Critical scholars have long called for state recognition of de facto families, beyond legal or biological ties, as a pathway toward inclusion of more diverse family forms. This article, written by Saskia Bonjour and Susan Diepenmaat, asks to what extent recognition of de facto families indeed leads to more inclusion, in the context of a restrictive immigration regime in which families need state permission to live together.

In this research article, Eline Westra sheds light on the social rights claims of the Surinamese-Dutch feminist organization Ashanti that was active between 1980 and 1987. Their Black feminist perspectives provide important insights into the underlying mechanisms of in- and exclusion of the Dutch welfare state, from the standpoints of Dutch citizens and families that did not necessarily fit the picture of the “imagined citizens” for whom the Dutch welfare state was built.

Political struggles over national belonging often involve ideas on what a ‘proper’ family looks like. This article connects this important insight from the field of family migration politics to the study of postcolonial citizenship. Rather than focusing on dominant (State) perspectives, we ask: how do citizens from formerly colonised territories themselves conceptualise ‘the family’ and ‘the nation’ in the former metropole?

In this essay, Sonja Evaldsson Mellstrom discusses the place of race/ism and colonialism in European migration studies today in relation to key takeaways from the Bridging Race and Migration series.

It all begins with an idea.

It all begins with an idea.