Legislating love: Norwegian family reunification law as a racial project

Abstract Love is often portrayed as helping us overcome racism and other forms of prejudice, yet this article argues that imperatives towards love and romance-based marriage in Norwegian family reunification law constitute a racial project. Through a detailed reading of the 2004 Green Paper on a new Immigration Act, and a particular focus on the use of immigration law to combat forced marriages evident there, the centrality of romantic love in constructions of national subjects is considered. These constructions are seen to render some groups of Norwegian citizens simultaneously invisible as national subjects and hyper-visible as objects of national management. L'amour est souvent représenté comme une aide à vaincre le racisme et autres formes du préjudice, pourtant cet article soutient que des impératifs envers l'amour et la romance basés sur le mariage dans la loi norvégienne du regroupement familial constitue un projet racial. En utilisant une interprétation approfondie d'un livre vert sur un nouvel acte de l'immigration en 2004, et un accent particulier sur l'utilisation des lois d'immigration pour combattre des mariages forcés évidents là-bas, la centralité de l'amour romantique dans les constructions des citoyens nationaux est considérée. Ces constructions sont perçues comme rendant quelques groupes de citoyens norvégiens simultanément invisibles en tant que sujets nationaux et hyper-visibles en tant qu'objets d'encadrement national. Con frecuencia, el amor está representado como algo que nos ayuda superar el racismo y otras formas del prejuicio, aún este artículo se discute que los imperativos hacia un matrimonio basado en el amor y el romance en el ley de reunificación familiar Noruega se constituye un proyecto racial. A través una interpretación detallada del ‘2004 Green Paper’ sobre un acto nuevo del inmigración, y un enfoque específico en el uso del ley de inmigración para combatir los matrimonios forzados, Se considera la centralidad del amor romántico en la construcción de sujetos nacionales. Estas construcciones se hacen invisibles algunos grupos de ciudadanos Noruegos como sujetos nacionales y a la vez los hacen híper-visibles como objetos del manejo nacional. Keywords: immigrationnationracial projectloveNorwayKeywords: immigrationnationprojet racialamourNorvègeKeywords: inmigraciónnaciónproyecto racialamorNoruega Acknowledgement Jigna Desai, Michael D. Franklin, David Jansson, Tiffany Muller Myrdahl, Micheline van Riemsdijk, and two anonymous reviewers generously commented on drafts of this article. Thank you. Notes 1 In the dominant Norwegian public sphere, ‘immigrant’ is used to refer to anyone not perceived as white, regardless of their immigration experience. Those perceived as white and who speak unaccented Norwegian are referred to as ‘Norwegian,’ while those perceived as white and who have immigrated to Norway are referred to by their country of origin. Here I use scare-quotes around the terms ‘immigrant’ and ‘Norwegian’ to highlight that these do not, in fact, refer to migrants or to Norwegian citizens, but to perceptions of belonging to the nation. 2 Norwegian immigration control is governed by laws and administrative regulations that require very different kinds of legislative effort. Unless otherwise noted I use ‘immigration law’ to broadly refer to both. 3 Other areas of immigration law and regulation that could be put to similar uses are visa practices and family reunification regulation more broadly. 4 For example, the objections of MiRA Senteret, a non-governmental organization for and by ‘immigrant women’ which has worked with questions of forced marriage for decades, to the use of immigration law to combat forced marriages were dismissed by the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Affairs in its summary of responses to the proposals for new immigration laws targeting forced marriages (Ministry of Local Government and Regional Affairs 2005). 5 In 2003 Russia and Thailand were number two and three, respectively, on a list of top sending-countries in successful family reunification applications (UDI, Citation2004). 6 The anecdotal evidence is from 2001–2003, during which I processed applications for family reunification as a Senior Executive Officer at the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration. No formal research exists. 7 Norwegian immigration regulations do open for granting independent permits to an abused spouse, and in theory (if not always in practice) the burden of proof is low. However, when discussions of forced marriage fail to consider the potential abuse of, or at a very minimum potential isolation of, young non-Norwegian women who have been forcibly married and migrated to Norway, in effect the debate is no longer about forced marriages, but about particular versions thereof. 8 These legal changes arguably have little effect on forced marriages because (1) the procedures they require were already standard in virtually all applications for family reunification where one spouse is a national of a country outside Europe and North America; (2) there is no evidence to suggest that those targeted for forced marriages will not be asked to lie in interviews, or will not remain targets for such marriages after the age of 23—in its proposals regarding changes in immigration law aimed at preventing forced marriages NOU does not cite any research regarding the expected effectiveness of the proposals (see especially NOU: 20: 245–250). MiRA Senteret (Citation2006) notes that these laws seem more tailored towards limiting immigration to Norway, than towards effectively preventing forced marriages.