«Coppia mista? In che senso?»

Abstract

Framed within the perspective of everyday multiculturalism, this work analyses partners’ reflexivity in mixed couples, of which the men are immigrant, originally from countries with Muslim traditions, now married to Italian women. The concept of “mixed couple”, often defined around the label of diversity, and uncritically presumed to have a one-dimensional perspective, is presented here as a problem. The epistemological question leads to a wider discourse on the meanings of difference and its related discursive uses. Analysis of the partners’ reflexivity reveals a division on the meanings of difference in order to understand when and how it emerges as relevant social factor in the couple’s everyday life. The variuos processes, which coexist in the conjugal mixité, are then explored, showing how partners, by deconstructing the social stigma which objectifies and naturalises the couple’s alterity, redefine the same concept of “mixed couple”.