Better Living through Marriage Migration?

Suzanne Sinke, Florida State University

This paper examines literature regarding marriages tied to international migration in a US context to see how scholars have evaluated these experiences. How have academics judged the success or failure of non-US citizens who married US citizens as a precursor to migration or quickly after arriving (e.g. fiancée visas). To what degree do transracial as well as transcultural elements impact the authors’ evaluation on whether these moves provided a better living situation or not? Does the period in which the migration took place have a significant impact on this evaluation? How do authors evaluate gender divisions between sending and receiving locations? In other words, do scholars view marriage migration as an improvement in well-being for those involved? Previous works have sometimes emphasized the unequal gender dynamics of foreign women marrying US-citizen males, the negative reputation tied to marrying US military men, or the transactional elements of matchmaking sites. Other works note more positive elements of finding spouses when demographics otherwise make that difficult, or try to identify ways in which such relationships provide concrete benefits for the participants. The options for legal migration figure prominently in some studies, particularly from the late 20th century. Identifying which questions scholars have asked charts a path forward in discussing the connections of marriage and immigration.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 19. Global Migrations