Buy me love: entanglements of citizenship, income and emotions in regulating marriage migration

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article looks at the entanglements of income and love in the implementation of family reunification legislation by Finnish immigration bureaucrats and administrative courts, and specifically the ways in which the requirements to display a ‘real’ relationship and the income requirement play out for citizens and non-citizens. This is not as straightforward as it seems – both elements, emotions and income, play a role even in cases in which they are not officially part of the requirements. Citizens and non-citizens can mobilise different arguments when trying to convince the authorities that their relationship is real. Even if citizens have a wider array of arguments they can use, such as leveraging a low income that forces them to live under certain conditions, it seems that their unions are scrutinised more carefully, and they also have more difficulties in obtaining a residence permit. For cases in which both partners are non-citizens, the income requirement overrides questions of emotional attachment even in cases that involve children. The results of this article point to the need for more detailed research on the workings of immigration legislation on the ground, in particular, in regard to citizenship.