Transnational lives, transnational marriages: a review of the evidence from migrant communities in Europe

Abstract

Whom do migrants marry? This question has become a popular topic of research, and existing studies identify a common trend: most of the non‐European, non‐Christian migrants in Europe marry someone from their country of origin. The motivations for such practices are to be found in the characteristics of transnational spaces and in the social structures that emerge in such spaces. Based on a review of research from several European countries, three such constellations are discussed: first, the obligations to kin, especially when migration regulations become more restrictive, and marriage becomes the last route by which to migrate to Europe. Second, new forms of global inequality, between the metropolitan centre and countries of the global periphery, give migrants in Europe improved status and standing in their society of origin and therefore excellent opportunities on the marriage market there. Third, gender relations have started to shift in both host society and migrant families. Men and women alike are trying to rebalance power relations within marriage and to shift them in their favour. In this process marriage to a partner from the country of family origin may promise strategic benefits. The article ends with suggestions for future research.

Attitudes toward transnational intermarriage in China: Testing three theories of transnationalization

“…On balance, the results do not support Hypothesis 1 on transnational convergence, according to which attitudinal support for transnational intermarriage is positively associated with urban status, province-level socioeconomic development, and transnational activity, as predicted by some modernization, world society, and cosmopolitan urbanism theorists as well as the theory of opportunity structure in the marriage market (e.g., Becker 1991; Binnie et al 2005;Goode 1970;Inglehart and Norris 2003;Meyer 2010;Olofsson and Öhman 2007;Routledge 2003). On the contrary, the results are consistent with Hypothesis 2 on transnational distinction (e.g., Beck-Gernsheim 2007;Constable 2010;Farrer 2008;Glick Schiller and Salazar 2012;Levi-Strauss 1978), which states that people with rural (as opposed to urban) hukou and from less socioeconomically developed and less transnationalized provinces are more likely to support transnational intermarriage. More specifically, supporting Hypothesis 2A rather than 1A, the results indicate that urban (as opposed to rural) hukou holders are significantly less likely to be cosmopolites than anti-transnational respondents (M1, OR = 0.73, p < .01).…”

“…Theoretical developments pertaining to cosmopolitan or region-specific configurations of transnational orientation are no longer new. Nevertheless, the approach adopted by previous research that treats attitudes toward intermarriage with people from distinct countries and regions in isolation (Huijnk and Liefbroer 2012;Perry 2013) is highly inconsistent with the very stance of the theories postulating the relative and holistic formation of individuals' views of the transnational world (Beck-Gernsheim 2007;Kellner 2002). Addressing this inconsistency between theory and method, in this study the conceptualization of transnational orientations as holistically formulated and the use of latent class analysis have helped reveal four distinctive profiles of attitudes toward transnational intermarriage with people from different countries and regions, namely cosmopolitan, pro-West, pro-East Asia, and anti-transnational.…”

“…This approach fails to account for the fact that individuals may have a holistic view of the transnational world, and that perceptions of social distance between countries and regions are formulated in conjunction and in relative terms rather than in isolation (Beck-Gernsheim 2007). Without profiling individuals' attitudes toward intermarriage with people from a repertoire of distinct countries as a whole, the approach of existing analyses limits their engagement with the key concepts and testing of major theoretical conjectures of transnationalization.…”

“…Whereas classical status-exchange theories focus on socioeconomic characteristics at an individual level (Fu 2001;Hou and Myles 2013;Kalmijn 1998), recent theoretical developments have drawn attention to the role of country-level traits in motivating the pursuit of (more) generalized and non-pecuniary symbolic mobility through transnational intermarriage (Beck-Gernsheim 2007;Constable 2010;Farrer 2008;Hu 2016a). These theories posit that individuals may conceive intermarriage with people from (more) developed countries as a means of attaining upward mobility along a symbolic gradient of development (Beck-Gernsheim 2007;Glick Schiller and Salazar 2012), and the gradient is seen to closely mirror diffuse socioeconomic indicators such as gross domestic product (GDP) and levels of income and human development (Veltmeyer 2008). This proactive transnational status seeking is vividly exemplified by extensive examples of global hypergamy, passport unions, and mail-order brides that usually occur in marriages between more-and less-developed countries (e.g., Constable 2010;Farrer 2008;Zare and Mendoza 2012).…”

“…Although the behavioral enactment of intermarriage is subject to practical opportunities and constraints such as immigration policies, employment, and education (Fu 2001;Hu 2016a;Kalmijn 1998), people's attitudes toward transnational intermarriage offer insight into their latent tendency to form families across nation-state boundaries, the extent to which they view the world from a transnational perspective (Beck-Gernsheim 2007;Vertovec 2009), how they make sense of social distance between countries and regions (Pagnini and Morgan 1990), and how they may respond to and engage with macro-level transnational developments in an increasingly interconnected world (Held and McGrew 2007;Kellner 2002;Sassen 2013). Exploring social attitudes toward transnational intermarriage also enables contending theories of the complex phenomenon of transnationalization to be tested.…”