Changing from Visibility to Invisibility—An Intersectional Perspective on Mixedness in Switzerland and Morocco

Abstract

In the context of intermarriage, mixedness can take different forms. Most often, it refers to a mix of class, religion, nationality, ethnicity or race in a couple. In this article, I go beyond a separate analysis of categories, analyzing the interrelation of these factors. The article discusses how and under which circumstances mixed children become visible in Switzerland and Morocco using a comparative and intersectional approach to mixedness. Based on 23 biographical narrative interviews, I analyze three situations of stigmatization: racialization, language practices and othering due to religious affiliation. Stigmatization processes due to mixedness, it is argued, are a relational phenomenon depending not only on markers such as ‘race’, ethnicity and religion but also on their interplay with gender, class, language and biographical experiences. The results suggest that mixed individuals have found creative ways to navigate their visibility: they normalize their binational origin, look for alternative spaces of belonging, emphasize their ‘Swiss-ness’ or ‘Moroccan-ness’, use languages to influence their social positioning or acquire knowledge about their binational origin in order to confront stigmatizations. The study reveals further that processes of othering due to mixedness are not only an issue in ‘Western’ societies that look back on a long history of immigration and have pronounced migration discourses. Even in Morocco, a country where immigration has so far been a marginal phenomenon, the importance of social hierarchies for the positioning of people of binational origin is evident.

Above and beyond social boundaries: Everyday life of Mixed Muslim–non-Muslim families in contemporary societies Au-delà des frontières sociales : le vécu des familles mixtes musulmanes-non-musulmanes dans les sociétés contemporaines

“…Odasso’s (2016) research, which focused on Franco-Arab couples in Alsace, France, and Italo-Arab couples in Veneto, Italy, particularly highlights the administrative and legal implications linked to family migration laws that regulate mixed marriages and create major obstacles to couples with a Muslim migrant spouse (see also the work of Sterckx (2015) and De Hart (2017) in the Netherlands). The repercussion of this discrimination for family members is thus at the centre of other studies like those of Gilliéron (2022a) in Switzerland and Lajus (2020) in Italy whose findings converge to show that the changing discourse on Islam after 9/11 has increased the visibility, racialization, and discrimination of mixed children of Arab and Sub-Saharan descent.…”

“…Les recherches menées par Cerchiaro en Italie (Cerchiaro et al, 2015) ainsi qu'en France et en Belgique (Cerchiaro, 2019b(Cerchiaro, , 2022 ont montré que le retour aux identités religieuses initiales des partenaires tend à être la règle plutôt que l'exception et que la marriages and create major obstacles to couples with a Muslim migrant spouse (see also the work of Sterckx (2015) and De Hart (2017) in the Netherlands). The repercussion of this discrimination for family members is thus at the centre of other studies like those of Gilliéron (2022a) in Switzerland and Lajus (2020) in Italy whose findings converge to show that the changing discourse on Islam after 9/11 has increased the visibility, racialization, and discrimination of mixed children of Arab and Sub-Saharan descent.…”

“…La recherche menée par Odasso (2016) qui porte sur les couples franco-arabes en Alsace/France et les couples italo-arabes en Vénétie/Italie, souligne particulièrement les incidences administratives et juridiques liées aux lois de la migration familiale qui régissent les mariages mixtes et deviennent des obstacles majeurs pour les couples dont l’un des conjoints est migrant et musulman (voir également les recherches menées par Sterckx (2015) et De Hart (2017) aux Pays-Bas). La répercussion de cette discrimination sur les membres de la famille est la composante essentielle de d’autres recherches comme celle de Gilliéron (2022a) en Suisse et celle de Lajus (2020) en Italie dont les résultats se rejoignent pour témoigner de la mutation du discours sur l'islam après le 11 septembre et du renforcement des notions de visibilité, de racialisation et de discrimination des enfants mixtes d’origine arabe et subsaharienne.…”

“Be Confident”, “Creative” and “Careful”: Advice from Multiracial Adults

“…Examples include, but are not limited to, the United Kingdom (Campion & Lewis, 2022), Latin America and the Caribbean (England, 2010), Singapore (Rocha & Yeoh, 2022), South Africa (Metcalfe, 2022), and Switzerland and Morocco (Gillieron, 2022).…”

Introduction: Reconstructive biographical research

“…It approaches social inequality in an open manner and not with a fixed categorical system, thus enabling the formulation of relevant aspects from the perspective of the actors' stories of action and experience. Sociological biographical research is thus frequently discussed in connection with the concept of intersectionality (Apitzsch, 2012;Davis, 2014;Gilliéron, 2022;Köttig, 2015;Lutz and Davis, 2005;Lutz et al, 2011). In an exemplary way, Naida Menezes and Priscila Susin demonstrate in their paper how reconstructive biographical research can bring marginalized voices of outsiders into focus.…”