Summary

 

Our era is characterized by intense voluntary and forced border-crossing. Short and long-term immigration, for work and multitude of other reasons, has become a part of the biographies of millions, turning "Transnational Families", "World-Families", and "Globordered Families" – in which family members move from one country to the other, or live in different countries - into a significant phenomenon. Yet, much is still to be empirically studied, culturally analyzed, normatively discussed, and theoretically conceptualized in relation to the intersection of immigration, families, and gender.

Moreover, as the title of this conference highlights, families are not the only gendered intimate domain affected by immigration. For example, it has been claimed that friendships are “taking over various social tasks, duties, and functions, from family and kin.” (Phal 2000, 8). These “hidden solidarities” are less visible and institutionalized than the solidarity established in familial relations, and are seriously understudied. Another site for the study of non-familial solidarities is the workplace. For example, research in this field suggests that non-traditional forms of solidarity created with others in and outside the workplace can be crucial in the lives of migrant and other workers to prevent severe labor market exploitation, and human trafficking.

The main questions that will be addressed during the conference are:

- How are intimate relations practiced, maintained, and evaluated in the immigration social context? What makes someone a “good family member”, a “good co-worker” or a “good friend”?

- How do affective relationships and various forms of solidarities and collective actions in the globordered workplace impact working conditions, workplace exploitation, and workers’ voice in the workplace?

- How do cultural conventions and normative expectations in relation to intimate relationships influence immigration?

- What are the gendered implications of the impact of immigration on intimate relations?

- How do these implications differ by place, age, economic status, sexual orientation, labor sector, kind of relation, and other relevant variables? Can any similarities be detected nevertheless?

- How do different disciplines study these implications, and can they inspire each other, or even cooperate in future productive ways?

- How are these implications expressed in the cultural products (literature, films, crafts, blogs etc.) of the immigrants’ home-communities, new-communities, and host-communities? Can the cultural shifts in these different communities be compared, or even described, in terms of mutual influences?

- How should these implications be socially and normatively regulated on the international, and national scales?

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Conference participants include: Rhacel Salazar Parreñas (keynote), Vanessa May (masterclass), Helma Lutz, Joanna Dreby, Justice Nancy Baraza, Yasmine Ergas, Yiu-tung Suen, Inga K. Thiemann, Helen Schwenken and Manoj Dias-Abey.

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