Cross-border Marriages Research Articles

School Performance of Children of Cross-Border Marriages: Effects of Within-Family Social Capital and Community Contextual Factors

Similar to some other countries in East Asia, Taiwan has been experiencing a dramatic increase in children born to cross-border mothers. This phenomenon has drawn national attention to the school performance gap between children of Taiwanese and immigrant mothers. The present study focuses on the factors associated with these academic performance differences, in particular differential access to social capital or resources, and the community context. Drawing on data from a stratified sample of 940 elementary students in a county in central Taiwan, the researcher first illustrates the educational disadvantage of children born to Southeast Asian mothers. Second, the shortage of within-family social capital is shown to contribute to the performance gap between schoolchildren within different maternal ethnic backgrounds. Third, students’ preschool experience, educational attitudes, and behaviors all have positive association with their academic performance. In addition, the effects of within-family social capital and of maternal ethnic background can be moderated by community characteristics that show a broad picture of human capital, and socioeconomic status and heterogeneity of residents within school districts.

Globalising Thailand through gendered ‘both-ways’ migration pathways with ‘the West’: cross-border connections between people, states, and places

ABSTRACTThis article explains why significant Thai-Western ‘both-ways’ migration pathways have evolved, grown and sustained over the last decades. It introduces a set of research contributions on transnational social relationships and cross-border connections between people that arise from the increasingly large-scale mobilities and migrations between Thailand and ‘the West’ – countries from Europe, North America and Australia. While Thai and Western people’s social relationships are usually studied as personal stories within a cross-border marriage migration perspective, we consider it necessary to see them as more than marriage migration. Specifically, we argue that the growing ‘both-ways’ Thai-Western migration pathways can only be understood by reference to three features of globalisation processes specific to Thailand: first, cross-border connections and social networks generated by massive West-to-Thailand tourist mobilities that incentivise Western men to see living permanently with a Thai partner as ‘realistic’; second, the radical transformations of Thai rural societies under conditions of economic development that produces ‘surplus’ mobile women; and third, the restrictive state immigration and citizenship regimes in the West and Thailand that leaves few pathways open for migration, other than by ‘marriage’. In sum, Thailand’s specific experience of globalisation is the explanatory backstory to the extraordinary prevalence of Thai-Western ‘both-ways’ migrations.

Legal-discursive constructions of genuine cross-border love in Belgian marriage fraud investigations

ABSTRACTIn recent years, marriage migration as a form of family reunification has become a growing policy concern for migration governance in European member states and is seen as ‘the last loophole’ in EU migration policy in the face of a supposedly large and increasing number of sham marriages through which the non-European spouse is granted a residency permit. Several European nations have therefore legislated legal-administrative measures to battle marriages of convenience by investigating cross-border marriage applications prior to celebrating or recognising the marital union. In this article, I draw on a linguistic ethnographic empirical study of legal-administrative investigations conducted by Belgian municipal authorities to determine whether cross-border marriage applications to their civil registry office are ‘genuine’ or ‘fake’. In particular, I examine how the legal framework and guidelines for investigation are bureaucratically implemented in practice in Belgian civil registry offices with a particular focus on the role of a discursively constructed notion of genuine cross-border love and a bureaucratically acceptable relationship in both policy documents and interviewing practice.

Cross-Border Marriages in Malaysia: A Reflection from Survey

The paper aims to discuss the application of the laws and the general understanding of cross-border marriages among Muslims in Malaysia. This socio-legal research used quantitative method and legal doctrinal research. The data have been obtained through the survey with 400 respondents, who have been practising cross-border marriage. The data have been analyzed using Statistical Packages Social Sciences(SPSS) version 22. Research shows that the practice of cross-border marriage among Muslims in Malaysia is caused by the lack of knowledge of those who have been practising cross-border marriages as well as the weaknesses of the implementation of the law. Apart from that, lack of enforcement agencies in Malaysia causes injustice for the parties especially women and children. This vulnerable parties will suffer in terms of social and legal effects. This article is a preamble to a more extensive study of the cross-border marriage which the findings will be useful for further enhancement of the current legal provisions in Malaysia.

Gender, resources, and power of female cross-border marriage immigrants’ home space: A case of villages in Western Guangdong Province

Gender, resources, and power of female cross-border marriage immigrants’ home space: A case of villages in Western Guangdong Province

Searching for oriental simplicity: foreign brides and the Asian family in Singapore

This article examines the oriental project of imagining migrant women through commercially arranged cross-border marriages. Taking the ‘foreign bride’ in Singapore as a subject of ‘oriental simplicity’, it shows how contemporary orientalism continues to shape practices and beliefs in something as familiar as searching for a wife and having a family. The article questions the gendered, classed and sexualised politics that render the migrant woman from less developed nations an ambivalent figure of desire, further complicating the already problematic articulation of womanhood and selfhood in the post-colonial state. By reinforcing a cultural marketability of ‘oriental simplicity’, commercially arranged cross-border marriages serve to naturalise patriarchal family structures and strengthen the hegemonic ideology of the Asian family.

Desultory Remarks on the Legislative Improvement of the Russian Federation in the Field of Cross-Border Marriage and Family Relations

Introduction: Russian society is regularly shaken by the reports of the Russian families who have left for permanent residence abroad. It is shocking that abroad, as it turns out, for one reason or another, often far-fetched, it is possible to withdraw children from the family and commit them to more trustworthy, if it seems so to the competent authorities, adoptive parents, to accuse a mother of kidnapping her own child, if she took the child to Russia, to refuse the recognition of the validity of marriages if they were concluded in the territory of this country, etc. All these cases show that the legal regulators that exist in that regard in Russia do not clearly work in other states and do not create sufficient guarantees of respect for the rights of Russian nationals. In this regard, the purpose of the paper is to consider the current state and prospects of normative improvement of the domestic norms of private international law in the regulation of cross-border family and marriage relations. Methods: the research is based on the use of logical, dialectical techniques and methods of scientific knowledge, comparative legal and legal-technical analysis of wording of normative acts and materials of the law enforcement practice. The study was the analysis of Russia’s participation in the standardized agreements both of conflict and substantive nature in the field of international marriage and family relations and the status of the national law in this area. The results of the review became the basis for the conclusion that the Russian legislator was not sufficiently attentive to the processes of international unification and harmonization of the norms governing marriage and family relations with a foreign element. In this regard, the proposals were made to improve the current domestic family law and the acts of law enforcement practice.

Hypergamy and Cross Border Marriages in South Korea: An Examination of Factors Influencing Flows of Migrant Brides and Grooms from Developing Countries

This study investigates whether cross-border marriages in South Korea follow the logic of hypergamy. It examines whether the factors that affect the number of brides from developing countries also hold true for grooms using a panel regression analysis based on a modified gravity model and macro-national data from 1999-2012. Results show the model accounting for 54% of the variation in the number of foreign brides and 42% of the variation in the number of foreign grooms. In the case of foreign brides, five (5) out of seven (7) variables were statistically significant. The share of women in the population and gender inequality were found to be significant and positive predictors. In the case of foreign grooms, only three (3) out of seven (7) variables were statistically significant. There is limited evidence that marriages involving brides from developing countries are consistent with expectations of hypergamy. There is very limited and weak evidence that marriages involving foreign grooms also follow this trend.

When men migrate for marriage: negotiating partnerships and gender roles in cross-border marriages between rural Kosovo and the EU

ABSTRACT In Western hegemonic discourses, cross-border marriages in which ethnic minority members, especially Muslims, take a partner from a ‘country of origin’ are framed as patriarchal and backward and women are portrayed as victims within such marriages. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, the article focuses on the marriages of men from rural Kosovo, who have moved to Austria or Germany because they married a woman from a ‘Kosovan’ background, and on the gender roles that are negotiated here. The men in these cross-border marriages do not fit into the dominant Western image of ‘patriarchal’ ethnic-minority men. After migration, married male migrants find themselves in multiple dependencies and take up diverse roles that are framed by their educational profiles and economic performance, by the support they receive from their wives, as well as the diverse and partly translocal social fields they relate to. Depending on their social position, male marriage migrants may be doubly marginalised, by the majority society as well as within their ethnic communities. But men with higher education who successfully integrated into the labour market may also set up intra-ethnic boundaries, be it to members of their rural community in Kosovo or within ethnic-minority communities in Austria or Germany.

Contesting categories: cross-border marriages from the perspectives of the state, spouses and researchers

ABSTRACT Marriages that involve the migration of at least one of the spouses challenge two intersecting facets of the politics of belonging: the making of the ‘good and legitimate citizens’ and the ‘acceptable family’. In Europe, cross-border marriages have been the target of increasing state controls, an issue of public concern and the object of scholarly research. The study of cross-border marriages and the ways these marriages are framed is inevitably affected by states’ concerns and priorities. There is a need for a reflexive assessment of how the categories employed by state institutions and agents have impacted the study of cross-border marriages. The introduction to this Special Issue analyses what is at stake in the regulation of cross-border marriages and how European states use particular categories (e.g. ‘sham’, ‘forced’ and ‘mixed’ marriages) to differentiate between acceptable and non-acceptable marriages. When researchers use these categories unreflexively, they risk reproducing nation-centred epistemologies and reinforcing state-informed hierarchies and forms of exclusion. We suggest ways to avoid these pitfalls: differentiating between categories of analysis and categories of practice, adopting methodologies that do not mirror nation-states’ logic and engaging with general social theory outside migration studies. The empirical contributions of the Special Issue offer new insights into a timely topic.

Alternative spatial hierarchies: a cross-border spouse’s positioning strategies in the face of Germany’s ‘pre-integration’ language test

ABSTRACT This paper examines how spouses waiting in Turkey to be reunited with their partner in Europe experience border regimes and deal with the transnationalised discourses on ‘marriage migrants’ they encounter. It is based on the analysis of a single narrative interview, that of a woman taking German classes at Goethe Institute in Istanbul in order to pass the required language test. Like other respondents, she is confronted with negative gendered preconceptions regarding ‘Turkish import brides’. Her boundary work involves mobilising alternative hierarchies in an attempt to discursively construct a different Turkey than the one generally represented: she draws on social class (positioning herself as a member of the highly educated, mobile and economically better off), socio-spatial units (focusing on her urbanity) and gender (experiencing ‘modern’ and equal gender relationships). The paper emphasises the importance of the socio-spatial context, here the classroom, where boundary-making takes place. It also provides insights into the effects of global spatial hierarchies on migrants and their alternative narratives, a dimension that can only be understood through a decentred analysis. The article contributes to studies on cross-border marriages by analysing the ‘outgoing’ side, a perspective still rarely addressed in the literature.

Marrying ‘in’/marrying ‘out’? Blurred boundaries in British Pakistani marriage choices

ABSTRACT The widespread practice of transnational marriage among British Pakistanis has often been understood through an ethnic lens, as emphasising the boundaries of ethnicity and reaffirming bonds of kinship to Pakistan. Within British Pakistani families, however, a diversity of marriages may exist, with some siblings married transnationally, whilst others have partners from within the UK. Marriage between cousins or more distant relatives is common, but unions between British Pakistanis are less often consanguineous than those involving a spouse from Pakistan. This paper draws on sibling pair case studies to explore the logics and consequences of contrasting marriage choices: those between kin but crossing international borders, and those within the nation-state but crossing the boundaries of the kin-group. In doing so, we suggest that both ‘types’ of marriage should be understood as part of wider dynamics of creative contextual brightening and dimming of a variety of boundaries of similarity and difference. Negotiations of marriageability may include ethnic, kin and national boundaries, but very often go beyond them. Destabilising these dominant discourses, moreover, also brings into question assumed correlations between cross-border marriage and broader transnational orientation.

Love, money and papers in the affective circuits of cross-border marriages: beyond the ‘sham’/‘genuine’ dichotomy

ABSTRACT In the name of women’s protection, Dutch immigration authorities police cross-border marriages differentiating between acceptable and non-acceptable forms of marriage (e.g. ‘forced’, ‘sham’, ‘arranged’). The categorisation of marriages between ‘sham’ and ‘genuine’ derives from the assumption that interest and love are and should be unconnected. Nevertheless, love and interest are closely entwined and their consideration as separate is not only misleading but affects the exchanges that take place within marriage and, therefore, has particular implications for spouses, especially for women. The ethnographic analysis of marriages between unauthorised African male migrants and (non-Dutch) EU female citizens, often suspected by immigration authorities of being ‘sham’, demonstrate the complex articulation of love and interest and the consequences of neglecting this entanglement – both for the spouses and scholars. The cases show that romantic love is not a panacea for unequal gender relations and may place women in a disadvantaged position – all the more so because the norms of love are gendered and construe self-sacrifice as more fundamental in women’s manifestations of love than that of men’s.

Everyday mixed status: spillover effects of state power in Mainland China-Hong Kong cross-border families

Despite the growing literature on cross-border families, previous studies examining the role of the state primarily focused on the regulations that shape the vulnerability and legal dependence of the female marriage migrants on their husbands. This focus may lead to a false assumption that state power embodied in the marriage migration regime operates only at the individual and spousal levels. In light of this, this article aims to bridge the literature on cross-border marriages and mixed-status migrant families to illuminate the ways in which state power spills over from the individual to the family in the case of Mainland China-Hong Kong cross-border families. Through the lens of mixed-status, this article argues that even though some state measures may only target the non-citizen marriage migrant, their effects unavoidably spill over to other citizen family members who are interconnected and interdependent. In particular, the prolonged waiting period for marriage migrants to obtain residency in the host country has not only limited the residence choice of the family but also crippled the capacity of the marriage migrants to perform their caregiving duties and gain economic and social protection, which subsequently weakened the functioning, relationships and overall well-being of the entire family. By regularizing and routinizing the delay of granting of residency to marriage migrants, the state creates a transient, liminal space to detain unwelcome immigrants for its own interests, which contradicts the marriage migration system’s ostensible goal of facilitating family reunification of geographically dispersed family members between Mainland China and Hong Kong.

¿Divisoria e invisible a la vez? La frontera hispano-francesa de la zona vascoparlante desde el prisma de la movilidad nupcial (1780-1920) = Divisive yet also invisible? The Franco-Spanish border of the Basque-speaking area through the prism of nuptial mobility (1780-1920)

Resumen: A través del estudio sistemático de la frecuencia de los matrimonios transfronterizos entre 1780 y 1920 en el valle de Xareta situado a caballo en el límite hispano-francés, se pretende revisar la interpretación dominante según la cual los fronterizos de la zona vascoparlante fueron dándose la espalda a lo largo del siglo XIX. La permanencia y regularidad de las uniones transfronterizas demuestran que las observaciones acerca de la formación inexorable de una ruptura territorial entre vascos de España y Francia no reflejan un hecho real, sino impresiones erróneas que han sido hasta hoy repetidas acríticamente. En definitiva, la frontera posee una naturaleza muy polisémica, en tanto en cuanto es aprehendida y apropiada de modo muy distinto en función de los individuos y grupos. La línea divisoria de los agentes estatales permanece casi invisible al analizar las dinámicas espaciales vinculadas a la movilidad nupcial.Palabras claves: Frontera, Movilidad nupcial, Zona vascoparlante, Siglos XVIII-XX.Abstract: Through the systematic study of the frequency of cross-border marriages, between 1780 and 1920 in the valley of Xareta straddling the Franco-Spanish border, we aim to revise the dominant interpretation according to which the frontier population of the Basque country turned their back on their neighbours during the 19th century. The permanence and regularity of cross-border nuptial unions show that remarks about the establishment of a permanent territorial divide between Basques in France and Spain do not relate to a real fact and are thus erroneous impressions that have been repeated uncritically. Ultimately, the border is polysemic, as the range of actors and groups apprehended and appropriated it very differently. When analysing the spatial dynamics linked to nuptial mobility, the dividing line of the State is almost invisible.Key words: Boundary, Nuptial Mobility, Basque-speaking área, 18th-20th centuries.

Children of Cross-Border Marriage: Rights and Future

In a cross-border marriage (CBM), failure of the Muslim parties to register their CBM will have direct impact to their future born child. Their action will contravene with Articles 3, 5, 7 and 28 of United Nation Convention on Rights of Child that spell out that parents must do what is the best for their children, protect their rights, legally registered their name and right to education. The main purpose of this paper is to address that failure of the CBM couple to register their marriage, no certificate of marriage be produced, will ended up with failure to register the birth. Even if registration of birth is allowed, the name of the biological father will not be stated. Without birth certificate, the child cannot register at public school and lose his right to education. On the other hand, under hukum syara’ the child paternity is in doubt and he might lose his right to inheritance if his father died. The study is vital to address to the public the importance of registering their marriage as not to jeopardize their child‘s future. This paper uses a qualitative data collection method where in-depth document analysis is carried out. Primary sources such as the Acts, Regulations and court‘s decision are scrutinized. On the other hand, secondary sources that are studied comprise of law reports, legal periodical articles and newspaper cuttings. Possible suggestions are offered in the conclusion.

What influences BSW students’ attitudes towards cross-border marriage immigrants? The Taiwanese case of female marriage immigrants from China

ABSTRACTThis study enriches the literature on social work education and attitudes towards immigrants by showing that students in bachelor’s social work programmes generally have friendly attitudes towards Chinese female marriage immigrants in Taiwan. College-level multicultural education does not always improve students’ attitudes; improvement depends on students’ performance in the courses. Direct contact is the most effective form of intergroup contact in terms of improving students’ attitudes. Ethnicity matters in shaping students’ attitudes: Minnanren students have significantly less friendly attitudes towards these immigrants. The findings have implications for social work educators in terms of curriculum design and marriage migration policy advocacy.

Happiness of female immigrants in cross-border marriages in Taiwan

ABSTRACT Drawing on data from the Survey of Foreign and Chinese Spouses’ Living Requirements in 2013, we probe the effects of economic and acculturative factors on psychological well-being, particularly happiness, of female immigrants in cross-border marriages in Taiwan, while social demographic variables are controlled. In the economic aspect, while being employed negatively affects immigrant brides’ happiness, family income, as expected, is positively associated with psychological well-being. However, during acculturation, immigrant brides who have stayed longer in Taiwan, especially for more than 10 years, report a lower level of happiness. Also, different types of social networks and resources may be available for them to cope with the difficulties encountered. Immigrant brides accessing professional organisations are more likely to report being ‘very happy’. Finally, perceived friendliness is an important protective factor among female marriage immigrants. More interestingly, perceived friendliness plays a role in mediating the influence of economic and acculturative predictors on psychological well-being.

The decoupling of legal and spatial migration of female marriage migrants

ABSTRACT The literature on cross-border marriages between women from the global south and men from the global north largely assumes patrilocality as a direct result of hypergamous marriage migration. There has been little research into the experiences of brides who relocate to their husband’s country to fulfil the roles of wife and mother but are not given citizenship rights or brides who do not relocate even after obtaining residency or citizenship in their husband’s country. Inconsistencies between the legal and residential status of foreign wives suggest that researchers should decouple legal and spatial migration. Using ethnographic data from Mainland China–Hong Kong cross-border couples, this article examines the causes and consequences of two forms of decoupling: (1) wife migrates spatially before her legal status changes and (2) wife’s change in legal status is not accompanied by spatial migration. We argue that these two forms of decoupling have their origins in state policies, economic constraints and personal choices, and that their impact on the intimate and household dynamics of cross-border families is gendered. Unravelling these complex dynamics sheds light on the intricate relationships between gender, marriage, migration and the state, and highlights the increasingly heterogeneous circumstances of cross-border couples.

Remarriages and transnational marriages in Hong Kong: implications and challenges

ABSTRACT Marriage, divorce, and remarriage have undergone significant changes in the past two decades in Hong Kong. Types of marriages have become more diverse, with increasing number of cross-border marriages between Hongkongers and Mainland Chinese as well as cross-national marriages with non-local-and-non-Chinese ethnic groups. Meanwhile, divorces and remarriages are surging, with disproportionate increase of remarriages among those in transnational marriages. Particularly, the proportion of remarriages among marriages between Hong Kong men and Mainland women, and Hong Kong women and Mainland men increased to 40% and 27%, respectively in 2012. This study investigates assortative mating in marriages by separating remarriages from first marriages, to uncover the real patterns and uniqueness in Hong Kong. The results show that assortative mating in first marriages and remarriages appear across local marriages and six types of transnational marriages. And it also shows that remarriages between Hong Kong men and Mainland women have become more hypergamous, and more welfare support is needed to assist socially deprived cross-border couples to reside in Hong Kong.