1st Edition
Situated Mixedness Understanding Migration-Related Intimate Diversity in Belgium
Drawing from empirically grounded studies, the volume Situated Mixedness sheds light on the state of migration-related “intimate diversity”, that is, the simultaneous formation and existence of various configurations of conjugal mixedness. It examines this phenomenon in Belgium, a country in the European Union with a long history of immigration and where an important percentage of registered marriages are international.
Through the optic of “situated mixedness”, the volume pays attention to the (dis-)connections between intimate diversity and its surrounding environment. Bringing together mutually reinforcing or often contradicting emic and etic perspectives, it illuminates how specific context/s (socio-legal, cultural, temporal…) not only can influence, stem from, or trigger a social phenomenon, but also can remain standstill without a particular impact on individual’s lived experiences. It brings out in subtle ways the agency and subjectivities of individuals, nuancing thereby common-held views on socially Othered couples.
Focusing on the intimate sphere of individuals’ life at the crossroads of anthropology and sociology, the volume contributes fresh insights not only to the study of migration and intermarriage but also to the literature on super- and hyper-diversity. It will be of interest to scholars, students, and social actors working on family-related migration, state policies, and social cohesion.
Introduction. Intimate diversity in Belgium through the optic of situated mixedness
Asuncion Fresnoza-Flot
Part 1. “Mixed” couples living the context(s) of regulations
1. Religious loss or religious spiritualisation? “Christian-Muslim” couples in Belgium: between secularisation and spiritualisation
Francesco Cerchiaro
2. Minimum income threshold and migrantised citizens: second-class mixedness in the Belgian family reunification regime
Laura Odasso
3. Bureaucratic couples’ interviews as ordeals of desirability: insights from Brussels
Maïté Maskens
4. Intimate mixedness during the COVID-19 pandemic: transnational couples experiencing the effects of travel restrictions
Jenthe Blockx
Part 2. Temporal unfolding of intimate diversity
5. Belgian-Asian conjugal mixedness in Belgium since 1992: a quantitative perspective
Lucas Monteil
6. Intimate diversity outside and within: points of convergence of Belgian-Asian couples in Belgium
Asuncion Fresnoza-Flot (in collaboration with Mimy Keomanichanh, Aaron Raphael Ponce, and Mari Kawase)
7. Rapture, rupture, reconstruction: reflections on gay Asian migrant relationship experiences in Belgium
Aaron Raphael Ponce
8. Transnationally situated meanings regarding food consumption among Laotian-Belgian couples in Belgium
Mimy Keomanichanh
Conclusion. Rethinking conjugal mixedness and intimate diversity
Asuncion Fresnoza-Flot
Biography
Asuncion Fresnoza-Flot is a Research Associate of the Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S.-FNRS) in Belgium and senior lecturer at the Laboratory of Anthropology of Contemporary Worlds (LAMC) of the Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium. She published widely in English and French including five co-edited Special Issues in peer-reviewed journals and three co-edited volumes. Her works include the volume Tangled mobilities. Places, affects, and personhood across social spheres in Asian migration (coedited with Liu-Farrer, 2022). She is principal investigator of the research projects BelMix (https://belmix.hypotheses.org/) focusing on the contextual mobility of Belgian-Asian couples and AspirE (https://aspire.ulb.be/) examining the decision making of aspiring Asian (re-)migrants.
