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Transnational Marriage

Definition

• Transnational - an adjective of someone or something that crosses boundaries between countries. Transnationalism is the phenomenon related to it.
• Marriage- an intimate union between a man and a woman in which they state socially and legally that they are dependent upon one another for the purpose of starting and maintaining a family.

Thus, a transnational marriage is a social and legal intimate and dependent union between a man and a woman for the purpose of starting and maintaining a family, yet where the man and woman are from separate countries, and thus have a barrier of citizenship, and possibly culture, to cross in their relationship.

General Overview of How Transnational Marriage Occurs

In an age of increasing globalization, where an increasing number of people have ties to or networks of people, family, and places across the globe, rather than to a current geographic location, people seem also to be increasingly marrying across national boundaries. Transnational marriage is a by-product of the movement and migration of peoples.

Ways in which it occurs: Someone from one country visits or lives in another country for school, work, political asylum, refuge, or due to parents doing the above. When the person reaches an age or point at which he or she desires to marry, that person has several options. In general terms, those options include:

• Becoming attracted to a citizen of one's host country and marrying them. This is usually a cross-cultural marriage, although there are times in which that citizen may be an immigrant from the same culture, but just has become a citizen of the host country. Marrying a citizen of the host country may help the person then become a citizen of that land and stay there permanently. However, sometimes the host culture is the one with which the person identifies, and thus desires to marry someone of that culture rather than someone from the "home" culture.
• Becoming attracted to and marrying a citizen of yet another country who is also visiting or living in the host country.
• Having become a citizen of the host country, the person may go back to their homeland, marry a person deemed proper by their family or culture, and then return to country in which they are a citizen. This may come as a result of missing home, family, and culture, and desiring to have such in one's life.
• Being a traveler or used to living amidst many different cultures, a person might marry someone who has the shared experience of living amidst different cultures, regardless of citizenship. One term to label such people is the term Third Culture Kids.

Obstacles to transnational marriages:

• Citizenship of two or more nations - either one spouse has to change citizenship or become a dual citizen. Changing one citizenship can be a long process, and for some an ordeal, of negotiating the laws of a nation that may change suddenly for economic or political reasons.
• Culture - Learning how to live and function with someone is a process and may be harder when some or many of the assumptions and habits one operates upon without thinking clashes with those of one's spouse.
• Language

History

Throughout history there have been some transnational marriages, with accompanying reasons and reactions for and against such marriages. In more ancient times, marriages between people of distinctly different tribes and nations were due to royalty trying to form alliances or influence another kingdom, marauders or people without many other resources capturing slaves and sometimes marrying them, or one group living near another people group and adapting to their ways. More recently, transnational marriages are due to globalization, with migration of labor and capital, increased communication, and many more situations and cities where foreigners come in contact with each other. It is known more now due to strictly defined national borders but with fewer restrictions on keeping class and tribal separations. If one shares values that transcend culture, then it is easier to get married across cultures.

However, there are many barriers and restrictions to cross-cultural, inter-tribal or racial, and particularly transnational marriages. People tend to marry those similar to them, some even preferring to marry first cousins, whom they trust. In an interesting twist, transnational arranged marriage between cousins or relatives has been occurring more often with migration and family reunification policies, as people still want their culture and family when marrying even in a distant place.

To begin a discussion on attitudes towards transnational marriage, the Bible and the Laws of Manu are two religious historical documents that record how some people behaved in antiquity. In the Bible, the LORD warns the Israelites not to marry people from other nations, because they would most likely start worshiping their gods and forsake the LORD (Exodus 34:16, Deuteronomy 7:3-4). However, there are some instances when transnational marriages took place, such as Joseph being given Egyptian wives by Pharaoh, Rahab of Jericho marrying one of the Israelite spies she hid, Ruth the Moabite taking care of her mother-in-law Naomi, and King Solomon marrying Pharaoh's daughter, as well as many other foreign wives. King Solomon married to make alliances and keep peace, and the others because they lived by each other. However, the difference in reaction to the transnational marriages is how the newcomers responded to the Lord. [1] King Solomon suffered the consequences when he betrayed the Lord by facilitating his wives being able to worship their own gods in Israel and then worshiped along with them. Intermarriage was discouraged if there was any difference in religious practice or belief. [2] (1 Kings chapter 11) The book of Ezra, the prophet, tells about a response of the Jewish exiles to either separate from their foreign wives they had married in Babylon or be separated from the community of exiles when the exiles were trying to turn back to the Lord. Ezra 9-10, Nehemiah 13:26)[3]

The Laws of Manu, a religious document for the Indo-Aryan Brahmins invading India, speaks of how to keep oneself clean but also intermarry with the indigenous peoples in order to create a caste system. A Nepali anthropologist writes on how a Brahmin man might marry four wives of different castes, and keep all the eating and living quarters of his different caste wives and children separate. His children and grandchildren born to women of lower castes will have even lower status and not be taught the laws. The only social mobility is downward. Similarly, although no longer specifically due to transnational marriage, the interracial sexual contact in the Americas produced a system that defined social status by skin color, and is still followed by some people, but in particular those whom it subjugated . People would marry those with lighter skin color to keep their social status and were against marrying anyone of "lower" status, particularly around the time of belief that certain people were of a superior race than others .

A slightly different perspective of interracial or transnational marriage is from those who tend to marry their cousins, sometimes even first cousins. They do so in order keep the family together socially and economically, and thus disproving of marriage outside. Recently, this practice has become technically transnational due to differences in citizenship, even though the people are still family. An example of transnational marriage that kept the family together was among European royalty. Queen Victoria's grandchildren were all over Europe, keeping the royalty together. Queen Victoria is referred to as the "grandmother of Europe." [4] However, some alliances were to their detriment, as due to them, they had to go to war in World War I. More recent examples are from a mass migration from the less developed regions of the world to the more developed regions, helped by the policies of family reunification. A fairly common practice among South Asian immigrants to the UK or USA is to have arranged marriages to someone back "home," in order to keep culture and traditions within their family.

Even today, there is a mixed reaction to transnational marriage, especially as it continues to grow. Family reunification policies have some people in host countries upset, as people are less likely to assimilate if they keep on marrying people from their home countries, and thus keeping their cultures alive in the host cultures. Others are suspicious of transnational marriages, as they think the non-citizen spouse is just getting married to obtain legal status in the host country. Still others find their families torn apart if one spouse happens to not have all the legal papers or commits a crime and thus is detained for indefinite amounts of time or deported. There are many legal barriers and hurdles to cross first to have a transnational marriage and then to be allowed to remain living together in the same country.

Yet, due to the increase in migration and communication, immigrants maintain contacts with families in the previous country, or possibly who have migrated and settled all over the globe. For instance, Afghan refugees have lived in Pakistan, Iran, Germany, Indonesia, the United States, and other parts of the globe. Persons working for government, non-governmental organizations, aid or development organizations, or international companies may take their families with them. Their children grow up in different lands, learning the different cultures, often feeling more at home in the host country than their "home" country. These children, called Third Culture Kids tend to feel the most affinity to those who have also lived in more than one country and culture, and thus tend to marry people of diverse backgrounds, regardless of nationality and citizenship.[5]

Transnational marriage has had both negative and positive reactions to it throughout history. It has always existed to some extent but is fast becoming more common in the age of globalization, mass migration, and cultural pluralism.

Further reading

KATHARINE CHARSLEY AND ALISON SHAW. (2006) South Asian transnational marriages in comparative perspective. Global Networks 6:4, 331–344

Shaw, Alison. The arranged transnational cousin marriages of British Pakistanis: critique, dissent and cultural continuity. Contemporary South Asia; Jun2006, Vol. 15 Issue 2, p209-220, 12p

Amster, Matthew H. Lindquist, Johan. Frontiers, Sovereignty, and Marital Tactics: Comparisons from the Borneo Highlands and the Indonesia-Malaysia-Singapore Growth Triangle. Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology; Apr2005, Vol. 6 Issue 1, p1-17, 17p, 1 map

Yung-Mei Yang, Benjamin, Hsiu-Hung Wang, Benjamin. Life and Health Concerns of Indonesian Women in Transnational Marriages in Taiwan. Journal of Nursing Research; Sep2003, Vol. 11 Issue 3, p167-176, 10p

Kanwal Mand (2002) Place, gender and power in transnational Sikh marriages. Global Networks 2 (3), 233–248.

LAM Theodora; YEOH Brenda S. A.; LAW Lisa ; Sustaining families transnationally: Chinese-Malaysians in Singapore = Soutien transnational aux familles : Malais-Chinois à Singapour. Asian and Pacific migration journal ISSN 0117-1968. Migrations and Family Relations in the Asia Pacific Region 2002, vol. 11, no 1 (6 p.), pp. 117-143 [27 page(s) (article)]

Category:Immigration