Rishtas: adding emotion to strategy in understanding British Pakistani transnational marriages

Abstract The popularity of transnational marriages that in most cases involve first cousins or other kin distinguishes Pakistanis from other British South Asian groups. In this article we explain the popularity of such marriages. We seek to complement accounts that stress kinship obligations and socio‐economic strategy by showing that transnational marriages are also motivated by the emotional ties of kinship. Central to this analysis is a focus on the Urdu/Panjabi concept of rishta, which conveys ideas about a ‘good’ match and about emotional connections between people. Our attention to emotional discourse between siblings, between parents and children and between prospective spouses in the context of marriage arrangements augments the understanding of what is at stake for those involved in transnational marriages. Our analysis also complements accounts that emphasize parental exegesis by offering a multigenerational perspective.     

Making Global Society: Friendship Networks among Transnational Professionals in the Building Design Industry

Abstract Little is currently known about the nature and wider implications of transnationalism among professionals, despite the fact that companies are increasingly establishing overseas business links, seeking foreign contracts and obliging professional employees to work overseas for long periods of time. Focusing on the research generated by a small study of mainly architects and engineers who had worked abroad at some time in the building design industry in this article I explore their transnational experiences and the factors that enabled them to construct viable friendship networks extending over time and into global life. These experiences are briefly contrasted with the social processes constructed by migrants and others operating in transnational social space. Though professionals appear to lack the clear sense of collective unity, the pre‐existing identity and/or the same sense of membership and organization as other types of transnational communities may exhibit, these networks nevertheless demonstrated a high degree of sociality and affectivity and a capacity to generate further transnational relationships. They also revealed a strongly postnational orientation arising from the conjunction of a unique combination of shared factors especially age, emotional deprivation, location and the nature of overseas work.     

Intimate circuits: modernity,migration and marriage among post‐Soviet women in Turkey

The study of migration too often ignores the ways that labour migrants' emotional entanglements and complicated personal relationships factor into their experiences of being people on the move. In examining post‐Soviet migrant women's relationships with Turkish men and the ways these are regulated in Turkey, in this article I consider how intimate practices of marriage and performances of ‘love’ have emerged as key aspects of transnational mobility. These intimate practices both enable long‐term transnational circuits between post‐Soviet homelands and Turkey, and attest to the way global capitalism is redefining personal lives.     

Transnational marriages in Yiwu,China: tensions over money

In this article, I explore the role of transnational marriages in the activities and strategies of trading networks, through the lens of money and uncertainty in marriage. I argue that uncertainty in spousal relations challenges the durability of such unions and hence the effectiveness of their role in trading activities. These uncertainties are shaped by intertwined factors, including especially the embedded relationship between commercial and social networks (for example, business partners, kinship, friendship) and spousal relations, the differing cultural values and practices of the partners to such unions, stereotypes, varying forms and degrees of trust and mistrust, and the dynamics of global markets and state policy. Uncertainties driven by these factors exacerbate mistrust in both marriages and trading relations; they also shape shifting orientations toward future life. Therefore, I argue that the role of marriage in trading activities should be neither simplified nor romanticized.     

Transnational marriage among Ahmadi Muslims in the UK

Abstract Ahmadi Muslims constitute a reformed sect of Islam founded in 1889 by a charismatic leader, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad. In this article I explore the character and processes of transnational marriage arrangements among Ahmadi Muslims over three generations in the UK. I suggest that the process of conversion to Ahmadiyyat and the organizational structure of Ahmadi mosques have combined to produce a flexible pattern of marriage among Ahmadis that is unusual among South Asians. A significant number of earlier and contemporary Ahmadi marriages are interethnic, reflecting an expansive Ahmadiya identity that is perceived to be independent of ethnicity. Further, analysis of marriage proposals accepted as well as rejected suggests gender differences in perceptions of and motivations for marriage. The analysis suggests that while gender differences in expectations of marriage may have parallels in some other South Asian transnational marriages, Ahmadi religious identity and organization plays a distinctive role in shaping the processes of Ahmadi marriage arrangements.     

Aspiration,reunification and gender transformation in Jat Sikh marriages from India to Canada

Abstract In this article I explore marriage as a strategy of family migration among a transnational community of middle‐class Jat Sikhs. Family reunification and status aspirations are examined as central concerns of the transnational movement of Jat Sikhs from India to Canada. It is argued that Jat Sikh transnationalism and gender are mutually‐constitutive: migration strategies can construct women, as well as men, as agents of marital citizenship, and in facilitating migration, transnational marriage may transform practices and notions of gender and status. The article is based on preliminary ethnographic research among Jat Sikh brides in Toronto and Vancouver, and forms part of a larger study of gender, modernity and identity in Indo‐Canadian Jat Sikh marriages.     

Beyond migration? Alternative articulations of transnational religious networks

A growing body of scholarship on transnational religion is grounded within the analytical framework of the religion–migration relationship and has highlighted migrant individuals and groups as main players in forging religious networking. This ignores a wide range of alternative drivers that are forceful in the (re)making of transnational religious networks. In this introduction of the special issue, we therefore open a collection of nine articles which contribute to alternative articulations of transnational religious networks. In particular, our contributors introduce three alternative drivers – ideas, institutions and digital technologies – in (re)producing religious mobilities, connections and networks across nation borders. At the same time, they offer fascinating insights into the diversified ways alternative actors and channels weave together religious migrants’ imaginations, practices and experiences, formulating new, complex forms of religious (re)production in a transnational world. This special issue also highlights the creativity, flexibility and vitality of Asian religions in the 21st century modernity.     

Technologies of the spouse: intimate surveillance in Senegalese transnational marriages

Rapid advances in communication technology in the last 20 years have enabled migrants to sustain social and economic investment in multiple geographic locations, or, to be transnational. In this article, by analysing non‐migrant Senegalese women's experiences in marriages with migrant Senegalese men, I critically engage in discussions about the role of technology in transnational family dynamics. In the intimate negotiations of transnational married life, these women feel profoundly ambivalent about the role of communication technologies in their lives. Instead of enabling ‘emotional closeness’, the virtual presence of their absent husbands frequently represents a spectre of suspicion, control and surveillance.     

The changing Xiangxi Miao marriage practices in contemporary China

This essay describes elements of Xiangxi Miao marriage practices such as courtship, wedding ceremonies, and marriages between the Miao and Han, exploring how Xiangxi Miao marriage practices changed at the turn of this century, and disclosing social influences on the changes in marriage practices. The author uses a Miao village of Zalun as a case study. Through participant observation and intensive interviews, it was found that, before 2000, Xiangxi Miaos’ courtship practices and wedding ceremonies had strict processes and reflected agricultural rhythm. In addition, there were few marriages between the Miao and Han. Since the beginning of this century, Xiangxi Miao marriage practices have changed due to socioeconomic development, population mobility, and diverse communication between Miao young women and men. Dramatic shifts in marriage practices have produced social influences among Xiangxi Miao communities. The changes in marriage practices have promoted Xiangxi Miao free marriages, advancing social cohesion and acculturation. However, these changes have also increased numbers of criminals and problems of healthy growth and education of the stay-at-home children.     

Semi‐legal family life: Pakistani couples in the borderlands of Denmark and Sweden

In 2002, the Danish government introduced new legislation on family reunification to restrict the transnational arranged marriages that were occurring among some immigrant groups. Since then, thousands of people have emigrated from Denmark to Sweden where, as citizens of the European Union, they are entitled to family reunification. In this article, I introduce the concept of semi‐legality to describe the situation whereby Pakistani transnational couples commute on a regular basis between their legal residences in Sweden and their places of work or networks of friends and family in Denmark. The married couples subjected to this mobile lifestyle are always in a process of becoming illegal, which is the consequence of ‘overstaying’ in Denmark or ‘understaying’ in Sweden. Besides its legal aspects, a semi‐legal status also has significant moral implications that not only restructure marriage patterns and family life among Pakistani immigrants but also have long‐lasting effects on the relationship between minorities and majorities in Denmark.     

Social change,premarital nonfamily experiences,and marital dynamics

We investigate the effects of nonfamily experiences on marital relationships in a setting characterized by high levels of arranged marriage until recently. Drawing on theoretical frameworks for the study of families and social change, we argue that the expansion of opportunities for nonfamily experiences will increase the likelihood of marital relationships based on an emotional bond between husbands and wives. Using data from 3,724 individuals in rural Nepal, we find consistent effects of educational experiences across multiple dimensions of marriage. These effects point toward the spread of education as a stimulus to marriages characterized by higher levels of love and discussions between spouses, and lower levels of conflict and spouse abuse. Results suggest that studies of marital dynamics in non‐Western settings provide a fruitful avenue for new research on marriage.     

Discourses on Non-conforming Marriages: Love in Taiwan

In contemporary Taiwan, arranged marriage seems a remote legend. However, the mainstream ideology of romantic love and marriage is a recent phenomenon that started only half a century ago. The debate on love and marriage that took place a hundred years ago has been reopened in current Taiwanese society on transnational marriage and same-sex marriage debates, which are regarded as non-conforming marriages in a specific historical period. We argue that the hegemonic ideology of romantic love has produced a powerful exclusionary effect on cross-border marriages based on ethnic and class discrimination, but also an inclusive effect on same-sex marriage in present Taiwan society, which underscores the power of the discourse of love in modern Taiwanese social life. The love discourse can be progressive in a specific historical conjuncture, but it can also be regressive by excluding other forms of intimacy.     

“Whom should We Help First?” Transnational Helping Practices in Ecuadorian Migration

Collective remittances, in the framework of migrant transnationalism, have been recently dealt with in some empirical research, especially on the Mexican‐US migration system. Far less studied is their significance in different migration flows, including their real contribution – as desirable as this may be – to local development. The article is concerned with a bottom up analysis of a migration flow where collective remittances – as the only way for emigrants to keep helping their local communities, well beyond their own families – are still in their infancy. It explores, through a translocal ethnography of Ecuadorian migration to Italy, the underlying attitudes, personal meanings and expectations – as well as the structural opportunities and constraints – accounting for helping practices at a distance. Charitable transfers to communities of origin are reconstructed as to their motivations, their main aims and beneficiaries, their embeddedness in mutual networks among immigrant co‐nationals. How is it that some of them decide to help “people in need” in their own communities overseas, or in their home towns, or in both? Is this an expression of communal belonging, or a matter of social status maintenance, or something else? Further reflections on the dilemmas inherent in transnational helping practices are then developed. Concluding remarks emphasize the relatively poor scope for such initiatives, in a recent and first‐generation flow over a long distance. While co‐ethnic solidarity overseas is a precondition for transnational helping practices, the latter are also affected by the developments of public policies in the countries of origin and of destination. Overall, an effective integration overseas is necessary for collective remittances to have some currency and impact.     

Philippine Women on the Move: Marriage across Borders

This paper discusses how Philippine transnational marriage migration is intertwined in complex and paradoxical ways with global, local and personal matters. My argument will blur the artificial and still dominant analytical division between marriage migrants (wives or "mail order" brides) and labour migrants (workers – mainly domestic workers). Focusing on the life histories of different Filipina women, the paper illustrates the intersections and multiplicity of their roles as wives, mistresses, workers, mothers, daughters and citizens in a transnational migratory space.
Furthermore, I go along with those scholars who argue that women do not only marry in order to migrate, but that they also migrate in order to marry, as marriage is seen as an important aspect of social fulfilment. By carefully investigating these emerging transnational or even global marriage-scapes, I analyze the different motives, logics and desires that come into play. While women from the Philippines may look for "modern husbands" and "modern marriages" because of local constraints on their marriage opportunities, many western men turn to Asia and the Philippines for "traditional" wives whom they imagine to be more "conservative" and "less demanding." Both often discover that their gender stereotypes are more imagined than real.
The stories illustrate how Filipina migrants use different socio-cultural and socio-economic situations across transnational space – and at times against local gender constructions – in order to renegotiate and reclaim a respectable and desired marital status. On the one hand, these women are subject to manifold localised, legal and religious-moral definitions as women and wives. On the other hand, they creatively and actively utilise structural differences and new opportunities across transnational space to redefine themselves. The stories thus show both the women's agency and the importance of structural factors.     

Arranged Marriages as Support for Intra‐ethnic Matchmaking? A Case Study on Muslim Migrants in Germany

This article discusses the behavioural and institutional mechanisms that guide the matchmaking process of arranged marriages 1 amongst Muslim migrants in Germany and clarifies how this practice may influence ethnic homogamy. The focus is on general characteristics of arranged marriages rather than differences between diverse ethnic groups. The methodology is qualitative due to the sensitive and complex topic and the current state of research. Typically, the whole family is deeply involved in the process of arrangement, which consists of three stages (pre‐engagement, engagement, marriage). Thereby, the extension of parental scope of action by means of institutionalized admission procedures turns out to be vitally important. In consideration of the fact that mate selection takes place at the pre‐engagement stage, it is the most crucial. Furthermore, differences to other partner‐choosing processes are at their most distinct at this point, being responsible for the identification and labelling of this model as an arranged marriage. Selection criteria are mainly determined by the reputation of the marriage candidate and her/his family along with cultural features (such as belonging to a particular religious group, ethnicity or nationality). In our study, preferences for a cultural homogenous match were the most dominant ones. This inclination may cause the tendency towards transnational marriages when there are no suitable marriage candidates to be found in Germany.     

Moral boundaries and national borders: Cuban marriage migration to Denmark

The discussion of marriage migration in Denmark primarily has focused on citizens of immigrant descent (‘New Danes’) who marry partners from their ancestral homeland (often Turkey or Pakistan). This type of marriage migration was the target of the strict Danish family reunification policy instituted in 2002. This article examines the genealogy of the morality underpinning the family reunification policies and asks whether the rules actually promote this moral agenda or have unintended consequences. Empirically, I shift the focus from immigrant Danes to native Danes who marry Cubans. Finally, while little attention is paid to the non-western country involved, transnational marriages always involve two nations. This article investigates how state policies on both ends of this migration trajectory shape moral-territorial borders that transnational couples navigate.     

Place,gender and power in transnational Sikh marriages

In this article I explore the importance of place during transnational marriages and in particular during wedding rituals. The rituals described are two Sikh weddings taking place in East Africa and the Punjab respectively. Highlighting the importance of status and hierarchy during wedding events, the ethnography focuses on how transnationalism is experienced as a generator of status as well as a potential risk to status. Through an account in the article of ritual practices in transnational marriages and households, I underline place as a significant factor in gender relations during wedding events.     

Transnational Vietnamese American Marriages in the New Land

This article examines the transnational marriages between Vietnamese men living abroad and Vietnamese women living in Vietnam. By presenting conceptual and cultural evidence to discern the dynamics of gender roles and marriage expectations in transnational marriages, the article seeks to uncover the uniqueness of roles and expectations within this culture. A closer look reveals possible marital issues based on incongruent expectations between the two parties, which may lead to possible mental health and domestic violence issues. Further, the article expounds on the barriers in receiving help. Practice, policy, and research suggestions are included.     

At the intersection of globalization and ‘civilizational originality’: cultural production in Putin’s Russia

ABSTRACT

This special issue originates from a transnational collaboration of scholars in philology, comparative literature, social theory, sociology, anthropology, ethnography, and media studies. The collection strives to advance a research agenda built on the nexus of three intellectual and academic domains: post-Soviet ‘Russian cultural studies’, the research paradigm put forward by Cultural Studies, as well as empirical methods developed in sociology. The collection illustrates the importance of expanding the experience of Cultural Studies beyond its established spheres of national investigation, while it also speaks to the necessity to re-evaluate the hegemony of the English-language academic and cultural production on the global scale. The collection offers insights into the gamut of cultural practices and institutional environments in which Russian cultural production happens today. It shows how cultural industries and institutions in Russia are integrated into the global marketplace and transnational communities, while they also draw on and contribute to local lives and experiences by trying to create an autonomous space for symbolic production at personal and collective levels. Through diverse topics, the issue sheds light on the agency, i.e. practitioners and participants, creators and consumers, of Russian cultural production and the neoliberal practices implemented on creative work and cultural administration in Russia today. The Introduction outlines the development of academic studies on Russian cultural practices since 1991; describes main political developments shaping the cultural field in Putin’s Russia; and, finally, identifies the Cultural Studies debates the editors of the collection find most productive for investigations of Russia, i.e. the instrumentalization of culture and culture as resource. Relocated in an analysis of a post-socialist society, these conceptualisations seem increasingly problematic in a situation where local and federal policies governing cultural and creative work focus simultaneously on marketization and on nationalism as the main tools of legitimizing the federal government.     

The Settlement Experiences Of Refugees From The Former Yugoslavia

In the 1990s many mixed marriage refugees from what was Yugoslavia settled in Perth, Australia. A mixed marriage is one where the parties have different ethnicities. Using multiple‐case, conversational interviews, the experiences of 12 of these refugees were explored. The processes of acculturation and adaptation, the development of social support networks and community, and their ethnic identity and ethnicity, were discussed and analysed within both the sociopolitical context of the conflict in what was Yugoslavia, and their subsequent migration. The initial settlement programmes and supports to the refugees and provided by Australia's government and community groups were also analysed. The results illustrated the diversity of experiences of the participants as well as shared experiences resulting from their being in a mixed marriage. In summary, the results suggest that settlement is stressful for the refugees, that community‐based settlement programmes provide more positive settlement experiences than government programmes, and that people in mixed marriages experience particular stresses related to the political context in the former Yugoslavia, including a history of alienation and persecution. Theoretically the results indicate that the participants are moving towards an acculturation outcome of biculturalism. The complex nature of their ethnic identity and ethnicity is also discussed.