Becoming a citizen through marriage: how gender, ethnicity and class shape the nation

ABSTRACT

The role of marriage in accessing membership entitlements has been studied extensively in the context of marriage migration, but it remains under-researched in the literature on citizenship acquisition. This paper explores specific constructions of deservingness vis-à-vis the foreign spouses of citizens and their marriages in the context of facilitated naturalization in Switzerland. Based on an ethnographic investigation of the naturalization practices of street-level bureaucrats, we show that the politics of belonging in the context of access to citizenship is regulated by intersecting gendered, ethnicized and classed logics of desirability about how a marriage should be. Additionally, a patrilineal logic continues to guide street-level bureaucrats de facto even when legislation has introduced de jure gender equality. Finally, we demonstrate that it is not only immigration regimes, but also citizenship regimes that employ assumptions about what constitutes a ‘good marriage’ in order to draw the boundaries of the nation.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender
• citizenship
• street-level bureaucrats
• nation-state
• marriage
• politics of belonging

Acknowledgments

We could never have done this research without the naturalization caseworkers’ openness, support and generosity. Thank you to each of them. Previous versions of this paper have been presented at the 2017 Imiscoe Conference, 2017 ECPR Conference and at the Rencontre scientifique MAPS in octobre 2018. We would like thank Betty de Hart, Saskia Bonjour, and Nolwenn Bühler, who commented on the paper at these events. We also thank our colleagues at the LAPS who gave us feedback and helped us to construct the argument of this paper. We thank the editors of this journal and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions. Finally, tank you Daniel Moure for taking care of the language editing and making our text more elegant.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In this article, the procedure for applying for Swiss citizenship is described according to legislation that was in force at the time of the fieldwork. This legislation remains valid for all applications filed before the end of 2017, and a new and more restrictive Nationality Law entered into force on 1 January 2018.

2. Same-sex partners of Swiss citizens are subject to the ordinary citizenship procedure but benefit from a reduction in the required number of years of residence: instead of 12 years of residence, they are eligible to apply for Swiss citizenship after five years of residence and three years of civil partnership.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the National Center of Competence in Research nccr – on the move funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation [nccr – on the move / Grant 51NF40 - 142020].

Notes on contributors

Anne Kristol

Anne Kristol is a doctoral researcher at the Laboratory for the Study of Social Processes (MAPS) and at the NCCR-on the move, University of Neuchâtel. In her PhD thesis, she examines the implementation of citizenship policies in Switzerland. Focussing on decision making concerning naturalization applications, she explores how state agents participate in the reproduction of the nation.

Janine Dahinden

Janine Dahinden is Professor of Transnational Studies at Laboratory for the Study of Social Processes (MAPS) and at the NCCR-on the move. She is interested in her research in transnational migration and mobility and related social and symbolic boundary making in the realm of ethnicity, religion and gender. Her research is anchored in what has been called ‘reflexive migration studies’: she aims at developing theoretical and methodological approaches which address the challenges nation-state- and ethnicity-centred epistemologies still pose to migration studies. In her research she works with a transnational perspective and a post-migration/post-ethnic approach towards understanding the social organization of “otherness” and the consequences.