False papers and family fictions: household responses to ‘gift children’ born to Indonesian women during transnational migration

Leslie Butt; Jessica Ball; Harriot Beazley

doi:10.1080/13621025.2016.1204984

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False papers and family fictions: household responses to ‘gift children’ born to Indonesian women during transnational migration

Journal article

Peer reviewed

False papers and family fictions: household responses to ‘gift children’ born to Indonesian women during transnational migration

Leslie Butt, Jessica Ball and Harriot Beazley

Citizenship Studies, Vol.20(6-7), pp.795-810

2016

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13621025.2016.1204984

Appears in UniSC Diversity and Inclusion Research Collection

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Abstract

illegitimate children

transnational migration

family

birth registration

Indonesia

UniSC Diversity Area - Life Stages

When parents pursue transnational labour migration, challenges arise around ensuring the social belonging of children, especially 'gift children' who are conceived or born abroad as a result of out-of-wedlock relationships or sexual assault. Families we interviewed in Lombok, Indonesia, displayed complex social ingenuity to ensure the gift child's social belonging. Caregivers described how they address discrimination by manipulating and falsifying family histories in identity documents, including census forms and birth registration. These family strategies drive home the local role of identity documents as a tool to enhance belonging rather than as proof of legal identity. We spotlight the time lag between birth and obtaining an official birth record as a crucial space in creating 'citizenship from below' in communities with high out-migration and low birth registration rates.

Details

Title: False papers and family fictions: household responses to ‘gift children’ born to Indonesian women during transnational migration
Authors: Leslie Butt (Author) - University of Victoria, Canada
Jessica Ball (Author) - University of Victoria, Canada
Harriot Beazley (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Arts, Business and Law
Publication details: Citizenship Studies, Vol.20(6-7), pp.795-810
Publisher: Routledge
Date published: 2016
DOI: 10.1080/13621025.2016.1204984
ISSN: 1362-1025
Organisation Unit: Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre; School of Social Sciences - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Law and Society; Sustainability Research Cluster
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99450692802621
Output Type: Journal article

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Web Of Science research areas: Political Science

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