Cross-border Marriages Research Articles

Intimate citizenship and compensatory masculinities

This study explores the complex conditions of cross-border marriages between Syrian refugee women and Jordanian men in Mafraq, Jordan, within the context of South-South migration. Through qualitative interviews in Mughayyir, Raba', and Zaatari, the research examines specific gendered and raced relations shaped by discourses and practices of femininity and masculinity. Racialized gendered dynamics portray the strategic mobilization of non-hegemonic and 'compensatory masculinities' among Jordanian men in response to Syrian women's perceived vulnerability. Drawing on Ken Plummer's 'intimate citizenship,' the study scrutinizes marriage decision-making entangled with political discourses, revealing the imbrication of personal lives with globalized politics, embedded within the gendered patriarchal demands of the hosting society. In contrast to studies on North-South cross-border marriages, this research focuses on the South, shedding light on non-migrant husbands' experiences and their compensatory strategies. The 'intimate citizenship' framework illuminates challenges surrounding desirable and undesirable unions within displaced Syrian women and Jordanian men, unveiling the politicization and stigma associated with cross-border marriages. By addressing societal judgments and introducing 'heterosexual capital' and 'compensatory masculinity,' the research enriches our understanding of South-South migration complexities, prompting a reevaluation of existing frameworks and fostering a more nuanced discussion.

ISLAMIC FAMILY LAW ON POLYGAMOUS MARRIAGE IN MALAYSIA: BETWEEN ROSES AND THORNS

Marriage is a way of gaining a peaceful mind and soul, be it monogamous or polygamous marriage. This is the sweetness of marriage as enshrined by Islam. To achieve this wisdom, conditions laid down by the religion and legal requirements must be observed. Otherwise, a marriage may turn into a miserable and thorny life for couples, especially in polygamy. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to disseminate legal knowledge and refine the understanding about polygamous law in Malaysia. The central arguments of this study are two-pronged: (1) to deliberate on the Malaysian legal framework for polygamous marriage and (2) to discuss a crucial legal issue related to polygamy, namely cross-border marriage and its effects. The qualitative method of doctrinal legal research was employed to obtain and analyse primary and secondary data from various sources. It included examining the statutes and decided cases of the Syariah Courts, including reported and unreported cases. The relevant statutes studied were the Islamic Family Law (Federal Territories) Act 1984 and the Enactment of Islamic Family Law (Kedah Darul Aman) 2008. In substantiating arguments, data from e-Syariah Version 3 (ESV3) was used together with existing literature. The findings revealed that refusal or failure to comply with legal requirements pertaining to polygamous marriage may lead to cross-border marriage and its aftermath effects on the legality of the marriage, jurisdiction of the court, and the rights of wives and children in the context of law. Hence, the enforcement of existing laws on polygamy should be emphasised to control any abuse of power by a man to contract a polygamous marriage. More importantly, the laws and enforcement should be strengthened to protect the rights of the wives and children. Future research may focus on issues involving the rights of the wives and children of a polygamous marriage upon the death of the husband or father according to Islamic family law in Malaysia and its implementation.

Characterization of population connectivity for enhanced cross-border surveillance of yellow fever at Mutukula and Namanga borders in Tanzania

IntroductionYellow fever (YF) remains a public health threat in Sub-Saharan Africa and South America with an estimated 200,000 cases and 30,000 deaths annually. Although the World Health Organization considers Tanzania as low risk for YF because no YF cases have been reported, the country remains at alert to importation of the virus due to ecological factors and high connectivity to high-risk YF areas in other countries. PurposeThis study aimed to identify points of interest with connectivity to high-risk YF areas to guide preparedness efforts in Tanzania. MethodsUsing the Population Connectivity Across Borders toolkit, the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (Department of Health and Biomedical Sciences) in collaboration with the Tanzania Ministry of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention implemented 12 focus group discussions with participatory mapping in two high-risk borders of Mutukula and Namanga. ResultsParticipants identified 147 and 90 points of interest with connectivity to YF risk areas in Kenya and Uganda, respectively. The identified locations are important for trade, fishing, pastoralism, tourism, health-seeking, agriculture, mining, religious activities, education, and cross-border marriages. ConclusionThe Tanzania Ministry of Health used the results to update cross-border surveillance and risk communication strategies and vaccination guidelines to prevent the importation of YF into Tanzania.

“We will treat you well because you are helping our nation”: Migrant Wives and Functionalist Visions of Belonging in South Korea

Over the last three decades, cross-border marriages between non-Korean women and Korean men have become increasingly common, comprising between 4% and 10% of all annual marriages in South Korea since 2005. In this article, I explore the historically evolving gendered, racialized, and classed normativities that migrant wives have confronted during this period. Triangulating between state-collected statistical data; ethnographic, demographic, and legal studies on migrant wives in Korea; and the country’s changing laws and policies on marriage migration, I show how these normativities, or what I term “functionalist visions of belonging,” have defined the legitimacy of migrant wives’ presence primarily in terms of their imagined use-values. I suggest that migrant wives have been interpellated by at least three analytically distinct functionalist visions of belonging over the past three decades: (1) ethnonational, which interpellated them in terms of “blood (dis)similarities”; (2) social-Confucian, which interpellated them in terms of their ability to fulfill gendered Confucian social roles; and (3) biopolitical, which interpellated them in terms of their biological-reproductive potential and also as the molders, not merely the bearers, of future Korean citizens.

Contesting Boundaries and Navigating Identities: Second-Generation Adult Children from Cross-Border Marriages in Taiwan

Scholars who study the children of immigrants in North America and Western Europe have developed several paradigms to analyze the second generation's ethnicity. The major ones are options, capital, and boundary-making. This article contributes to this literature by exploring the emerging formation of second-generation identity in East Asia. Although the region is known for its self-perceived racial and ethnic homogeneity, an influx of marital immigrants and their bicultural children has transformed its demographic landscape. Through in-depth interviews with 57 adult children from cross-border marriages in Taiwan, this article examines their strategies for identity management under the typologies of majority identity, biculturalism, rescaling, and differentiation. Because of changing receiving contexts as a result of the state's policy of geopolitical multiculturalism, a bicultural identity has increasingly become a likely option for children of Southeast Asian mothers. Ethnic dividends are mostly available for university students with academic capital, but they are not equally accessible to children of PRC-Chinese immigrants. While the boundaries dividing “Taiwanese,” as the mainstream national group, from immigrants and their offspring have shifted and softened in recent years, second-generation children are obliged to become national subjects whose ethnic identity does not conflict with national loyalty and whose patriotic duty is to convert their ethnic capital into transnational networks.

"What's Love Got to Do": Tracing Violence Against Post-Soviet Women in Cross-Border Marriages

Women in cross-border marriages are at a heightened risk of experiencing domestic violence, as they areparticularly traumatised by the experience of migration, which undermines their capacity for independentaction, and they are more vulnerable at the intersections of status, ethnicity, employment, and income. Usingthe theoretical framework of narrative victimology, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted withfive women from post-Soviet countries (Ukraine and Belarus) who were married to Israeli Arab Muslims.This study examines the experience of victimisation and spousal abuse among Slavic Christian women fromthe FSU married to Arab Muslims in Israel. The narratives of the women confirmed that cross-border spousesare susceptible to domestic abuse and intimate partner violence. The constellation of a cross-border familycombines the external risk factors, such as the trauma of migration and the loss of socio-economic stability,the cultural factors associated with the patriarchal nature of Arab society and the tolerance of wife-beating,and the individual man's need to maintain control through the use of coercion and violence. Isolation, as anatural consequence of immigration and as a coercive technique used by an abuser, operates together,intensifying the experience of abuse and preventing the woman from reaching out for help. Pregnancy andchildbearing constituted a particular risk factor for perpetrating abuse against cross-border wives bydebilitating the woman and further preventing her from leaving the abusive marriage.

Ran’s Diary : Sexually Suggestive Protest and Counterpublic Discourse Staged by Asian Others in South Korea

Abstract: This article examines how theatres of migration in the professional sphere intervene in contemporary social issues around Asian immigrants in multicultural South Korea. Of those from other Asian countries , Ranui ilgi (Ran’s Diary, 2011) concerns female marriage migrants, confronting its non-migrant South Korean spectators with an uncomfortable and neglected reality of the migrant women’s cross-border marriages with ethnic South Korean men. Along with a specific focus on the group of marginalized Asian others in the country, the sexually suggestive mise-en-scène particularly calls the attention of the audience. In this article, I first offer a brief overview of the societal backgrounds and effects of an unprecedented influx of Asian brides into South Korea, a country with a long-held fetish for ethnic homogeneity. Then, I analyze Ran’s Diary in terms of the play’s critical perspective on inter-Asian marriages, its strategic focus on and staging of a sexually victimized female Asian migrant character, and the authentic as well as culturally conscious representation of lived experiences of those immigrants in the host country. In my conclusion, I argue that this sexually-charged performance functions as a protest against the dominant public, generating a counterpublic discourse .

Marriages across borders within the European Union

The present paper tackles the issue of the recognition of cross-border marriages and their effects within the European Union. The current praxis allows interesting remarks on the cross-border effects of foreign marriages and their recognition in the perspective of the rights to free movement and to family life. In this framework, the paper scrutinizes a potential definition of the marriage, whether according to EU free movement law or to European human rights law. Due to the lack of a commonly accepted definition, it tests the classic approach to the circulation of foreign documents and certificates, i.e. the conflict of laws perspective. Leading on, it analyses the more fashionable method of the mutual recognition of situations created abroad, as modelled by some States and tested in some cases by the European Courts, too. Despite important advantages, this method does not seem easily accepted for the circulation of the status of spouse(s) and of the institution of marriage. With the aim to push towards enhanced free movement rights and strengthened human rights, the present paper offers some final remarks regarding the legal value of (international) family law in the framework of a social Constitution of the EU.

State restrictions and gender-based violence in cross-border marriages: The case of Kyrgyz women in Türkiye

This paper focuses on Kyrgyz women in cross-border marriages under Türkiye’s increasingly tight legal requirements for marriage migration. Although the main intention of the policy change was to prevent marriages contracted to gain residency permits in Türkiye, strict regulations can have an adverse effect on migrant women’s position. Based on in-depth interviews with 24 key informants including Kyrgyz women, public employees, lawyers and staff of the Kyrgyz Consulate, this paper argues that legal and social difficulties weaken women’s position in cross-border marriages and render them vulnerable to male violence. Under the strict control, migrant women embrace traditional gendered roles such as becoming religious and a “good housewife,” having children as well as limiting their social relationships. Moreover, women do not seek official support against any male violence especially during the time of obligatory marriage period of three years to be able to apply for a citizenship.

Matching Across Markets: An Economic Analysis of Cross-Border Marriage

Matching Across Markets: An Economic Analysis of Cross-Border Marriage

University students' perceptions of tourism impacts: a study in Vietnam

PurposeResearch about tourism impacts is abundant. However, existing studies often investigate tourism impacts from residents’ and tourists’ perspectives. The study targeting students is absent. The students’ perception and evaluation of tourism impact must be investigated independently to have more insights into improving the current education curriculum, which covertly addresses the impacts. Therefore, this study aims to examine university students’ perception of tourism impacts as young tourists to provide implications for better teaching of such content in the future.Design/methodology/approachVietnam was chosen as the context, and a mixed method was employed. First, free elicitation with 118 university students was carried out to identify the students’ perceived impacts (109 items, four categories). Second, structured surveys using the previously generated content with 243 and 224 university students were implemented to identify the latent structures of the impacts (3-4 factors per impact category).FindingsTourism impacts can be dually perceived. In other words, they can come in positive or negative forms or are directed toward the destinations or the residents. However, being positive or negative, or affecting the place or the people, tourism impacts have some general and universal elements concerning the economic, sociocultural and environmental ones. In addition, they have some specific and contextual aspects, such as cross-border marriages, child labor and economic autonomy loss.Originality/valueTourism impacts seen from the perspective of university students are relatable and valuable for tourism education. Educators in Vietnam should consider revising the current curriculum to address all the tourism impacts overtly.

Brazil: cross-border marital agreements

Abstract This article aims at providing an overview of cross border marriages from a Brazilian law perspective. Topics such as (i) marriages under Brazilian law, (ii) rights of spouses and partners, (iii) scope and enforceability of prenuptial agreements and civil law marriage agreements, (iv) trusts and business interests, (v) family dynamics, (vi) taxes and (vii) take away tips, are addressed from a practical standpoint to navigate readers through this sensitive matter. Love has no boundaries is an expression shifted to a whole new level in today’s world. Transportation between countries and continents ceased to be a concern a long-time ago, and the Internet and social media are bringing people closer and closer in absolute disregard of their place of residency. Cross-border marriages are one of the natural side effects of this reality. And if happily ever after is not for everyone, cross-border divorces are side effects as well. In this sense, this article examines marriages from a Brazilian law perspective, including topics involving the rights of spouses and partners under Brazilian law and prenuptial agreements and civil law marriage agreements.

Sınır ötesi Evlilikler, “Ataerkiyle Pazarlık” ve Toplumsal Cinsiyete Dayalı Şiddet: Türkiye’deki Kırgızistanlı Kadınlar Örneği

This paper focuses on migrant women’s cross border marriages with local men and their position in these marriages under Turkey’s changing migration legislation in the last decades. Based on 39 in-depth interviews with migrant women from Kyrgyzstan, public employees, lawyers, and İstanbul Kyrgyz consulate workers in the summer months of 2021 and 2022, this study points out the unequal position of migrant women in cross border marriages. The findings suggest that the increasing surveillance of the public authorities on migrant women lays the ground for different forms of male violence in cross border marriages. Under the unequal position in these marriages and restrictions on migrants, migrant women actively or passively “bargain with patriarchy” over gender roles (Kandiyoti 1988). Migrant women usually passively resist to overcome these difficulties by embarrassing traditional gender roles such as by being “a good wife and mother”, giving birth, adopting religious practices and limiting their social relationships with their friends. Although passive resistance through traditional gender roles make cross border marriages possible for migrant women, migrant women also keep silent against male violence.

Thinking through the everywhereness of borders: mobile borders, everyday practices, and state logics in Southwest China

ABSTRACT This paper engages with the thesis of the mobile border and the growing interest in cross-border mobilities and practices to understand how borders provide a raison d’être for the organization of everyday life for people living in China’s Southwest borderlands. Through a conversation between the literatures on cross-border mobilities, practices and livelihoods, this study moves beyond the mobile border thesis’s lopsided focus on diffused and dispersed practices that strengthen state sovereignty and border security, but instead emphasizes the kaleidoscopic everyday practices asserting and erasing borders at the same time, the plural rationalities of state governance, and grassroots actors’ agencies and skills in appropriating or transgressing borders. In sum, this study re-appropriates the mobile border thesis to argue that borders are mobile because of their permeation into the textures of everyday life. The empirical study elucidates this argument by investigating two border regions in China, Hekou, and Ruili in Yunnan Province. Specifically, it unpacks four sets of cross-border practices – cross-border socialities and kinship ties, cross-border marriage, labor mobilities, and everyday spaces of exchange – to reveal how what is possible at the everyday level is overdetermined by official territorialities, bottom-up negotiations, and the flexibility of state governance.

South-South cross-border marriage between Chinese men and Ethiopian women

This article develops an ideal type of South-South cross-border marriage. Based on an 8-month multi-sited ethnography in Ethiopia and China, I identified an unusual conjuncture of global forces, connections, and imaginations that facilitated cross-border marriages between Chinese men and local women in Ethiopia, which should be considered a novel ideal type. Its theoretical novelty is not only defined by the unique dynamics among Sino-Ethiopian spouses vis-à-vis the ‘segregated’ Chinese documented in existing studies but also by these marriages’ distinct formation mechanisms. Sino-Ethiopian marriage is not formed due to China being an attractive destination but associated with China’s incompatible hard and soft power as forces, Chinese factories and accumulated Sino-Ethiopian social networks in local communities as connections, and localized imaginations. Furthermore, this study calls for a paradigm shift in examining cross-border marriages between a developing South and a rising South in this dramatically changing global capitalist world system.

Legal Protection of Stateless Persons Arising From Cross-Border Marriage: Case of Indonesia – East Timor

<div class="WordSection1"><p>Statelessness is a continuing international legal issue, with individuals lacking the protection of fundamental rights within the jurisdiction of a State. One aspect contributing to this problem is customary cross-border marriage between people of different nationalities, particularly in local border towns, for a variety of reasons. This study examines the phenomenon as a cause of statelessness and undocumented individuals and what the legal protection that international human rights instruments provide for States to comply. This study uses legal research by comparing the East Timor Constitution. Based on the study's results, the potential for statelessness and undocumented people due to cross-border marriage by custom has a detrimental effect on both women and children since it is difficult for them to obtain residence documents. Cross-border marriages between East Timorese men and Indonesian women by customary causing unregistered in Indonesia and East Timor. Field research shows that Indonesian women/wives in East Timor cannot exercise their rights since they are not East Timorese nationals. Noting the conflict of nationality laws between States, especially bordering States, the failure of both States to accommodate women that married are non-nationals breaches Article 9 of CEDAW and constitutes as discrimination against women defined under Article 1 of CEDAW</p></div>

Structural vulnerability and neoliberal subjectivities of low-income binational families in Singapore

Given the growing interest in and prominence of cross-border marriages in the region, this paper focuses on the binational family consisting of a foreign-born mother and Singapore-born father. In particular, this paper attends to the low-income binational family, showing how certain families in Singapore are more likely to be in structurally vulnerable positions. In outlining how structural vulnerabilities may be intertwining and compounding, forming insurmountable struggles for some these families, this paper pays attention to the neoliberal subjectivities expressed by the spouses, especially the migrant mothers. An individualisation of their problems shapes the way that these families come to naturalise their own disadvantages. In centering the experiences of about a third of 38 low-income binational families that are considered to be the most disadvantaged, this paper also examines the ways that these families are able to carve out pathways to success, if not for themselves, then their children.

The prevalence of HIV, hepatitis C virus and syphilis and related factors among cross-border couples in Mangshi county, Dehong Dai and Jingpo Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan province from 2017 to 2019

Objective: To understand the prevalence of HIV, hepatitis C virus (HCV) and syphilis and related factors among cross-border couples in Mangshi county, Dehong autonomous prefecture, Yunnan province. Methods: From May, 2017 to April, 2019, 2 500 couples with 5 000 cross-border marriages were selected by using cluster sampling method. The demographic characteristics, AIDS-related health services, HIV, HCV, syphilis infection and other information were collected through questionnaires and laboratory tests. The influencing factors of HIV, HCV and syphilis infection were analyzed by multivariate logistic regression model. Results: A total of 2 500 couples with cross-border marriage were investigated, among which 2 438 (97.5%) couples were Chinese men with Myanmar women. The average age of 5 000 participants was (34.16±9.00) years. Most of them were minority groups (59.9%), farmers (98.5%), education years ≤6 years (81.4%), marriage years>3 years (80.0%), and from mountainous areas (61.7%). The HIV prevalence of Chinese and Myanmar populations was 1.7% (43/2 500) and 2.0% (49/2 500), respectively. The HCV infection rates were 2.0% (49/2 500) and 1.3% (32/2 500), respectively and the infection rates of syphilis were 0.4% (10/2 500) and 0.2% (4/2 500), respectively. There were no statistically significant differences in the prevalence of three diseases among Chinese and Myanmar populations (P>0.05). The multivariate analysis showed that compared with those aged ≤ 30 years, having lower AIDS awareness, never receiving HIV testing, without HCV and syphilis infection, HIV prevalence was higher among those aged>30 years (OR=3.21, 95%CI: 1.80-5.73), having higher AIDS awareness (OR=17.41, 95%CI: 4.27-70.91), receiving HIV testing (OR=4.93, 95%CI: 2.72-8.92), with HCV infection (OR=5.64, 95%CI: 2.72-11.70) and syphilis infection (OR=8.37, 95%CI: 1.63-43.08). Compared with those aged ≤ 30 years, having marriage years ≤ 3 years, and with HIV negatives, HCV infection rate was higher among those age>30 years (OR=3.02, 95%CI: 1.69-5.38), having marriage years>3 years (OR=2.24, 95%CI: 1.34-3.74), and with HIV positives (OR=6.69, 95%CI: 3.29-13.59). Compared with those having HIV negatives, the syphilis infection rate was relatively higher among participants with HIV positives (OR=9.07, 95%CI: 2.00-41.10). Conclusion: The prevalence of HIV, HCV, and syphilis among cross-border couples in Mangshi county, Dehong autonomous prefecture of Yunnan province is relatively high. Age, AIDS awareness, HIV testing history, and the length of marriage are associated with the HIV, HCV, and syphilis infection.

Domestic Violence in Cross-Border Marriages: A Systematic Review

Cross-border marriages have been found to be associated with domestic violence due to the migration experiences of the couples concerned and the stress experienced before, during, and after migration, despite local and international legislation on domestic violence. A systematic review using the PRISMA Statement was conducted to examine the relationship between domestic violence and cross-border marriages among cross-border wives from Asian countries. Six databases—Taylor & Francis Online, Wiley Online, Scopus, Web of Science, Sage Journals, and Springer Online library, were used in the research which found 179 articles for eligibility and 58 articles were finally used in the review. To be included, studies must have addressed domestic violence and cross-border marriage among Asians, report qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods, addressed the RQs, been published in polished English between 2010 and 2020 and published in a reputable journal with high impact factor. The systematic review found that immigration status, citizenship, culture, language barrier, diversity/intersectionality, age, and economic dependence are the risk factors for domestic violence, which leads effects such as divorce or separation, racism, loneliness, loss of identity & inheritance, stigma, abandonment, and discrimination. Yet these cross-border wives resorted to NGOs, social & religious groups, and traditional beliefs as coping strategies. The review suggests that legislations on domestic violence should be amended to include a definition of the rights of immigrant women, and the plight of cross-border wives, which should be protected. It is also imperative to propose favorable laws and policies regarding immigration status and citizenship for these cross-border couples.

Relative Economic Position and Female Marriage Migration: Marrying Men in Taiwan across Borders and Boundaries.

In recent decades, Taiwan's cross-border marriages, often involving less educated and rural men, raised concerns regarding these couples' disadvantaged position and how the wives, mostly from mainland China and Southeast Asia, fared and integrated. Using data from the surveys of female marriage migrants from outside Taiwan in 2003, 2008, and 2013, along with comparable data among recently married women in Taiwan, we compare educational assortative mating among marriages between men in Taiwan and women in Taiwan, mainland China, Southeast Asia, and Hong Kong and Macau. The findings from log-linear models reveal that, over a period of fifteen years, less educated Taiwanese men have become much less likely to form cross-border marriages with women from mainland China and, to a lesser degree, Southeast Asia. We argue that against the backdrop of rapid economic development in mainland China and Southeast Asia, the advantage in spatial hypergamy for less educated Taiwanese men has declined markedly. Female migrants married in recent years are more likely to marry Taiwanese men with higher levels of education than those married in earlier years. Lack of marriage prospects among less educated men in Taiwan may become another social problem.