Transnational marriage : new perspectives from Europe and beyond

Marriages spanning borders are not a new phenomenon, but occur with increasing frequency and contribute substantially to international mobility and transnational engagement. Perhaps because such migration has often been treated as 'secondary' to labor migration, marriage has until recent years been a neglected field in migration studies. In contemporary Europe, transnational marriages have become an increasingly focal issue for immigration regimes, for whom these border-crossing family formations represent a significant challenge. This timely volume brings together work from Europe and beyond, addressing the issue of transnational marriage from a range of perspectives (including legal frameworks, processes of integration, and gendered dynamics), presenting substantial new empirical material, and taking a fresh look at key concepts in this area.

Section 1: Concepts 1. Transnational Marriage Katharine Charsley 2. Transnational Marriage Migration and Marriage Migration: An Overview Lucy Williams Section 2: Legal Contexts 3. Any Time, Any Place, Anywhere: Entry Clearance, Marriage Migration and the Border Helena Wray 4. Danish Regulations on Marriage Migration: Policy Understandings of Transnational Marriages Martin Bak Jorgensen Section 3: Marriage, Transnationalism and Belonging 5. Migration, Integration and Transnational Involvement: Muslim Family Migrants in Urban Areas in Britain Hiranthi Jayaweera 6. Marrying at Home, Marrying Away: Customary Marriages and Legal Marriages in Ngazidja and in the Diaspora Iain Walker 7. Transnational Marriage in Conflict Settings: War, Dispersal and Marriage Among Sri Lankan Tamils Maunaguru Sidharthan and Nicholas Van Hear Section 4: Gender, Power and Visibility 8. Transnational Families Breaking Up: Divorce Among Turkish Immigrants in Denmark Anika Liversage 9. Beyond the Stereotype of the 'Thai-Bride': Visibility, Invisibility and Community Jessica Mai Sims 10. Capturing and Reproducing Marriages: Transnationalism, Materiality and the Wedding Video Kanwal Mand 11. Marriage, Migration and Transnational Social Spaces: A View from the UK Katharine Charsley