TOFNITW · Transformation of Family Norms in a Transnational World: How LGBT Migrants can Affect Change through Social Remittances
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2017-02-01 → 2019-07-03
- EU contribution
- €172,800
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Transformation of Family Norms in a Transnational World: How LGBT Migrants can Affect Change through Social Remittances
This project examined perceptions and receptions of same-sex marriage and same-sex families across different socio-institutional contexts. In the first stage of the project, the research has focused on the experiences of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) individuals from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), who are married and/or are raising children with a same-sex partner in Belgium or the Netherlands – the first two countries in the world that recognized same-sex marriage and that currently provide full parental rights to same-sex couples. While CEE is a region encompassing many countries with different traditions and histories, the project focused on those that were both EU members and that constitutionally defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman. During 2017-2019, these were Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. One of the goals of this project was to examine how moving from a country with restrictive LGB legislation to a country that had achieved greater LGB equality influenced the everyday lives of LGB individuals and their families. Pursuing this goal, the project set out two research objectives: 1) identification of individual consequences of establishing same-sex families for CEE LGB migrants, both in their countries of origin and in their receiving countries; 2) identification of interpersonal consequences of establishing same-sex families for the CEE gays and lesbians, with a particular focus on the changes in the evaluation of their LGB identity as a result of their new family status. In the second stage of the project, the research focus shifted to LGB migrants’ family members and close friends still residing in CEE communities in which same-sex marriage was not possible and same-sex families often faced great difficulties in achieving societal and legal recognition and protection of their families. The goal of the second stage was to examine how intercultural contact between LGB transnational migrants living in same-sex families and their family members and friends in CEE home communities exposes tensions between various family models and underlies transformations of traditional family practices. The research objective underlying this goal focused on the identification of possible changes and shifts in family members and friends’ values and opinions on same-sex families and normative models of family in general. With this, the project sought to enhance understanding of how intercultural contact and bottom-up exposure to new institutional family models might change perceptions of what is imaginable and thus possibly serve to initiate a long-term socio-cultural change.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The present study examines transformations of family norms through cross-border exposure to different family models. It focuses on the LGBT migrants from selected Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries with a constitutional same-sex marriage ban, but who now live in same-sex families in Belgium, one of the first countries to legalize same-sex marriage and adoption. This case study will explore how intercultural contact can improve reception of an institutional innovation such as same-sex family. This project is based on in-depth interviews with two groups sustaining ties across borders: (1) the CEE gays and lesbians in same-sex marriage or raising children with a same-sex partner in Belgium, and (2) their non-migrant family members, friends and neighbours in home communities. Migrant transnationalism scholars have established that migrants can effect change in their home communities not only by sending remittances, but also by transferring ideas and practices (social remittances). But empirical investigations of this phenomenon are still scarce, and typically focus on democratic ideas and practices. In a novel approach, the present study will analyse social remittances by examining cross-cultural effects of the institutional innovation of same-sex family, and it will further position its findings into the wider framework of social change analysis. In light of the European Parliament's recent decision to include LGBT and same-sex families' rights into the new EU gender equality strategy, the study's conclusions will also inform relevant policy strategies. By developing this study at the Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Families and Sexualities at the UCL, the project will benefit from Centre's multidisciplinary perspective and expertise in transnational migrations, family norms and sexuality, to which the project will add a new perspective on the LGBT migrants from CEE, thus deepening Centre's focus on LGBT studies and widening their regional expertise.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN · LOUVAIN LA NEUVECoordinatorBelgium
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union