REPRESENTATIONS OF GENDERED SPACES IN BIOGRAPHICAL
NARRATIVES OF CROSS-BORDER SPOUSES
Shpresa JASHARI
Université de Neuchâtel, Switzerland, shpresajashari@unine.ch
Cross-border marriage has become a highly debated topic in immigration countries,
particularly when it involves migrants from non-European countries. A politicization
and ethnicization can be observed that triggers highly gendered debates about
„forced marriages“, violence against migrant women or scam marriages. The FNS
funded study „Cross-border marriages under the conditions of transnationalization
and politization.“ focuses on the practices and strategies of the persons involved, as
well as ocurring representations of gender, family, religion and ethnicity.
On the basis of biographical interviews with second-generation Non-European
migrants engaged in a cross-border marriage, the paper centers around the
intersection of gender and space, the main question being: What do particular
spaces represent within narratives of transnational biography and marriage and how
are they gendered?
Combining a qualitative-interpretative methodology with linguistic discourse analysis,
first viewings of the data show that space is represented in a wide range of
categories such as „the west“, „the Balkans“, „Anatolia“ or „the village“. By explicitly
or implicitly drawing on existing (hegemonic) spatial imaginings, specific meanings
and values are attributed to these spaces, often creating binary oppositions of space:
“Switzerland” vs. “Kosova”, “the village” vs. “the city” or “kurdish homes” vs. “Swiss
homes”. If we look at the way, in which meanings/values are attributed, we find an
intersectionality of the categories of space and gender: “The city” is “modern”,
because men and women in the city are “modern” – as opposed to “backward” men
and women in “the village”. Thus, space is gendered by means of interdiscoursive
semantic elements like “modern” and “backward”.