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Negotiating Differences in Mixed Marriages-Christians and Muslims

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Negotiating Differences in Mixed Marriages-Christians and Muslims Middlesex University Research Repository An open access repository of Middlesex University research http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk Papadopoulou, Dora (2016) Negotiating differences in mixed marriages - Christians and Muslims in Greece. PhD thesis, Middlesex University. [Thesis] Final accepted version (with author’s formatting) This version is available at: https://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/31446/ Copyright: Middlesex University Research Repository makes the University’s research available electronically. Copyright and moral rights to this work are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners unless otherwise stated. The work is supplied on the understanding that any use for commercial gain is strictly forbidden. A copy may be downloaded for personal, non-commercial, research or study without prior permission and without charge. 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See also repository copyright: re-use policy: http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/policies.html#copy Negotiating differences in mixed marriages Christians and Muslims in Greece A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy awarded by Middlesex University Theodora Papadopoulou M00422174 School of Law Doctoral Institute Social Policy Research Centre April 2016 (revised) This research has been co-financed by the European Union (European Social Fund - ESF) and Greek national funds through the Operational Program "Education and Lifelong Learning" of the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF), 2007 – 2013. Abstract Christian - Muslim mixed couples in Greece challenge marital norms and group identifications through re-negotiation of religious affiliations, identifications and practices. They are sociologically significant because they contest historically and socially constructed ethnic, cultural and religious differentiations in the specific Greek context. These couples link nuanced and subtle dimensions of conjugal mixedness in the family formation process with Muslim migration and the indigenous Muslim minority communities. My doctoral research analyses religious negotiations, practices and strategies of mixed Christian - Muslim families in Greece and investigates intergenerational transmissions and interactions between mixed couples and extended families in transnational and translocal networks of social relationships. The research draws on in-depth interviews with Christian and Muslim participants of diverse socioeconomic characteristics and national background. Analysing mixed marriages according to the institutional affiliation to Islam and Orthodox Christianity captured Christian - Muslim intermarriage with different Muslim populations: Near, Middle East and South East Asian Muslim-born immigrants, native minority Muslims and Greek converts to Islam. I follow intermarriage as an iterative process of trajectories and awakenings to mixedness and present identity shifts and exchanges, negotiations and practices during the family formation process. Novel data on the everyday and festive, religious and social practices of mixed and homogamous families shed light on how mixed couples put their worldviews into practice and how religious practice is incorporated into mixed family life. Conjugal mixedness is reproduced and represented, asserted and contested in religious, cultural and ethnic transmissions, parenting, “multiple-mixing” upbringing and naming of children in Christian – Muslim families. Intermarriage has acquired social visibility in Greece, even though is far from being integrated as a social norm. Mixed couples live, reside and locate themselves within the specific socioeconomic context of economic and humanitarian crisis in contemporary Greece. There are different lifestyle patterns of multilevel being, living and belonging of mixed couples within Greek society. Discrimination, racism and xenophobia against immigrants and minorities provoke social exclusion and precariousness for some mixed couples that are socially visible and mostly affected by phenotypical prejudice. Social processes of exclusion do not result only from ‘being’ a foreigner or an immigrant, they also result from ‘being with’ a foreigner or an immigrant. i Religion as a social signifier of mixedness differs significantly from one relationship to another. The many facets of differentiation in mixed Christian and Muslim relationships are combined to produce distinctive and unique forms of conjugal mixedness in a wide repertoire of moral, cultural and religious systems. My research contributes knowledge in the study of intermarriage and mixedness by bringing religion into focus and analysing dynamic and negotiable self-identifications with ethno-cultural and religious affiliations and practices in Christian – Muslim conjugal mixedness and family formation. It takes the analysis beyond a simple focus on religion to link family with migration and minoritisation social processes and reveal complicated border crossings through conversion, intersections between gender, class, power and agency and potential of intermarriage for sociocultural transformations through interactions, exchanges and reciprocity of mixed couples and their extended families in transnational and translocal social networks. ii Acknowledgements Words of gratitude and appreciation are owed to my supervisors, the Director of Studies Professor Louise Ryan, the supervisor Professor Eleonore Kofman and the external advisor Dr Panos Hatziprokopiou for instilling in me trust, confidence and perseverance to go through my doctoral experience. There is nothing I could ask from a supervisor that Louise and Eleonore did not offer to me most generously and wholeheartedly! I’d like to thank Dr Lisa Clarke, my Nvivo instructor, for her unwavering support and encouragement. Many colleagues and friends at the Social Policy Research Centre have supported me through the PhD. I’d also like to thank Professor Giorgos Tsimouris, who nearly became my supervisor, before becoming a wise advisor and a dear friend. My thanks go to Dr Marina Petronoti for reviewing a published version of chapter four. My mum and dad proved amazing participant recruitment assistants! They certainly turned fieldwork into an intensive and proliferate experience for me. I am indebted to my participants who set themselves as examples of reflexive modernity and inspired me with their everyday social experiments. They accompanied me with their words and their presence in my life. They taught me that if we risk crossing borders, we will find no borders in our hearts. Love allows for inspiration; so much for tolerance, understanding, togetherness and companionship as much for compromises, disappointment and failures. Now and again, safe ground is not a happy place to be. iii Table of contents Abstract i Acknowledgements iii Table of contents iv List of tables vii List of figures viii List of appendices ix 1. Introduction 1 Research aims 3 Research questions 4 PhD thesis structure 4 Statistical data on mixed marriages and migration in Greece 7 ‘Old’ and ‘New’ Islam in Greece 13 Interplay between ‘New’ Islam and the Greek ‘marriage market’ 19 2. Mixed families, intermarriage and family-related migration 25 Overview of research on intermarriage 26 Social norms of marriage 29 Factoring emotions and inequalities in cross-border marriages 33 Gender and religion in marriage migration 37 Transnational families and translocal communities 40 Intermarriage and religious practices 43 Parenting “mixed” children 46 Conclusion 48 3. Qualitative research methodology 50 Research Design 50 Sampling Strategy 50 Access to participants and recruitment 52 Data collection methods 54 Negotiating the interview setting: “Planned flexibility” 54 Doing the interviews 55 Third persons’ presence in the interview setting 57 Online interviews 58 Joint interviews 59 The interview as social encounter 62 iv Research ethics 65 Reflexivity 67 Research diary 67 Researcher’s note 70 Data management, recording and preparation for analysis 73 Sample population demographic characteristics 79 Age 79 Gender 79 Residence 79 Nationality 80 Religious affiliation, religious identification and religiosity 80 Marital status 84 Parenthood 85 Education 85 Socioeconomic characteristics 86 Data Analysis 87 4. Mixed relationships: From intimacy to family formation 94 Trajectories to intimacy 94 Awakenings towards mixedness 97 Family formation 101 Married relationships: Weddings 102 Symbolic Greek - Turkish Weddings 106 Non-married relationships 108 Family dissent and reconciliation 111 Conclusion 115 5. Negotiations and practices 116 Interreligious modes of
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