Exogamous relationships tap into multiple tensions across various levels. On a micro level these can occur within the family and the direct social surrounding. On the meso level of the executive – that is the legalese applying level of bureaucracy – raw areas can find their expression in the habitus and praxis of case workers, who apply the laws of the macro level which define the legal structure marriage provisions, right to family reunion, access to residence or citizenship constitute legalised limits. Generally, these relationships trigger the expression of deeply held, though often unreflected attitudes across different structural levels of any society. In the course the reactions reveal interplays, and more so that macro-, meso- and micro levels are not independent of each other (Behar 1996; Marcus 1995). This paper will focus on foreign, non-Jewish partners and spouses of Israeli Jews to put flesh to this abstract argument, and to demonstrate in due course that the situation of these partners and spouses, who are Europeans in their majority (Kranz 2015), cannot be understood without filtering in the (colonial) history of Israel, Jewish (diaporic) history and the present situation of the Jewish diaspora as well as the geopolitical situation of Israel. Weiterlesen →