Transnational Kinship Ties and Welfare State Resistance

Authors

• Petri Hautaniemi University of Helsinki

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30676/jfas.127516

Abstract

In contemporary kinship studies, state and family appear to be closely related. This forceful affiliation is a result of complex historical and social contestation where reproduction, socialization and ties of affection are not only naturally intimate but also politically public. Anthropologists have much to comment on this; alas, their educated and comparative observations often go unnoticed. The speakers in this debate more often seem to represent the social policy  rofessions, state bureaucracies and legal expertise.

 

European immigration politics generally are illustrative. The tightening of residence permits and the control of particular migration groups seem to be  emergent trends. Though state policies and the rationales behind them are often promoted as protection against threats like human trafficking or terrorism, applications of this institutional thinking are largely interpreted as acts of discrimination by the migrants or family members involved. Furthermore, less attention has been paid to how the state classifies families and family members, something which is reproducing rather unrealistic ideals and norms for families and kin groups in general. In fact, the criteria of family relatedness for immigrant families differ from those very practices which are assumed to define family within most welfare states in Europe. In this context, I argue, more comparative, anthropologically-informed analysis would be useful.