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Transnational Families navigating the Law: Marriage, Divorce and Well-being
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... As already mentioned, transnational families are, especially in the stage of break-up and divorce, not merely cooperative units, but full of tensions, conflict, power struggles, and inequalities (Dreby & Adkins, 2010), which means that the law may work out differently for different family members. As transnational families are potentially involved in multiple legal systems (Fresnoza-Flot, 2019; Kim et al., 2017;Qureshi, 2016;Sportel, 2016), the question of these systems' implications and how those involved in a divorce negotiate or rather "navigate" (Sportel et al., 2019) those legal systems is of utmost importance. These legal issues may involve the divorce proceedings, obtaining legal representation, residence rights after divorce, financial consequences, and postdivorce co-parenting arrangements for children (S. ...
... Mixed families are rarely studied in transnational family scholarship, although they may have family ties across borders (Sportel et al., 2019). In examining divorces in the above family forms, our Special Issue highlights mainly women's perspectives, subjectivity, and agency. ...
This paper highlights the originality and scholarly contributions of the present Special Issue on transnational divorces in three ways. First, it examines two sets of related literature and situates the Special Issue within them: one on divorces, in general, and the other on divorces in transnational families (also called here “transnational divorce”). This exercise identifies the scholarly tendencies and gaps needing immediate attention in the study of divorce at the present age of family (re)composition. Second, the paper discusses how the special issue addresses the lacunas in the literature through “transborder intersectionality,” that is, a combination of transnational and intersectional perspectives. And third, based on its five empirically grounded case studies, it unveils the main structuring forces in transnational divorces: norms (social and legal), networks (transnational family support, local social ties…), and intersecting categories (gender, social class, legal status…). The paper ends with research directions for the future study of divorces traversing nation‐states’ borders.
... Hence, it is not a person's identity that shapes their experiences with law in transnational space, but rather the social, legal and power structures that create differences and inequalities, and the colonial legacies that inform them. It is helpful, therefore, for us to move beyond what has been labelled the 'ethnic lens' that characterizes much of the literature on This not only caused power differences between partners but also impacted their ability to perform the cross-border legal work required (Sportel, De Hart & Kulk 2019). ...
Life events such as marriage, divorce or the birth of children are not just intimate family matters but also legal matters. For transnational families, such life events are influenced by multiple overlapping nation-state orders, each with its own set of laws and institutions. This contribution builds on the concept of transnational legal space to study the social workings of law across borders from a bottom-up perspective of transnational family members’ lives. Linking two strands of literature – the literature on transnational legal space and that on transnational social space – it moves away from more top-down approaches centring on transnational processes of legal norm-making and, instead, uses a bottom-up approach focusing on family members who mobilize law in transnational social space and who thus create and apply new norms in response to the interaction – or, at times, collision – of different legal systems. The usefulness of this approach is illustrated by empirical evidence from two research projects on family law and dual citizenship. It contributes to research on transnational migration by demonstrating that, in transnational legal space, it is not the law that is transnational, given that the nation-state and national laws continue to remain highly relevant, and similarly that it is not just mobility and migration regimes but also a variety of different areas of law that impact the everyday lives of transnational families. How these families navigate transnational legal space differs, depending on the intersection of race, gender and class.
... Particularly for those living with precarious legal statuses, living in reception centres, or relying on the state for welfare, "the law is all over" (Sarat 1990). From research on migration and asylum procedures it is clear that such procedures can have a large and enduring impact on the lives of migrants and their families, especially when people have been involved in prolonged and contentious legal procedures or have been living with irregular or precarious legal statuses (Coutin 2003, Charsley 2005, Gleeson 2010, Abrego 2011, Kubal 2014, Shinozaki 2015, Menjívar and Lakhani 2016, Feldman-Savelsberg 2017, Sportel 2016, Sportel et al. 2019, Andrikopoulos 2021, de Hart and Besselsen 2021, Griffiths 2021). Alqawasmi's contribution to this special issue also shows the importance of a migration law status for future dealings with the state. ...
The state is an important presence in the lives of many minority families. This special issue aims to investigate the interactions of minority families with law and state institutions from a socio-legal perspective, with a particular focus on issues relating to children. This introduction focuses on two observations. First of all, minority families tend to get into contact with law and state institutions relatively often. For migrant and transnational families, migration law can have a large and enduring impact on many aspects of their lives. Furthermore, marginalisation of minorities and differences in decision-making by state actors can contribute to an overrepresentation of minority families in state interventions such as the child protection or criminal justice systems. Secondly some minority families tend to avoid state law and institutions. Especially in family matters such as marriage or divorce, minority family members may look for alternative options outside of the state, concluding religious marriages or divorces.
This paper focuses on claims made by family members in court cases against state institutions. Taking a socio-legal, empirical approach, I aim to explore claims-making in different types of cases from various fields of law, with a particular focus on issues regarding children from minority families. I will analyse in what cases these claims are made and how courts react to such claims. The paper is based on an analysis of Dutch court judgements, as well as an ongoing study including interviews with judges and court personnel; lawyers; welfare professionals; and NGOs and a study of child protection files at the courts of The Hague, Rotterdam, Utrecht, and Amsterdam. When making religious, ethnic, or cultural claims in court cases concerning their children, minority families may demand to be treated differently based on their religious, ethnic or cultural background. I will demonstrate how such claims can be shaped by the legal and institutional context as well as by litigants themselves. Although religious, ethnic, or cultural claims are relatively rare, they force courts to explicitly reflect on representations of culture, ethnicity, or religion. Therefore, studying such exceptional cases provide an interesting opportunity to study how Dutch courts deal with these representations.
In recent decades, the Finnish state has developed multicultural policies that aim at fostering the cultural identity of people coming to Finland from different ethnic and linguistic backgrounds. This aim has had clear practical consequences in the Finnish state-supported schools, where, along with the Finnish and Swedish languages, pupils with different linguistic backgrounds now have the right to learn their native tongue within the frame of the school curriculum. In similar fashion, the state favours a multiple solution as regards religious education, so that pupils belonging to different religious communities have the right to "education in accordance with their own religion". In addition, Ethics is taught to those pupils who are not members of any religious community. Consequently, several religions are today taught in Finnish schools, as well as secular Ethics. Nevertheless, the current system of religious education in Finland is ridden with contradictions. This article first offers an overview of the most recent developments, legal provisions and contents of religious education in state-supported schools in Finland. Next, it identifies some of the sore issues in the current system, and, finally, it reflects on the possible role of the Study of Religions in the field of religious education.
In recent years there has been a proliferation of writing on the meaning of home within the disciplines of sociology, anthropology, psychology, human geography, history, architecture and philosophy. Although many researchers now understand home as a multidimensional concept and acknowledge the presence of and need for multidisciplinary research in the field, there has been little sustained reflection and critique of the multidisciplinary field of home research and the diverse, even contradictory meanings of this term. This paper brings together and examines the dominant and recurring ideas about home represented in the relevant theoretical and empirical literature. It raises the question whether or not home is (a) place(s), (a) space(s), feeling(s), practices, and/or an active state of state of being in the world? Home is variously described in the literature as conflated with or related to house, family, haven, self, gender, and journeying. Many authors also consider notions of being-at-home, creating or making home and the ideal home. In an effort to facilitate interdisciplinary conversations about the meaning and experience of home each of these themes are briefly considered in this critical literature review.
Contemporary European societies are multi-ethnic and multi-cultural, certainly in terms of the diversity which has stemmed from the immigration of workers and refugees and their settlement. Currently, however, there is widespread, often acrimonious, debate about ’other’ cultural and religious beliefs and practices and limits to their accommodation. This book focuses principally on Muslim families and on the way in which gender relations and associated questions of (women’s) agency, consent and autonomy, have become the focus of political and social commentary, with followers of the religion under constant public scrutiny and criticism. Practices concerning marriage and divorce are especially controversial and the book includes a detailed overview of the public debate about the application of Islamic legal and ethical norms (shari’a) in family law matters, and the associated role of Shari’a councils, in a British context. In short, Islam generally and the Muslim family in particular have become highly politicized sites of contestation, and the book considers how and why and with what implications for British multiculturalism, past, present and future. The study will be of great interest to international scholars and academics researching the governance of diversity and the accommodation of other faiths including Islam.