Transnational marriage
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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An international marriage, or transnational marriage, is a marriage between two people from different countries. A variety of special issues arise in marriages between people from different countries, including those related to citizenship and culture, which add complexity and challenges to these kinds of relationships.
Culture and language differences are often encountered as obstacles, although there are exceptions. Where ethnic groups are divided between multiple sovereign states (irredentism or stateless nations) or places which once shared common citizenship are separated by borders of newly-independent nations (decolonisation), transnational marriages do not necessarily imply different cultures.
In an age of increasing globalization, where a growing number of people have ties to networks of people and places across the globe, rather than to a current geographic location, people are increasingly marrying across national boundaries. Transnational marriage is a by-product of the movement and migration of people.
Motives
Transnational marriage may occur when someone from one country visits or lives in another country for school, work, political asylum, refuge, or due to their family relocating.
In general terms, reasons for transnational marriage include:
- A visitor may become attracted to a citizen of a host country, marrying them. This is usually a cross-cultural marriage, although there are times in which that citizen may be from the same culture. Marrying a citizen of the host country may help in becoming a citizen of that land and staying there permanently. 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 their "home" culture.
- A soldier, while posted abroad, may fall in love with a local citizen. See war bride, war children and lost Canadians.
- A computer user possessing an account on an internet social network may become attracted to another user holding an account in another country and the two may unite by means of travel arrangements.
- A traveller may be attracted to a citizen of a third country who is also visiting or living in the host country, marrying someone who has the shared experience of living amidst different cultures regardless of citizenship.
- Having become a citizen of the host country, a recent immigrant may go back to their homeland temporarily to find a spouse, sometimes through arranged marriage. This may come as a result of missing home, family, and culture, and desiring to have such in one's life. Another variant is to choose a picture bride from the homeland due to inability to marry a local citizen. One may then bring one's spouse to their new country of citizenship through family reunification provisions in immigration law.
- Historically, colonists would espouse mates from their respective home countries, such as King's Daughters in francophone Lower Canada.
- Members of linguistic or cultural minorities may espouse someone from that same group by crossing international boundaries. While Madawaska, Maine is heavily francophone, the French language in the United States is spoken by a tiny minority. Cross into Acadian New Brunswick or into Quebec and the French language becomes commonplace.
- The territory of a cultural or language group often does not align with national boundaries; for instance, a German-Austrian or German-Swiss couple might share a common language and freedom of travel in the Schengen Area while holding legally-different nationality. A linguistic or cultural group often extends beyond the territory of its nominal home state (irredentism) or a group may be arbitrarily split between multiple legal political entities as a stateless nation. Territory inhabited by indigenous peoples of the Americas often is not aligned with current official political boundaries.
- In rare instances, both members of a transnational couple are from the same town or village, but live in different nations because a community has been divided by an international boundary. The Haskell Free Library and Opera House, itself divided by the border, was built by one such couple in the divided village of Rock Island-Derby Line.
Obstacles to transnational marriage include:
- Citizenship of two or more nations - one or both spouses must change citizenship or become a dual citizen or permanent resident. Changing one's citizenship can be a long process, and for some it is an ordeal of negotiating the laws and language of a new country.
- Culture - Learning how to live with a new spouse where cultural assumptions and norms may vary greatly.
- Language - From mere Dialect differences to totally different languages.
In some cases, an ethnic group has no difference in culture or language but is artificially divided for geopolitical reasons. Places which once shared common nationality may have lost this status to decolonisation, but still share language or other identifiers.
In these cases, cultural or language barriers do not apply, aside from the possibility of dealing with the influence of a distinct dominant culture of the host country or countries. Depending on the countries, there may still be major issues in terms of legal status.
History
In more ancient times, some marriages between distinctly different tribes and nations were due to royalty trying to form alliances with or to influence other kingdoms or to dissuade marauders or slave traders. Two examples, Hermodike I c.800BC and Hermodike II c.600BC were Greek princesses from the house of Agamemnon who married kings from what is now Central Turkey. These unions resulted in the transfer of ground-breaking technological skills into Ancient Greece, respectively, the phonetic written script and the use of coinage (to use a token currency, where the value is guaranteed by the state). Both inventions were rapidly adopted by surrounding nations through trade and cooperation and have been of fundamental benefit to the progress of civilization.
More recently, transnational marriages are due to globalization, with migration of labor, increased communication, and many more situations where foreigners come into contact with each other. It is also more common in some areas where class and tribal separations are becoming less strict. 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 occur more often in some places with migration and family reunification policies, as some people still want their culture and family when marrying, even in a distant place.
See also
- Inequality within immigrant families (United States)
- International child abduction
- Interfaith marriage
- Interracial marriage
- Mail-order bride
- Naturalization
