Intersectional Global Family Experience (IGFE)
entry by Julie M. Marx, Global Family Expert at Expat Valley
Intersectional Global Family Experience describes how multiple dimensions of identity, including race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexuality, citizenship, disability, and neurodiversity, combine to shape risk, access, and resilience for globally mobile families. It emphasizes that no family member is only “expat” or “migrant”; each carries intersecting positions that confer both privilege and vulnerability in different contexts. IGFE invites practitioners to move beyond generic cultural adaptation models and assess how structures of power and discrimination operate across borders and within families. It also highlights that intersectional positions can change with each relocation, requiring ongoing attention rather than one-time assessment. Using IGFE as a lens helps ensure that support plans, school responses, and counseling interventions do not erase or flatten complex identity realities.
Comparable terms
Intersectionality (critical race and feminist theory; foundational concept mapping intersecting axes of oppression; widely used but often underapplied in mobility practice); Diversity and inclusion (DEI; organizational framing; broader; can mask specific power structures); Multiple minority status (research; emphasizes layered marginalization; less used in community settings); Privileged expat (community usage; highlights unearned advantages held by some mobile individuals); Complex identity profile (counseling; descriptive; lacks explicit link to structural power).
Why this matters
Including Intersectional Global Family Experience helps professionals avoid treating “global family” as a homogeneous category and instead attend to how power and vulnerability vary within and between families. The term supports more precise risk assessments and resource mapping, especially for families whose members hold sharply different positions across race, gender, and citizenship. It also anchors ethical practice, reminding practitioners to foreground those most at risk in planning support and policy.
Cross-references
Global Majority Status Abroad (Identity & Belonging); Global Minority Status Abroad (Identity & Belonging); Neurodiversity (Neurodiversity & Medical Complexity Abroad); Parenting Across Cultures (Family Dynamics). Global Majority Status Abroad and Global Minority Status Abroad illustrate how racialized positions shift with mobility; Neurodiversity adds another axis of difference that can be marginalized or supported across settings. Parenting Across Cultures highlights the family-level negotiations that intersectional positions require in daily life and decision-making.
Sources
Collins, P.H. & Bilge, S. (2016). Intersectionality. Polity Press. Provides a comprehensive framework for understanding intersecting structures of power in everyday life. Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6), 1241-1299. Foundational article on intersectionality in law and social movements. Insights from the Intersectional Dialogues on Migration (2023). Robert Bosch Stiftung. Applies intersectional analysis to migration and mobility contexts.
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