Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses the transmission of national belongings in alliance as kinning process. Based on registrars' narratives about the (un)desirability of some unions, it analyses metaphors around the circulation of national belongings through the exchange of bodily fluids between spouses.

Paper long abstract:

The transmission of national belongings offers an enthralling perspective from which to explore the topic of inheritance, understood as the circulation of material and immaterial goods between related persons. Based on fieldwork conducted with Swiss registrars between November 2009 and January 2011, this paper questions the stakes of inheritance at the crossroads of familiar and national belongings.

As other ranges of civil servants, registrars have lately been involved in the struggle against unwanted migration. With the development of bureaucratic technology aiming at tracking down “sham marriages”, registrars' work is also about the selection of potential co-nationals. Foreign spouses of Swiss nationals acquire rights regarding residence as well as regarding state membership. If the Swiss legislation about nationality is mainly articulated around jus sanguinis, and remains very restrictive regarding jus solis, it nevertheless entails the possibility for foreign spouses to become Swiss through a more straightforward bureaucratic procedure named “facilitated naturalisation”.

During my fieldwork, it became obvious that registrars consider themselves as part of the technology of protection of the national body through rhetoric of good marriages/civil partnerships. The present paper analyses the metaphors used in their narratives about what makes some foreigners desirable co-nationals, while others remain illegitimate. I will highlight the articulation between markers of national belongings such as family names, the “place of origin” and matrimonial strategy, and narratives about the circulation of bodily fluids, especially sperm and mother's milk.