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Bordering Intimacy
The Fight against Marriages of Convenience in Brussels
in The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology
Author:
Maïté Maskens
Maïté Maskens
Universite Libre de Bruxelles Maite.Maskens@ulb.ac.be
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Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between January 2012 and June 2013 in eight civil registry offices in Brussels, this article explores how assumptions about intimacy intersect with the moral standards of bureaucrats evaluating the authenticity of conjugal life in order to prevent 'marriages of convenience'. From the 'intimate conviction' of the agents of the state to the co-production of intimate narratives, this article tries to understand the intrusion of states in contemporary intimacies. I look at how the bureaucratic application of a civilizational ideology affects the subjectivities of those engaging in partnerships across two different nationalities (bi-national couples) – and blurs an historic distinction between what is public and what is private.