South Asian arranged marriage norms involve families identifying partners for their sons or daughters who are relatively equitable to their own children in age, socioeconomic status or caste, family background, and relationship history. This multiple case study investigated specific types of partner inequities or couple "mismatches" that have been implicated in cases of immigration fraud in international arranged marriages, where South Asian Canadians marry people from their home countries and are abandoned after foreign nationals obtain immigration rights. Interviews with 30 fraud victims and focus groups with 27 community insiders, including religious/community leaders, revealed three patterns related to immigration fraud: foreign partners "marrying up," "marrying down," or "marrying the unmarriageable" in their cultural worldviews. Implications for fraud prevention are discussed.
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