National monogamy and queer orientations: The heteronormative language of family migration policies.

Aktivitet: Tale eller præsentation - typerForedrag og mundtlige bidrag

Mons Bissenbakker - Keynote

How may queer theories help us make sense of marriage migration laws? From 2000-2018 Danish marriage migration policies were governed by a demand that transnational couples prove their collected exclusive attachment to the Danish nation. Attachment and partnership seemed to rest on a set of strangely heteronormative premises although they were not directly defined as straight. Looking at Danish marriage migration legislation I propose that heteronormative orientational logics (Sara Ahmed, 2007) dominate the understanding of partnership, marriage, and the nation in surprising ways (that do not necessarily have to do with the sexual identity of the couple). These policies seem to demand a straightening of the relationship between the citizen and the state. Discussing different queer theoretical takes on the definition of “heteronormativity” I turn to a lesser discussed feature of heterosexual hegemony – namely its demand for monogamy. Looking to queer scholars’ account of the history of monogamy and monogamy’s relationship to straightness, whiteness, and nation, I argue that modern discourses about national attachment are shaped by a demand that the (would be) citizen engages in a monogamous relationship – not to their partner, but instead – to the nation-state itself.
3 maj 2019

Begivenhed (Konference)

TitelLavender Languages and Linguistics
Forkortet titelLavLang
Dato02/05/201904/05/2019
AfholdelsesstedGöteborgs Universitet
ByGöteborg
Land/OmrådeSverige
Grad af anerkendelseInternational begivenhed

ID: 217611140