Cross-border marriages under conditions of transnationalization and politicization. A case study in Switzerland
| Responsable du projet | Janine Dahinden |
| Collaborateur |
Shpresa Jashari
Joëlle Moret |
| Résumé |
Marriage is one of those practices that increasingly occur in
transnational spaces. For the past few years, there has been a
growing interest among social scientists to analyze the
motivations, practices and constraints inherent in this form of
transnationalization. At the same time, cross-border marriage has
become an important topic in immigration countries, particularly
when it involves migrants from non-European countries. Overall, a
politicization and ethnicization can be observed that trigger
debates about "forced marriages," violence against
migrant women, sham marriages or cross-border marriages as entry
tickets for immigration. On the ground of such opposing forces -
the increased transnationalization of migration practices versus
the politicization of these practices - we aim to understand
cross-border marriages from the viewpoint of the persons involved
by investigating the practices, strategies and representations of
family, gender and ethnicity, and the resulting conflicts. These
are, as we consider, closely articulated with the political,
economic and discursive frames at both ends of the transnational
chain. We argue that the issue can best be understood by
approaching it through three lenses: a) a transnational approach to
cross-border marriage practices can give insights into the networks,
meanings and questions of belongings of the actors involved in these
practices. Such an approach allows also to understand how local
contexts and socio-political and discursive frames
("locality") at both ends of the transnational chain
shape the practices of cross-border marriage; b) a boundary work
perspective can explain the roles of family and ethnicity when it
comes to cross-border marriages and bring to light the production
of different forms of "groupness" as well as
representations of a "good marriage," an "ideal
spouse," etc. This perspective also allows an investigation
into how ideas about ethnicity and family impact cross-border
marriages relationally and in interaction with ethnicizing,
culturalizing, and stigmatizing debates in immigration contexts; c)
a gender perspective makes it possible to investigate how gender
affects all dimensions that are relevant for cross-border
marriages. Thus, three main sub-questions will guide our research:
1. What role do transnational networks and subjectivities play in
cross-border-marriages? 2. What forms of "groupness"
(family, ethnic, religious, others) are produced in cross-border
marriage, how can the boundary work of the actors be understood,
and how is that boundary work related to local contexts? 3. In what
ways are the contexts and the processes that result in cross-border
marriage gendered, and how are gender inequalities (re)produced,
legitimated and put into practice or, on the contrary, attenuated?
These questions will be approached by a qualitative-interpretative
methodology. We will do research with couples from non-European
countries who marry or have married across borders, meaning that
one member of the couple has been living in Switzerland before
marriage and is a second-generation migrant and the other one lives
or was living in another country. In the first step, we will conduct
20 to 25 narrative interviews with second-generation migrants
engaged or about to engage in a cross-border marriage; and, if they
are present, we will also interview their spouses. In the second
step, we will select around 10 case studies that will be
investigated in depth, using a multi-sited approach. For this step,
we will grasp the transnational "marriage network" of the
couple, and subsequently conduct interviews with the most important
persons from this network. The significance of the proposed research
lies in its opportunity to gain answers to highly politicized
questions - answers that go beyond simplistic explanations (of
culture or of sexism within migrant communities) and that bring to
light the complex processes of this form of transnationalization as
well as its constraining and conflictual dimensions. |
| Mots-clés |
transnational migration, ethnicity, politics of beloning, gender, transnationalisation |
| Type de projet | Recherche fondamentale |
| Domaine de recherche | transnational studies, gender studies, boundary work |
| Source de financement | FNS - Encouragement de projets (Div. I-III) |
| Etat | Terminé |
| Début de projet | 1-3-2014 |
| Fin du projet | 30-6-2017 |
| Budget alloué | 469'194.00 |
| Contact | Janine Dahinden |