Learning Objective 1: How can we consider belonging a social problem?

Although we often think that creating families and experiencing belonging is a personal choice, in reality, laws, policies, and practices impact who gets recognized as a family. For example, multigenerational families are rarely recognized with the same rights as nuclear families. These structural differences result from differences in values related to family. Because of this, some families experience privilege, and others experience oppression. Mixed-status families and queer families have less power than other families. However, queer dreamers are taking action to create the social justice of belonging for their families.

Learning Objective 2: How do changing definitions of ethnicity and citizenship impact who belongs, historically and currently?

Ethnicity is a social location where a group of people share a cultural background, such as language, location, and religion. Sometimes, an ethnic group experiences violence or prejudice related to their belonging. In addition, our definition of ethnicity is socially constructed. For example, we use Hispanic, Latino/a, and Latinx to describe a particular ethnic group. The amount of power an ethnic group has may change over time. In addition, people of different races and ethnicities may be granted citizenship or not. To be a citizen is powerful because you can participate in our political process and enjoy the benefits of government programs. However, obtaining citizenship can be challenging in the past due to the historical institution of slavery and in the present due to the immigrant industrial complex.

Learning Objective 3: What does it mean to be queer, particularly queer in the context of family?

Queer is a term that has been used to harm people who are LGBTQIA+. However, the word is being reclaimed by people who are deliberately challenging norms of gender identity and sexuality. Although queer families are generally as healthy and stable as straight families, and they are at least as likely to parent well, many families experience heteropatriarchy. This structural inequality limits resources and choices for their families, including unequal resolutions in child custody disputes and lack of access to adoption.

Learning Objective 4: How do sociologists explain the social problem of belonging?

Functionalist sociologists explore what roles people in the family take so the family can function in a healthy way. Although the gender divisions this approach was founded on are no longer valid, La Familia functions as a support system for immigrant families. Conflict theorists examine money, power, and inequality. They see that families can create wealth for the upper class and exploit the labor of documented and undocumented migrants. Symbolic Interactionists examine how families create themselves. In queer families, roles are negotiated because traditional gender norms don’t apply. Queer theorists remind us that families come in all shapes and sizes and that some of us have chosen families and families of origin. Feminist theorists apply the ideas of bodily autonomy to understand who has the power of consent and choice in their lives. Critical race theorists combine the ideas of bodily autonomy and gender identity to examine the intersection of race, class, and gender to understand belonging. They also argue that families of color bring community cultural wealth as a resource for their families to create belonging.

Learning Objective 5: What are the interdependent individual and collective actions taken by activists to increase the social justice of belonging?

Queer dreamers, the activists fighting for a path to citizenship for immigrant families, are using the strategies of coming out as queer and undocumented as sources of power and agency. They act within their own families, bravely being their authentic selves. And they act together, in collective action, to challenge the lack of humane immigration policies and practices in the United States. Their passion for social justice creates belonging.

birthright citizenship: the concept that a child who is born in a country becomes a citizen, regardless of the citizenship of their parents.

blended families: families consisting of two or more adult partners and their children together with children from previous relationships.

bodily autonomy: the idea that a person has the power to decide what happens to their own body

chosen family: a deliberately chosen group of people that satisfies the typical role of family as a support system. These people may or may not be related to the person who chose them.

collectivist: a society that focuses on meeting the needs and goals of all members of a group, rather than focusing on individual successes.

community cultural wealth: the interdependent overlapping forms of knowledge, skills, abilities and networks possessed and utilized by Communities of Color to survive and resist racism and other forms of subordination.

familism: a strong commitment to family life, that stresses the importance of the family group over the interest of an individual.

family autonomy: the ability of a family to make their own decisions about their future or about the treatment of their members.

family of origin: the family into which one is born.

heteronormativity: the assumption that heterosexuality is the standard for defining normal sexual behavior and that male–female differences and gender roles are the natural and immutable essentials in normal human relations

heteropatriarchy: a system of oppression designed to reproduce and reinforce the dominance of heterosexual cisgender men and oppress women and LGBTQIIA+ people.

homophobia: the irrational fear of or prejudice against individuals who are or are perceived to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, and other non-heterosexual people.

immigration industrial complex: The immigration industrial complex is the confluence of public and private sector interests in the criminalization of undocumented migration, immigration law enforcement, and the promotion of “anti-illegal” rhetoric.

individualistic: a society that emphasizes the needs and success of the individual over the needs of the whole community.

marriage equality: The recognition of same-sex marriage as a human and civil right, as well as recognition by law and support of societal institutions.

mixed-status family: a family whose members include people with different citizenship or immigration statuses

multigenerational family: a family with two or more adult generations and families that have grandchildren under age 25 and grandparents living together.

nativism: an intense opposition to an internal minority that is seen as a threat to the nation on the ground of its foreignness

nuclear family: a family group that consists of two parents and their children living together in one household.

origin: the geographical location where a person was born and grew up.

queer: a person who does not conform to norms about sexuality and gender (particularly the ones that say that being straight is the human default and that gender and sexuality are hardwired, binary, and fixed rather than socially constructed, infinite, and fluid).

undocumented: anyone residing in any given country without legal documentation. It includes people who entered the US without inspection and proper permission from the government, and those who entered with a legal visa that is no longer valid.

1. Family: As you consider your family of origin and your current family, which sociological theory best explains the social construction of your family?
2. Ethnicity: How are race and ethnicity the same or different? How have we used law, policy, and practice to enforce ethnic identity?
3. Immigration: What issues around immigration are surfacing in your community? How might you use the concepts of this chapter to explain either side of the argument or create change?
4. Belonging and Critical Race Theory: Please read Whose Culture Has Capital? A Critical Race Theory Discussion of Community Cultural Wealth. How does Community Cultural Wealth explain the power of belonging for oppressed families?
5. Queer Families: Complete the Gender Unicorn exercise. How do the expanding definitions of gender identity, sexual orientation, and family increase people’s power with and power to? Is there a recent change in laws, policies and practices that empowers or oppresses queer families?