Deconstructing Fixed Identities: An Intersectional Analysis of Russian-speaking Female Marriage Migrants' Self-representations

Through in-depth qualitative research with Russian-speaking female migrants in Belgium, the present paper aims to deconstruct the category of ‘Russian female marriage migrants'. By explicitly interrogating Russian-speaking women's own or co-ethnics’ choice for a Belgian partner, their perceptions of Belgian men's preference for a Russian-speaking wife and their experienced (mixed couple) life in Belgium, we highlight the diversity within the group of Russian-speaking female marriage migrants in Belgium. The intersectional approach permits us to uncover social categories and power relations fundamentally shaping Russian-speaking females' senses of identity and (self-)representations, how these categories and power relations intersect, and what intersections are particularly salient in certain situations. Intersectionality is used as a theoretical approach and a methodology.