Understanding Migrant Masculinities through a Spatially Intersectional Lens

Abstract

This article analyzes migrant narratives on masculinity through an intersectional perspective that is sensitive to spatial aspects. Drawing on research with migrants in Berlin and Munich in Germany, we unpack how (self-identified) Polish men negotiate their gender identity vis-à-vis other people in these cities whom they perceive as ethnic, religious, gender, and sexual others. We address how their social and ethnic backgrounds shape their narratives on foreign masculinities and femininities at the intersections of ethnicity and gender. In particular, we draw attention to how these negotiations are entangled with local discourses over the presence and visibility of various immigrant groups and cosmopolitan queer communities in the cities. The intersectional approach helps us to formulate how migrant masculine identities change in migration.

What’s masculinity got to do with it? The COVID-19 pandemic, men and care

“…Tronto (2013), again, proposes a more nuanced analysis of the relationship between (hegemonic, traditional) masculinity and care, claiming that some elements of care are in fact part of the definition of hegemonic masculinity, as (for some) breadwinning and protection can be seen as masculine forms of care. Therefore, building on Tronto’s theoretical contribution to the discussions on care and masculinity, Connell’s theorizing of hegemonic masculinity (Connell, 2005; Connell and Messerschmidt, 2005), Young’s discussion on chivalry and masculinity (2003) and on my research on European fathers’ rights movements (Wojnicka, 2020) and Polish migrant men (Wojnicka and Nowicka, 2021), I have further developed the concept of protective masculinity (Wojnicka, 2021). The concept was first introduced by Johnson, who defines it as type of male performance centred “(…) around conceptions of strong, tough men protecting women and children, and sometimes other men as well, from diverse threats to their security” (2013: 16).…”

Where Difference Begins

“…More information on the project, its design, and the sample can be found in various articles published by Nowicka. The quotation and its analysis were published in Wojnicka and Nowicka (2021). The analysis of the interviews uses the wording of the research participants even though some expressions might not be common any longer in scientific discourse and beyond it in the Anglophone world.…”

“…In all interviews, when Polish women talk about people of colour or Muslims, they always mention their ethnicity or religion (Lisiak 2017: 50); when men speak of other men and women's sexuality that is nonheteronormative, they refer implicitly to white Germans or white English people. Conversely, Muslim men are denied queer sexuality (Wojnicka and Nowicka 2021).…”

“…Attending to difference and ignoring difference reflects and enacts power. As Wojnicka and Nowicka (2021) and Lisiak (2017) explicate, Polish migrants in England and in Germany do not hesitate to demonstrate dismissive and discriminatory opinions of Muslim men and women as the racialisation and stigmatisation of Muslim bodies is largely legitimised in public discourses in these countries, as well as in Poland, which remains an important point of reference for these migrants. For Polish women in England and Germany, depicted by Lisiak (2017), white female bodies are visible, as they are also valuable, while non-white and Muslim bodies are invisible and misrecognised.…”

“…Similarly, Polish men in Germany described by Wojnicka and Nowicka (2021) establish a proximity to German men and distance themselves from Muslim men if they read them as heterosexual. But they also distance themselves from German men by questioning their "masculine" features: in the narrations we collected, German masculinity is presented as "harmless" or even "too civilised", tamed, having some "feminine" features.…”