Across Intimate Borders: Transnational Queer Families Between France and Central Africa

Researcher: Sonja Evaldsson Mellström

Sonja’s PhD research explores queer family migration between France- and Central Africa. Her project examines how intersections between (predominantly) age, gender, race, sexuality, citizenship and class shape the migration trajectories of queer/same-sex families living between France and parts of Central Africa. The project zeroes in on how these intersecting oppressions (and sometimes privileges) structure encounters between families- and migration regimes and how the concept of family is (re)configured in the process.

Methodologically, the study employs a mix of multisited,- video/photography- and online ethnography which invites families to be at the heart of the data collection process. Theoretically, the project draws on family migration scholarship, anthropological approaches to family/kinship, decolonial studies, queer migration- and postcolonial studies. The term “migration regime” is used to identify- and theorize the actors that facilitate-or restrict movement across transnational borders. The concept allows for a critical examination of what actors, including state institutions, make up the web of migration control between France- and Central Africa.

By exploring what it means to be a queer transnational family in the 21st century and asking “how does age, gender, race, sexuality, citizenship and class shape migration trajectories of queer/same-sex families?” this study contributes to a growing field of critical family- and queer migration studies.