by Prof. Betty de Hart, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam & MSH's invited professor

In collaboration with BelMix research team at the Laboratory of Anthropology of Contemporary Worlds (LAMC)

The ‘Chinese Exclusion’ through migration law restrictions in the 19th and 20th century is well studied for both the United States and Europe. This public lecture contributes to this literature by exploring how this ‘Chinese exclusion’ was informed by concerns over the intimate relationships that Chinese migrants developed with white women. With the Netherlands as a case-study, it analyses the regulation of Chinese–Dutch marriages in the interwar period and Second World War. It argues that the ways in which these regulations were informed by colonial discourses on the Chinese as racialized others. This resulted in the 'regulation of mixture' in which state officials aimed to prevent such marriages, through migration law, document requirements and premarital counseling. During the war, these marriages were considered a 'racial shame' and relationships were broken up by arresting Chinese husbands before marriage. More research is needed to learn more about the extent of these practices and to know whether and how they were applied to racialized groups other than Chinese.

Betty de Hart is a full professor of transnational families and migration law at Vrije Universiteit. She conducts legal, empirical and historical research on the national, European and international rules that transnational families encounter, the views behind these rules as well as the impact on the everyday lives of transnational families. In 2007, she received a Vidi-grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) for her research project “Transnational families between Dutch and Islamic family law”. In 2012, she published her book on dual citizenship, in Dutch: Een tweede paspoort. Dubbele nationaliteit in de Verenigde Staten, Duitsland en Nederland (Amsterdam University Press, 2012). She was the recipient of a 2017 European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant to establish an independent research team and research program for her research project “EUROMIX: Regulating Mixed Intimacies in Europe”. She also received a 2021 research grant from the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research (NWO) Open Competation Social Science and Humanities for her project entitled “Love, sex, faith. The politics of emotion in migration law”.

Thuesday 15th of april, from 2 pm to 3.30 pm

Salle des Commissions
4th floor, MSH, Building DE1
Avenue Antoine Depage 1
1050 Brussels

contact : east@ulb.be