Résumé
Among institutions aiming to produce ‘desirable nationals’, the administrative procedures related to marriage and civil partnership offer a particularly relevant socio-legal space within which to explore the constitution of a privileged white group. The civil servants responsible for these procedures are increasingly involved in gate-keeping tasks aimed at excluding ‘abusive others’ from the national territory — a geographic as well as symbolic space. Since legal unions are recognized as universal human rights, registrars have to balance these restrictive practices with the democratic values of ensuring equal treatment for all and the absence of arbitrariness.