Marriage migration, family and citizenship in Asia

Abstract

ABSTRACT Despite the burgeoning scholarship on marriage migration and citizenship, extant studies have tended to approach citizenship as an individual-centred concept linked to the nation-state, thus fading the family domain into the background. Focusing on cross-border marriages within Asia, this special issue points to the importance of going beyond the state-individual nexus to conceptualise the family as a strategic site where citizenship is mediated, negotiated and experienced. In this Introduction, we draw attention to the gendered mode of familial citizenship and explicate how it operates locally and transnationally to limit the rights and agency of marriage migrants. We then illustrate how the link between marriage migration and citizenship is mediated through the family as a significant site of negotiation and contestation, and as an important lens for understanding the intergenerationality of citizenship. Collectively, this special issue calls for a rethinking of citizenship from an individual-centred proposition to a family-level concept.