1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«Based on an ethnographic study of Canadian women’s intimate relationships with a racialized man from the Global South, this article focuses on their experiences of the spousal reunification process. More specifically, [the author examines] how the women emotionally and materially engage with spousal reunification procedures and administrative temporalities and how interactions with the Canadian immigration bureaucracy affect their subjectivity as women and citizens.» (p. 1)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
This article «draws on the narratives of 27 women as well as on discussions posted online by members of a “closed” Facebook support group catering exclusively to “Canadian women sponsoring the immigration of their non-Canadian partner” (excerpt from the “group description”), in which [the author] did participant observation for a period of 18 consecutive months between 2015 and 2017.» (p. 8) A majority of the women interviewed live in Québec.

Instruments :
Guide d’entretien

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse de contenu

3. Résumé

«Canadian women married to men from the Global South engaged with the Canadian spousal reunification procedures by waiting, working, and fighting. All three modes of involvement with the bureaucracy highlight the central place of love in the immigration process. Through administrative formalities, love became a tool of exclusion/inclusion to the Canadian nation and also shaped women’s subjectivities and created meaningful narratives to legitimize women’s otherwise stigmatized relationships with a non-Canadian racialized man. When faced with the state’s scrutiny of North-South relationships, Canadian women applying for reunification exploited the ideology of heteronormative love—translated into material evidence to further support their claim. However, the substantial amount of emotional labour needed to justify women’s reunification claims contributed to an extreme emotionality of the process. The procedure constructed “women in love” as irrational and thus vulnerable beings, and reproduced normative understandings of gender, conjugality, and feminized love (Frohlick 2009; Stevi Jackson 1993; D’Aoust 2018). The Facebook support group echoed the idea that love and marriage were inseparable from women’s happiness (Geoffrion 2018).» (p. 17-18)