Migration and Family Support: The Case of Indonesian Gays in Paris
Author: Adihartono, Wisnu , wisnuadi.reksodirdjo@gmail.com
University: Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) Marseille, France
Supervisor: Irène Théry
Year of completion: 2015
Language of dissertation: French
Keywords:
Homosexuality
, Migration
, Family
, Social representation
Areas of Research:
Migration
, Family Research
, Social Psychology
Abstract
It is undeniable that violence and harassment are problems that affect all forms of homosexual communities worldwide. As individuals, homosexuals are still not accepted as full citizens. Thus was born the term "homophobia" which covers all negative attitudes towards homosexuals as for example direct and indirect discrimination to any person whose appearance or behavior does not conform to prevailing stereotypes masculinity or femininity. From this research, it could be seen that there are thousands of years, Indonesia gives permission to the existence of homosexuals, but nowadays Indonesia rejects their existence. The social representation of homosexuality brought the Indonesian society to distinguish or to categorize from the point of view of “gender belief system”. This research analyzes the migration and family support to Indonesian gays in Paris. It is based on a social fact that there are Indonesian gays who migrated to Paris for various reasons. Contrariwise, this study does not limit itself to examining the reasons why they did the migration, but it also analyzes their relationships with family in Indonesia from the point of view of family support. To do this research, I used the qualitative method with "face-to-face" interview. I interviewed twenty Indonesian gays in Paris with their trance age from 24 to 45 years, without seeing a particular religion and regardless of the type of work they do. Our study has pointed out that the imagination of the city of Paris played an important role as a reason to migrate. Paris as “gay friendly city” has become a “main attraction” for them and gives them a dream that migrate to Paris is a logical reason rather than stay in Indonesia with full of anxiety and fear. This research also shows an analysis that although they are gay and has had to migrate outside Indonesia; they still keep a close relationship with the family in Indonesia, particularly the nuclear family. Nevertheless, there are some gays in this research that are no longer in contact with the family in Indonesia because their families are ashamed to have a son who is gay.
