Undoing Family in Transnational Family Conflicts – Narratives of Family Boundaries and Belonging

Transnational family lives span across national borders, and in the context of divorce and separation, conflicts can arise over the country of residence of the involved children. When children are unlawfully removed from one country to another, this can lead to court proceedings about their country of residence. From a family practices approach, in such cases, family members perform practices of UnDoing family by creating, managing, and displaying family lives and relations. Within this framework, we examine which narratives about family boundaries and belonging members of transnational families use in custody conflicts and in court proceedings about their children’s residence. How do family members argue and legitimize their children’s whereabouts? How are family belonging and boundaries performed? Which normative notions of family and parenthood are used in these narratives?

To answer these questions, firstly, we analyzed 20 qualitative interviews held with family members in conflictual situations surrounding the children’s country of residence. Secondly, we analyzed 30 court files from Austrian court proceedings, offering insights into the construction of family practices in court. Both interview data and court records provide insights into the negotiations of family concepts in a transnational context. Results show that the narratives of boundaries and belonging revolve around ideas of culture, class, nation, country, blood ties, emotional bonds, and gender. Narratives are closely interwoven with subjective perceptions of the child’s best interest, and refer to stereotypical, heteronormative and traditional constructions of family and gender.