Promoting and Restricting Marriage Migrations: When Marriages Are Not Such a Private Matter

Hélène Le Bail (1)

1 CERI - Centre de recherches internationales (Sciences Po, CNRS)

The link between dynamics of migration and marriage has been renewed since the 1980s owing to the opening of a large number of borders – particularly those of the former communist republics – and the increasing closure of certain other borders – those of the rich countries. The increase in marriages between people who are geographically, and often culturally, distant is therefore both an indication of greater freedom of movement, giving rise to an extension of the possibilities of matrimonial choices, and the result of alternative strategies in response to the difficulty of crossing some borders. [...] This chapter examines how the interests of the various actors respond to and confront each other around the issue of marriage, which is in principle a private matter, but which raises questions that go beyond the couple and the family, and lead many actors to shape these private and intimate relations.

Keywords: migration; marriage; borders

Domains: Political science

Hélène Le Bail. Promoting and Restricting Marriage Migrations: When Marriages Are Not Such a Private Matter. Antoine Pécoud, Hélène Thiollet (eds). Research Handbook on the Institutions of Global Migration Governance, Edward Elgar Publishing, pp.327-340, 2023, Elgar Handbooks in Migration, 9781789908060. ⟨hal-04099155⟩