Abstract
Drawing on twenty-one in-depth interviews, this article discusses the Internet’s role in the formation of transnational marriages among migrant Kurds who live in Finland. In contrast to what is presented in the European media, my findings suggest that transnational couple formation among migrants should be seen as highly diverse and more than just practices that maintain and preserve “traditional” marriage customs. Transnational online dating practices make visible how young adult Kurds actively engage in partner formation and spousal selection. Online dating enables individual autonomy by widening the circle of potential partners outside familial circles and offers a private social space in which people can create relationships on their own terms and evade social monitoring and possibly harmful rumors.
Highlights
In the field of migration studies, it has been typical for researchers to make a distinction between differ ent types of cross-border marriages: transnational versus non-transnational, intra-ethnic versus in terethnic
Online Dating and Transna tional Marriage Practices in Transition While there is no clear or single definition of trans national marriage, it has been common to highlight the role of existing transnational social ties between families and individuals in its formation
In cases of arranged marriages, this social link can usually be traced with relative ease, but in the case of transnational marriages that have started online, the relationship is not necessarily based on a prior social link between the couple
Summary
The Role of the Internet in Shaping Transnational Couple Formation in the Kurdish Diaspora. Drawing on twenty-one in-depth interviews, this article discusses the Internet’s role in the forma tion of transnational marriages among migrant Kurds who live in Finland. In contrast to what is presented in the European media, my findings suggest that transnational couple formation among migrants should be seen as highly diverse and more than just practices that maintain and preserve “traditional” marriage customs. Transnational online dating practices make visible how young adult Kurds actively engage in partner formation and spousal selection. Online dating enables in dividual autonomy by widening the circle of potential partners outside familial circles and offers a private social space in which people can create relationships on their own terms and evade social monitoring and possibly harmful rumors
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