Publications

The family lives of immigrants and ethnic minority populations have become central to arguments about the right and wrong ways of living in multicultural societies. While the characteristic cultural practices of such families have long been scrutinized by the media and policy makers, these groups themselves are beginning to reflect on how to manage their family relationships in a world where migration is a transnational piece of the pluralized global puzzle. Exploring case studies from Austria, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Australia, The Family in Question explores how those in public policy often dangerously reflect the popular imagination, xenophobically stereotyping immigrants and their families, rather than recognizing the complex changes taking place within the global immigrant community.

Contents

1. The Family in Dispute: Insiders and Outsiders
Ralph Grillo
2. Inside and Outside: Constrasting Perspectives on the Dynamics of Kinship and Marriage in Contepmorary South Asian Transnational Networks
Roger Ballard
3. "For Women and Children": The Family and Immigration Politics in Scandinavia
Anniken Hagelund
4. Defining "Family" and Bringing It Together: The Ins and Outs of Family Reunification in Portugal
Maria Lucinda Fonseca and Meghann Ormond
5. Debating Cultural Difference: Ayann Hirsi Ali on Islam and Women
Erik Snel and Femke Stock
6. Family Dynamics, Uses of Religion and Inter-Ethnic Relations within the Portuguese Cultural Ecology
Susana Bastos and Jose Bastos
7. The Dream of Family: Muslim Migrants in Austria
Anna Stepien
8. Who Cares? "External," "Internal," and "Mediator" Debates about South Asian Elders' Needs
Kanwal Mand
9. Italian Families in Switzerland: Sites of Belonging or "Golden Cages"? Perceptions and Discourses inside and outside the Migrant Family
Susanne Wessendorf
10. Dealing with "That Thing": Female Circumcision and Sierra Leonean Refugee Girls in the UK
Radha Rajkotia
11. Socio-Cultural Dynamics in Intermarriage in Spain: Beyond Simplistic Notions of Hybridity
Dan Rodriguez-Garcia
12. Debating Culture across Distance: Transnational Families and the Obligation to Care
Loretta Baldassar