Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
I do kind of feel that … touch wood, there's not been anything really vi-
olent happen to anyone I know, but if something were to happen, I don't
know how I would react. I don't know if I would turn tail and just say,
phew, that's it, boy, I'm out of here, if it's close family or something, or
whether I would stick it out and fight. And I wonder if because of my
Italian link, … I don't know how [a] 100% South African person would
think, who had a South African passport and whose only option was to go
through a full immigration process somewhere. And I do sometimes won-
derifbecauseoftheEuropeanlink,Isortof…notthatIfeelIhaveanout,
but it's kind of … ja, sometimes I don't feel 100% South African, if that
makes sense….
Suzette:
Suzette here acknowledges how the possession of a foreign passport allows her to
feel differently about living in South Africa—in this case, easily able to flee if she felt
threatenedbycrime.Inthisway,thepulloftheUK,inparticular,becomesevident.Des-
pite Suzette's ability to move anywhere in the EU, it is the economic lure of the global
city of London, as well as the cultural status of the city and the embodied fact of Suz-
ette's monolingual anglophonism that directs her mobility.
Misty used the same scaled-up European citizenship regime in reverse. The daughter
of English emigrants, she used her EU passport to go with her husband to Ireland to
work:
Max:
When you and your husband first tried to go abroad, why was it Ireland?
Misty:
Just because it would be easier for him to find work there, really.
Max:
Did he have Irish …
Misty:
No it's because I'm British …
Max:
… because of your British citizenship.
Misty:
Ja, ja.
Greg is aware of his ability to use his UK passport to move himself and his wife to
Sweden—thus also displaying his awareness of the ability to deploy the heterosexist
mechanismofmarriage-basedprivilegetobestowmotilityonhisfemalepartner,scaling
up the unit of his motility from individual body to household unit:
Max:
Does [your wife] have another passport, or just South African?
No,she'sjustSouthAfrican,but,mebeingBritish,we'reonanEUpassport.
That's how we'd look to arrange getting her over.
Greg:
Max:
OK, so you can go into Sweden with no fuss at all.
