Polygamy, disrupted reproduction, and the state: Malian migrants in Paris, France.

Full Abstract

For Malian women, migration from West Africa to France has disrupted widely shared understandings of marriage and reproduction. In response to restrictive immigration policies, men and women routinely confront the challenges of polygamy, public disapproval of high fertility, and biomedical messages promoting contraception. Although many Malians continue to be strongly pronatalist, within a family, spouses may experience contradictory pressures and objectives regarding reproduction, particularly in polygamous marriages. Because women are more likely than men to interact with nurses and doctors in the context of maternity and child health care visits, they are systematically confronted by encouragement to contracept. French population policy is contradictory in this regard, as it has been strongly pronatalist throughout the 20th century, yet is equally strongly anti-natalist with regard to immigrant populations. Recent anti-immigrant policies such as the Pasqua law prohibiting polygamy have emerged as influences shaping men's and women's contested reproductive goals. Men tend to oppose contraception, citing Islamic doctrine while women increasingly justify contraceptive use in response to government policies and biomedical encouragement. In contrast, polygamy also may generate pregnancy rivalries as wives strategize to enhance their reproductive careers and thus to retain immigrant status.

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Author information

Author/s: Sargent, Carolyn (C); Cordell, Dennis (D);

Affiliation: Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dedman College, P.O. Box 750336, Dallas, TX 75275-0336, USA. csargent(-atsign-)mail.smu.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

Journal: Social science & medicine (1982) (Soc Sci Med), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-May; vol 56 (issue 9) : pp 1961-72

Dates: Created 2003/03/24; Completed 2003/06/12; Revised 2007/11/15;

PMID: 12650732, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult
Contraception Behavior - ethnology
Culture
Decision Making
Emigration and Immigration - legislation & jurisprudence
Family Planning Services
Female
Fertility
France
Gender Identity
Humans

Interviews as Topic
Islam
Male
Mali - ethnology
Marriage - ethnology; legislation & jurisprudence
Paris
Politics
Public Policy
Reproduction
Sexual Behavior - ethnology
Women - psychology

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