Racing the nation: towards a theory of reproductive racism

Abstract

In this challenging article, the author marries the notion of reproduction, both biological and social, to new forms of political and popular racism in Europe wherein the family and breeding to keep the nation white and ‘native’ are now centre stage. Whilst certain women’s reproductive capacities are being incentivised for nationalist ends, this goes alongside a rollback in reproductive rights as well as a series of exclusions aimed at those marked as demographic threats – migrants, Muslims and, increasingly, LGBTQ people. She demonstrates how migrant women, who are vilified as breeders who could threaten the purity of the nation, are essential to maintain the traditional nuclear family under capitalism, through caring for the young and old, but simultaneously denied their rights as workers and mothers. The focus on reproduction is now a key dividing line in European racism; something that feminists and anti-racists should now address. This, she argues is more than a matter of intersectionality, but a new racist avatar which she terms reproductive racism.