Offering a transnational perspective on the processes of identity transmission and identity construction of mixed families in various parts of the world, this book provides an overview of how local, national, global contexts and inter-group relations structure the development of specific forms of belonging and identification.
Featuring nine rich ethnographic studies situated in geographic areas less covered by scholarship on mixed families such as Québec, Morocco, Italy, France, Switzerland, Belgium, the Philippines, Thailand and Israel, the books contributions reveal how families everyday lives are shaped by historical and sociopolitical contexts, as well as by transnational dynamics and mobility trajectories. The studies illustrate the context-specific realities that shape social definitions of mixednesswhether religious, national, cultural, ethnic or racialat local and transnational levels.
The articulation of local and transnational perspectives on mixed families will be of interest to students and scholars of migration, transnationalism, families, ethnicity, race and racism in the social sciences (anthropology, sociology, history, social work, international relations and global studies). The book will also be of interest to policymakers, as well as activists and practitioners working in organizations offering services to mixed individuals, migrants, and their families.
Foreword The Overriding Value of Mixedness: Questioning the Mixed
Couple Category in France
Introduction Beyond Borders: The Everyday Life of Transnational Mixed
Families
Part I: Transnational Relatedness: Socialization and Belonging Through and
Beyond Borders
1. Relational Transnationalism of Filipino/Thai-Belgian Youths in Belgium:
Mothers, Memories, Emotions and Social Entities
2. Identity Transmission in a (Trans)national Context: A Comparison between
Parents in Mixed Couples in Quebec and Morocco
3. Canadian Mothers, Transnational Bridges: Transmitting Embodied Connections
to the Global South to Mixed Children in Canada
4. Narratives of Belonging in Transnational Contexts: The Multidimensional
Experience of Mixedness
Part II: (In)visible Affiliations and Racialization Processes in Tensed
(Trans)national Group Relations
5. Single, Dual, Beyond: Ethnic, Racial and Religious Self-identification
among Mixed Individuals Raised in Christian-Muslim Families in Italy
6. Racial Socialisation and Negotiation of Family Mixedness among White
Parents of Internationally Adoptive Children in France
7. Living in a Conflictual Transnational Space: French-Algerian Daily Lives
in the Midst of Intergroup Tensions
8. Theres no such Thing as a Dragon!: Evading the Mixed Origin in Jewish
Mixed Families Identity Discourse in Israel
9. Perceptions of Racial Discrimination and Parenting Reactions: The case of
Mixed Sub-Saharan African-Italian Families in Northern Italy
Josiane Le Gall is an Adjunct professor of anthropology at Université de Montréal and researcher at the Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux (CIUSSS) du Centre-Ouest-de-lĪle-de-Montréal. Her research areas include migration and family, especially as related to mixedness, transnationalism, identity, transmission, religion, and care. Her current research projects focus on the identity construction process of mixed individuals in Québec and on the use of health and social services by immigrant men in Québec. She is also co-conducting ethnographic projects on good death, dying and grief as experienced by migrants and minorities in Montreal.
Catherine Therrien is a Canadian anthropologist living in Morocco. She is an Adjunct Faculty at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane. Her research interests focus on identity, mixedness, family, migration, and transnationalism. She currently conducts a research on the identity of mixed children in Morocco and one on the narratives of "illegalised" Sub-Saharan migrants. Author of the recent books Celui qui échoue devient sorcier. Récit dun migrant camerounais parti dAfrique et arrivé en Afrique (PUL, 2019) she has also co-edited various collective books and special issues of scholarly journals, the last of which is on mixed Muslim/non-Muslim families (Social Compass, forthcoming).
Karine Geoffrion is a professor of anthropology at Université Laval, Canada. Her research interests include mobility, transnational intimacies, family migration, romantic love, mixed identities, and gender diversity in West Africa. Her main research examines the transnational relationship of North-South couples and Canadian womens experience of the spousal reunification process in Canada. A recent project in collaboration with colleagues from Ghana explores issues of identity and belonging for mixed-race Ghanaians. Karine has recently coedited a themed issue on immigration bureaucracies in the journal Anthropologica (2021).