Migration lawyers and the construction of the ‘strange’ family

Families which include “strangers” – i.e. non-citizens – require state permission to live together in Europe. For families which are considered “strange” – deviant from the dominant norm – such state permission is not self-evident: queer/same-sex families or polygamous families are commonly denied family migration rights. This paper explores which kinds of families are seen to belong in Europe, zooming in on the role of lawyers. One of the key arenas where what counts as “family” for migration control purposes may be contested is the courts, and the key actors who may do so are lawyers. Based on interviews with lawyers specialized in Dutch family migration law, we ask what kinds of family norms lawyers implicitly or explicitly mobilise in their legal arguments and their strategic choices. Moreover, we want to know how lawyers relate the boundaries of proper family to the boundaries between Us and Them. We therefore ask whether and how lawyers emphasize the universality of family or rather the cultural specificity of family; and whether and how lawyers connect family norms and practices to notions of national, cultural, and racial identity. We find that references to modernity and tradition play a crucial role in lawyers’ constructions of family norms and nationhood.