Marriage, Mobility and Mediation: Consanguinity and Early Marriage Among South Asian Diaspora in the UK and France by Zaman MUHAMMAD

This project explores how cousin, exchange and early marriage system are transplanted into European diasporas and reshaped by new cultural, legal and emotional environment. It draws on over fifteen years of empirical work on kinship in Pakistan and extends it into a comparative ethnography of South Asian communities in France and UK. At its core is the question of how families and youth negotiate between inherited obligations and host society expectations under multiculturalism in the UK and laïcité in France.

This research combines ethnography, intergenerational interviews, genealogical mapping and digital ethnography of rishta practices on WhatsApp, matrimonial apps and family social media. Participants across two generations will provide narratives of marriage, conflict and belonging. Planned activities include fieldwork in both countries, workshop at MaCI on kinship and digital culture and the production of comparative case studies.
Expected output is a peer reviewed article, a policy oriented paper on integration and family situating South Asian kinship practices within the broader debates of migration, digital intimacy and emotional belonging. This project’s interdisciplinary resonance spans sociology, anthropology, childhood studies, digital culture and migration law, aligning directly with MaCI’s focus on creativity, interdisciplinarity and emotional transformation.