A moral economy of suspicion: Love and marriage migration management practices in the United Kingdom

Abstract

This article investigates how marriage migration management practices in the United Kingdom (UK) have entered the realm of security policy by relying on a moral political economy of suspicion that notably mobilizes what I call ‘technologies of love.’ The latter refers to conceptions of ‘true love’ and its manifestations that infuse the regulation of belonging through immigration controls. I argue that this economy of suspicion builds on and partakes in a governmental regulation that result in a stratification of rights. After outlining how Western romantic love has a history that cannot be uncoupled from state concerns about race and citizenship, I detail how Didier Fassin’s notion of moral economy of suspicion relates to technologies of love in the governmentality of marriage migration. Finally, I examine recent legislation and policing practices in the UK to illustrate how technologies of love can become part of judgment formation in evaluating possibly suspicious couples, notably European citizens marrying non-European citizens.