Spousal Reunification and Integration Laws in Europe

2026-07-22

RE-NUP will study the implementation of integration laws in three Europeans countries through the perspective of their primary target groups (spousal visa applicants) as well as the nature and scope of the mandatory education acquired as part of integration requirements. While immigration laws have been a topic of substantial academic interest, the modes through which immigrants themselves negotiate integration laws and its rigorous application in reunification cases continue to be under-represented. In my previous publications on the interface between the institution of marriage and legal spaces in North India, I have proposed a reconceptualization of the state where sexual subjectivity is not only a source of marginality and vulnerability, as often perceived in scholarly literature, but also an aspirational goal for some. RE-NUP will develop on this reflection further to understand how laws influence and are, in turn, shaped by the divergent ways in which the institution of marriage is defined and practiced in South Asia and Europe. Through ethnographic research among Indian and Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora, I will study how marital ties are forged through an interface with transnational state agencies that determine the validity of marriages while assessing visa/permit applications. How do European states classify and evaluate marital ties across cultural frameworks? Does the concept of cultural expertise facilitate the process of translating cultural norms? This fellowship will give me an opportunity to undertake specialized training in the field of cultural expertise, combine research with applied work, and extend my competencies in project development, diversity management and intercultural education through an intersectoral secondment and training on transferable skills offered at UNIVE. I will develop an anthropological approach to intercultural training, which is currently missing in the state-of-the-art, and build my career as an independent consultant.

Italy

2026-02-15