It is a widely recognised European phenomenon that practices associated with minority populations provoke political actors, who have previously not related to gender equality, to participate in debates - apparently on the behalf of women. This tendency can be observed in the policy debate on the German New Immigration Act (2007): restrictive regulations on family reunification are said to protect migrant young women from forced marriage. This paper argues that discursive processes of ethno-gendering and classgendering (intersectional hyper-visibility) are mobilised at the expense of (women's) citizenship status (intersectional invisibility). Such constructions of 'the other' as unworthy of equal treatment have to be understood against the backdrop of an ethnocultural citizenship regime, which restrictive migration policies seek to maintain. The contribution of this paper to citizenship studies is not only empirical, but also methodological: it introduces a model of Intersectional Discursive Policy Analysis that helps to understand discursive constructions of citizenship. © 2012 Taylor & Francis.

Gender equality forced marriage Intersectionality Family reunification intimate citizenship Germany Discursive Policy Analysis

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