Dissonant masculinities? Migration, emotions and masculinities in marriages between Italian women and Moroccan men living in Italy

ABSTRACT

Through the life stories of 20 couples comprising Italian women and Moroccan men living in Italy, this article explores the interconnections between emotions, masculinity, and migration. The aim is to understand the extent to which a mixed marriage challenges particularistic definitions of masculinity. The article contributes to gender and migration studies in three ways. First, it investigates how partners produce multiple coexistent and contradictory discourses on gender depending on cultural contexts. Emotions reveal a hidden aspect of the performance of masculinity, from which conflicts often arise. Second, it adds to a growing field of studies focusing on the interplay of migration and masculinity, showing how migration and having a native partner require a constant reprocessing of masculinity. Lastly, it underlines the importance assigned to the creation of new social networks with other mixed families. These networks help provide a symbolic common space to overcome social stigma and the consequent isolation.

KEYWORDS:

• Emotions
• Emotional cost
• Intermarriage
• Masculinity
• Mixed couples
• Islamic masculinities

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. I refer here to Collet’s (2012, p. 71) notion of ‘conjugal mixedness,’ as being ‘not only a question of different cultures but one of conformity or deviance with regard to social norms.’ Although the notion of ‘mixed’ is reflexively criticized and deconstructed by the same partners (see Cerchiaro, 2016b), in accordance with other authors (Collet, 2012; Song, 2016; Varro, 2003), I use the term ‘mixed’ to encompass the multiple differences (regarding ethnicity and faith) that characterize the participants in my study.

2. Latest ISTAT data, accessed 8 November 2018 from http://demo.istat.it/str2017/index.html.

3. Since there is no unique accepted definition of men’s studies, I refer to it as the ‘study of masculinities and male experiences as specific and varying social-historical-cultural formations’ (Brod, 1987, p. 40).

4. To consult the 2001 census data: https://www.istat.it/it/censimenti-permanenti/censimenti-precedenti/popolazione-e-abitazioni/popolazione-2001. To consult the 2011 census data: https://www4.istat.it/it/censimenti-permanenti/censimenti-precedenti/popolazione-e-abitazioni/popolazione-2011.

5. Latest ISTAT data, accessed 8 November 2018 from http://demo.istat.it/altridati/matrimoni/2018/tav3_3.pdf.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 747592. Project acronym: “ReMix”. Project Title: “Christian-Muslim families dealing with religious pluralism in everyday family life: Religious reconstruction in religiously mixed marriages”.

Notes on contributors

Francesco Cerchiaro

Francesco Cerchiaro is a cultural sociologist. He is currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Sociological Research (CeSO), KU Leuven, Belgium. He has a PhD in Social Sciences (2013) from the University of Padua. In Padua, at the Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education and Applied Psychology (FISPPA), he previously worked as researcher and taught “The Imaginary of Otherness” from 2016 until 2018. He is a sociologist with a specific interest in the intersection of family, migration and religion. His research is characterized by the use of qualitative methods, in particular of ‘life stories’ and ethnographic observation. On this topic he devised various articles for international scientific journals and a book entitled “Amori e confini. Le coppie miste tra islam, educazione dei figli e vita quotidiana”[Love and borders. Mixed couples in Islam, children’s education and everyday life”] (Guida Ed., 2016). His interest for mixed families and, in particular, on Christian-Muslim families, represents a key to examine the wider social changes related to family, Muslim migration and religious pluralism in Europe.