Sexualities, Intimacies, and the Citizen/Migrant Distinction

This chapter takes its inspiration from Ann Laura Stoler’s argument in Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power that sexualities and intimacies were never merely metaphors, but material means, for creating and sustaining deeply unequal global relationships. Stoler’s focus is on sexualities and intimacies as the means to produce and sustain colonial projects and relationships. Today’s world remains deeply shaped by the histories and legacies of colonialism, global capitalism, and nineteenth/twentieth century processes of creating a global order organized into nation-states whose supposed ‘equivalence’ encodes, upholds, yet naturalizes inequalities among them (Mongia, 2007).