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The politics of love: Marriage migration and governance in Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom

Project description

The role of emotions in marriage migration

In an era where migration is increasingly seen through the lens of state security, a pressing issue emerges: the complex interplay between state institutions and migrants striving to regularise their status through marriage to European citizens. With the support of Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, the POL-LOV project will investigate the situation in Spain, Italy and the post-Brexit UK. Through in-depth interviews and participant observations with policymakers, lawyers and migrants, the project will explore the role of emotions, particularly ‘moral emotions’, in state decision-making processes related to marriage migration, and understand the impact of bureaucratic encounters on the essence of cross-border love.

Objective

At a time when migration is increasingly reduced to an object of state security, POL-LOV focuses on the legal, political, and, most importantly, affective relationship between state institutions, especially those in charge of migration, and migrants who are married to European citizens and who seek to regularize their legal status. Through the paired case of Spain and Italy (southern border countries in the EU) and the United Kingdom (a country that recently left the EU), POL- LOV addresses the following empirical research questions: How do state bureaucracies scrutinize, evaluate, and quantify “love” in their decision-making processes about marriage migration? How do marriage migrants, especially women, experience these bureaucratic encounters? By addressing these research questions, POL- LOV pursues two main objectives: 1) advancing social science theorizing about the role of emotions, especially “moral emotions” , in how state institutions operate; and 2) improving our understanding of how the everyday encounters of marriage migrants with state bureaucracies affect meanings and practices and performances of romantic love across borders.
POL-LOV is highly original and ambitious in its research design as it develops an interactional perspective focused on the relationships between the state and marriage migrants . The methodology involves capturing state moral emotions through the classic anthropological tools of ethnography: in-depth interviews, participant observation and semi- structured interviews. In practice, this means interviewing policymakers, lawyers and officials in embassies, police headquarters and migration offices. Since there is a methodological focus on both sides of the encounters (state bureaucrats and migrants) I will also do participant observation and in- depth interviews with marriage migrants and its partners and see how they navigate state suspicion and scrutiny.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

Keywords

Programme(s)

Topic(s)

Funding Scheme

HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

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Call for proposal

(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01

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Coordinator

UNIVERSITAT ROVIRA I VIRGILI
Net EU contribution
€ 181 152,96
Address
CARRER DE ESCORXADOR
43003 Tarragona
Spain
Region
Este Cataluña Tarragona
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost
No data

Partners (2)