Intersecting categories in the dissolution of transnational marriages: A socio‐legal perspective

Abstract

AbstractAs divorces take place increasingly across national borders, many former partners find themselves in complex situations entangled in more than one state during which some categories of difference intersect, (re)creating inequalities and precarity. Through a socio‐legal perspective combined with transnational and intersectional approaches, the present study elucidates the link between these intersections and the legal aspects of divorce. Examining Filipino migrant women's divorces in transnational social spaces, it unveils that social class, gender, legal statuses, and filiation intersect in specific situations: when the legal problem arises or implicates communal properties in another country; when a family member residing abroad interferes in the divorce settlement; and when the divorce process occurs in the context of domestic violence and involves an institution espousing women's spatial mobility to protect them. In such situations, the social class differences between partners become particularly pronounced (rather than their supposed cultural differences) and intersect with other categories.