Cellular Migration: DNA Testing and Family Reunification in the United States and Europe

• In Event: 577 - Section on Body and Embodiment Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 03. Regulating Bodies

Abstract

Despite liberal policies on immigration and official support for family reunification, many countries are imposing stricter requirements on those applying for family reunification. In addition to economic means testing for family sponsorship, the United States and European Union member states are requiring applicants for family reunification to provide official documentation and other pieces of evidence to prove their family relation. Where such documents are suspect, many countries are resorting to DNA testing to verify familial claims. The idea to establish family ties on the basis of genetic links is part of a larger trend towards the use of biological knowledge in liberal democracies to determine a person’s eligibility for certain benefits or rights. In a liberal era of immigrants’ rights to family reunification, what do states’ use of DNA testing of family relations mean for these immigration regimes’ support for immigrants’ and family rights? In this paper, we examine policies regarding family reunification and the use of DNA testing in the United States, Finland, and Germany. By comparing family reunification policies and DNA testing practices in the United States and Europe, we show how different uses of DNA profiling--and the extent to which family relations are seen to be embodied and geneticized--result in a more exclusionary immigration policy.

Authors

• Torsten Heinemann, University of California, Berkeley

• Catherine Lee, Rutgers University