An Exploration of Feelings in the Migration Process among Queer Partners

Review of Sara Ahlstedt, The Feeling of Migration: Narratives of Queer Intimacies and Partner Migration (2016).

Abstract

Preview of text:

This thesis makes a strong contribution to the growing body of research exploring the relationship between sexuality and migration. As the title suggests, it focuses on the emotions and feelings experienced by migrants and their geographically stationary partners in non-heterosexual relationships. Sara Ahlstedt starts by making a distinction between affect, emotion, and feeling, although the term affect is not used in the rest of the thesis. In her analysis, affect is the “physical reaction,” emotion is “structural, social and cultural” and feeling is the “individual, subjective experience” (Ahlstedt 2016, 80). Ahlstedt explores emotions and feelings through narrative analysis of fifteen interviews with (mostly) coupled queer people. While some have migrated, others have remained stationary and are partners of those who has migrated.