.

75Thus, we can verify that, in the migrants’ experiences, between being or not being visible, true struggles for meaning are established, which constitute what we can synthesize as visibility policies. They are closely associated with the politics of representation, which are built and developed mainly in media spaces. As a shared sociocultural process that gives certain images the property of a participant in a readability system, visibility inevitably embraces a feature of social relevance (Rocha 2009).

76In a context in which participation in media culture and the dispute over images becomes an increasingly prevalent dimension of our social experience, “participants’ social or political responses are closely linked with the world they seek to represent and dispute through media images” (Silverstone 2010: 168). Thus, the unequal character that surrounds the disputes of meaning and participation in media spaces derive from social relations in which “the power to accept or refute the dominant or very ingrained meanings that the media diffuses is unevenly distributed among the different societies and within them” (Silverstone 2010: 168-169). Moreover, in a time of great fractures, segmentation, heterogeneity and fluidity of transnational communication (Santos 2017), it would be naive to believe that public and media visibility, ensured by the appropriation of technical devices, would be the exclusive guarantee for achieving social equality.

77In the experiences of LGBTIQ+ immigrants and refugees in the city of São Paulo, we find that the uses and appropriations of ICTs are a sphere of communicational and political disputes over “having a voice,” “being visible,” and thus, be able to “participate in the production of their own representations” (Gerougiou 2018) in the public space and within the specific scope of migratory policies. Even though in a smaller dimension and closer to what we might call everyday micropolitics (De Certeau 1990), immigrants and refugees build, through different uses of ICTs, tactics to mediate their (socio)communicational (in)visibility in the course of their migratory projects. As we analyzed in this article, this dimension is found, for example, in the use of ICTs to choose Brazil as a migratory destination or in mobilization, through social networks, for collective actions oriented to LGBTIQ+ immigrants and refugees in the city of São Paulo (as the Sarau Troca & Ação, the 3rd International Conference [SSEX-BBOX] and the 2nd Meeting of Lesbian and Bisexual Immigrant Women of Sao Paulo).

78Consequently, the media allow to ground actions and structure them in order to objectify a public visibility that, in feedback, can at least legitimize the existence of subjects who suffer constantly with silence and public invisibility, as the LGBTIQ+ immigrants and refugees. These dynamics of social visibility transfigure the dominance of media and ICTs into a symbolic locus of conflict and negotiation, essential to social transformations.