Alternative spatial hierarchies: a cross-border spouse’s positioning strategies in the face of Germany’s ‘pre-integration’ language test

ABSTRACT

This paper examines how spouses waiting in Turkey to be reunited with their partner in Europe experience border regimes and deal with the transnationalised discourses on ‘marriage migrants’ they encounter. It is based on the analysis of a single narrative interview, that of a woman taking German classes at Goethe Institute in Istanbul in order to pass the required language test. Like other respondents, she is confronted with negative gendered preconceptions regarding ‘Turkish import brides’. Her boundary work involves mobilising alternative hierarchies in an attempt to discursively construct a different Turkey than the one generally represented: she draws on social class (positioning herself as a member of the highly educated, mobile and economically better off), socio-spatial units (focusing on her urbanity) and gender (experiencing ‘modern’ and equal gender relationships). The paper emphasises the importance of the socio-spatial context, here the classroom, where boundary-making takes place. It also provides insights into the effects of global spatial hierarchies on migrants and their alternative narratives, a dimension that can only be understood through a decentred analysis. The article contributes to studies on cross-border marriages by analysing the ‘outgoing’ side, a perspective still rarely addressed in the literature.

KEYWORDS:

• Boundary work
• cross-border marriages
• border regimes
• gender
• social class
• space and place

Acknowledgements

We would especially like to thank Yüksel K. and the other respondents for sharing their stories. We also owe great thanks to Ceren Topgül for interviewing Yüksel K. perceptively and translating the manuscript with care. We would also like to thank the participants of the ‘Cross-Border Marriages: Intersecting Boundaries in Transnational Social Spaces’ workshop held in Neuchâtel in 2017, and especially the discussant Katharine Charsley for insightfully commenting on the first version of this text. The anonymous reviewers’ comments have also helped improve the text. Furthermore, we thank our colleagues at the Laboratoire d’études des processus sociaux for their critical discussion of this work at a Work in Progress Session. We would also like to thank Daniel Moure for his English revisions, which have contributed to the work’s clarity and elegance. And last but not least, we thank Zeynep Sariaslan for commenting on this paper thoroughly and critically, and particularly for her suggestions on literature regarding Turkish modernity discourse.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (Project no. 100017_143179).