Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction: Issues and Debates on Family-Related Migration and the Migrant Family: A European Perspective
- Section I The Family as a Moral and Social Order
- Section II Gender, Generation and Work in the Migrant Family
- Section III Marriage Migration and Gender Relations
- Section IV Transnational Family Lives and Practices
- List of Contributors
- Index
- Other IMISCOE titles
9 - Cross-border Marriage as a Migration Strategy: Thai Women in the Netherlands
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 January 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction: Issues and Debates on Family-Related Migration and the Migrant Family: A European Perspective
- Section I The Family as a Moral and Social Order
- Section II Gender, Generation and Work in the Migrant Family
- Section III Marriage Migration and Gender Relations
- Section IV Transnational Family Lives and Practices
- List of Contributors
- Index
- Other IMISCOE titles
Summary
Introduction
In the context of more restrictive immigration policies across Europe and the Netherlands, in particular, marriage migration and more broadly family-related migration have become the most accessible and feasible mode to enter the Netherlands. Women married to a Dutch husband are actually by far the largest group of Thai immigrants in the Netherlands. Many traditional accounts of marriage migration have highlighted the economic disparity between poorer countries in the global South and rich, developed countries in the global North as the main stimulus driving brides from poorer countries to marry grooms in wealthier ones. This chapter deconstructs these simplistic and mechanistic notions. It demonstrates that economic motivations are constructed around imaginations about the affluent and modern European society and the high value Thai people assign to living overseas, and are thus deeply influenced by cultural ideas about marriage, migration and Europe. The popularity of tourism in Thailand, the advancement in communication technology, changed attitudes towards mixed marriage, fantasies about gender and sexuality and local constraints on marriage opportunities – combined with the women's social positions – all have a great impact in shaping marriage migration. This chapter also touches upon the immigration regulations of the Netherlands, which render intermarriage as a particular route for Thai immigration and generate a power imbalance among Thai-Dutch couples by making the women dependent on their Dutch spouse's support of their legal residency (see also Fleischer and Riaño this volume).
I believed that if I went abroad, I would have a better life. I thought that Western countries are paradise. I saw some of my female covillagers who went to Germany or Switzerland sending remittances back home to build a new house and to buy modern furniture or a car in Thailand. Although I had no idea what kind of work they did and how their lives overseas were, I still wish that one day my dream of going overseas will become true. After I had followed my Dutch boyfriend to the Netherlands, I just realised that the reality of living in Europe entirely differs from what I imagined. But I am already here. What else can I do? I only work hard and put up with all difficulties, otherwise I have to return to Thailand with nothing and I will lose face.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Gender, Generations and the Family in International Migration , pp. 221 - 242Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2012
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