A proper wife, a proper marriage: Constructions of ‘us’ and ‘them’ in Dutch family migration policy

Abstract

Migration policy is a product and producer of identities and values. This article argues that discourses and policies on family reunification participate in the politics of belonging, and that gender and family norms play a crucial role in this production of collective identities, i.e. in defining who 'we' are and what distinguishes 'us' from 'the others'. Tracing the development of political debates and policy-making about 'fraudulent' and 'forced' marriages in the Netherlands since the 1970s, the authors examine how categories of gender and ethnicity interact with 'other' transnational marriages and the women who engage in them. These practices of 'othering' legitimize restrictive reforms of marriage migration policies. Also, and no less importantly, they serve the symbolic function of defining Dutch identity, and show that the government protects this identity.

Introducción. Familias migrantes y estados: vínculos entre Europa y América Latina

“…Las últimas reformas en la regulación de la migración familiar y el acceso a la nacionalidad en Francia, Inglaterra y los Países Bajos, entre otros, indican una paulatina convergencia hacia un régimen de ciudadanía étnico-asimilacionista (Kostacopoulou, 2010;Bonjour y de Hart, 2013;Strasser et al, 2009 Si bien en España la migración por motivos familiares no ha sido un tema de gran relevancia en los debates públicos sobre inmigración, en los últimos años ha comenzado a ser discutida como una vía de entrada de población migrantes que demanda un mayor control. Esta ha sido la base de la última reforma de la Ley de Extranjería durante 2009, que ha restringido el derecho de reagrupación de los ascendientes en el marco de la crisis económica global que afecta duramente a la sociedad española .…”

Who Is an Immigrant and Who Requires Integration? Categorizing in European Policies

“…Particular measures in current integration and immigration policy practice appear to spotlight female migrants (on women marriage migrants, see Bonjour and De Hart 2013 ; on gender inequality as an ethnicized problem see Roggeband and Verloo 2007 ;Prins and Saharso 2008 ), while migrant masculinity is often problematized (Van der Haar 2013 ; Scheibelhofer 2012 ). Bonjour and De Hart ( 2013 ) suggest that the Netherlands' policymaking on marriage migration is shaped by the idea of transnational marriages being fraudulent and forced, and (Muslim) migrant women being the victims of these practices. Scheibelhofer ( 2012 ) sets out how the image of an "archaic migrant masculinity" is used to legitimate restrictive migration laws in Austria: the human capital, norms, and values of migrant men have become criteria for their classifi cation as wanted or unwanted.…”

“…Family migrants come to form a family (marriage migration) or to be reunited with family members (family reunifi cation). This type of migration is highly and explicitly feminized (Bonjour and De Hart 2013 ). Postcolonial and colonial migrants are those originating from countries formerly colonized by the country of destination.…”

Conditions of cultural citizenship: intersections of gender, race and age in public debates on family migration

“…Bonjour and de Hart 2013;Eggebø 2010;Kofman et al 2013) and citizenship and gender (e.g. Lister 2003;Lister et al 2007;Hellsten et al 2006), we !…”