Causes Underlying the Increase in Transnational Arranged Marriages - Literature review Example

Culture, Politics and Globalization Causes Underlying the Increase in Transnational Arranged Marriages 1. Introduction The tradition of arranged marriages persist in Asian countries, where the elders in the family as well as the community help in finding suitable spouses for young men and women of marriageable age, and parents take the responsibility of getting their children married. With increasing globalization and job opportunities in foreign locales in the west, growing numbers of young men from Asian countries work in the west, and prefer to marry a person from their homeland. Similarly, several American men voluntarily seek wives from Russia and other Asian countries. Subsequently, young married women are transported across nations to cultures different from their own. Their family expands, and the children grow up as citizens of the adopted country. From an anthropological perspective, it is interesting to investigate the reasons for the inter-cultural marriages across nations, which require tremendous adjustments among the spouses who move to the new environment to make a new life for themselves and their families. The phenomenon of globalization over the last thirty years is the “increased interdependence among countries resulting from the flow of people, trade, finance and ideas from one nation to another” (Bishop, Reinke & Adams, 2011, p.117). The World Bank strongly supports globalization, and defines it as an ongoing process underscoring the growing integration of economies and societies around the world, states Mukherjee (2008). With technological innovations such as the World Wide Web or Internet helping to optimize the speed and ease of international communication and transactions, the impact of globalization continues to increase. Thesis Statement: The purpose of this paper is to determine the causes for increasing transnational arranged marriages, between people in Asia and the advanced western countries. 2. The Wide-Spread Effects of Globalization With the improved communication networks of technological development and globalization bringing widely located businesses and workplaces together, there is simultaneous integration of different cultures. The concept of globalization increasingly encompasses the media, politics, social concepts, the arts and other cultural artifacts across the world. Developing beyond its economic roots, globalization has expanded into “human rights, the environment, and even national security” (Bishop et al, 2011, p.117). These new initiatives and agreements are equipped with their own governance structures, thereby leading to a radical shift in the right to formulate policies, from individual nation-states to a large number of new, higher level political institutions. Conventional wisdom today considers political institutions coming together and growing in size and significance to be a commendable development. Besides ongoing technological development, the liberalization of governmental policies have led to globalization increasing in leaps and bounds over the last three decades. This radical growth in globalization has resulted in increasing inequality amongst nations, and in increasing inequalities between social classes of individual countries. The three main perspectives evident in globalization literature today are related to what causes globalization, how globalization impacts society, and the future of globalization. Bishop et al (2011) reitrate that the trends and approaches explaining globaliztion help in understanding how it impacts several spheres such as politics, society, culture, the economy and business. The assumption in Bishop et al’s (2011) definition of globalization is that countries mutually depend on one another for the “flow of people, trade, finance and ideas” (p.117). On the other hand, the limitation of this definition is that it portrays an idealistic picture of globalization. The fact is that generally the flow of people and ideas known as the ‘brain-drain’ is one-way, from the developing countries to the industrially advanced western nations, while the flow of new technological development, and finance in payment for work and trade are from the developed to the poorer nations, and only the movement of trade is mutual between nations. 3. The Increasing Rate of Trans-National Arranged Marriages Asian women from Bangladesh, Russia, Vietnam, China, Tibet, India, Pakistan, etc. opt for transnational marriages in their quest for a better economic and social future. 3.1 Bangladeshi Migrants Seek Marriage, Security and Economic Stability Gardner (2008) conducted a research study in Sylhet, Bangladesh, to investigate the “relationship between social mobility, insecurity, and connectedness to hierarchically ordered foreign places in Sylhet, Bangladesh” (p.477). Certain regions in Sylhet are related to Britain to which some members of the native population have migrated. Britain as a destination is considered by those left behind in Sylhet as a country providing ample economic opportunities and sustained security. On the other hand, Bangladesh is experienced to be lacking in economic prospects due to rural livelihoods being profoundly insecure. Under these circumstances, forging and maintaining social connections with Britain is crucial. “This is especially the case for young men who are hoping to find a British bride” (Gardner, 2008, p.477). They are able to fulfill their hopes with the help of social capital in the form of relationships with successful ‘Londoni’ migrants who help arrange their marriages, and cultural capital achieved through participating in specific forms of work and lifestyles, “thus making them more attractive as prospective grooms” (Gardner, 2008, p.477). These transnational social bonds between the native Bangladeshis and those settled in Britain are beneficial for the latter families also. Their political insecurity, marginalisation, social exclusion and other forms of isolation are counteracted by economic and social investments in their homeland. Transnational families are unable to blend in with the local population due to a lack of inclusion. They network within their own community members, and continue to practice their ethnic customs and culture, with little allowances to include the local cultural characteristics. Transnational marriages through movement of prospective brides and grooms from Sylhet to Britain are increasing in number. During the 1970s and 1980s, young women were the predominant travellers to the United Kingdom to join their husbands; on the other hand, in the present day, almost an equal number of men apply for settlement visas to join their Britishbased wives. “Foreign Office figures show that in 2005, the number of settlement visas granted to Bangladeshi grooms was 1,530, while 330 were refused. At the same time, the number of settlement visas issued to brides was 2,133 with 590 being refused. Significantly, these figures remained the same since 2001. A year earlier in 2004, a Home Office report revealed “a rise of 14 percent of husbands admitted from the Indian subcontinent since 2003, compared to a rise of 12 percent of wives” (Gardner, 2008, p.481). Charsley (2005) states that for Sylheti men and women who use marriage as a route into Britain, immigration is however not their main purpose. For British Pakistani women, dating in the United Kingdom, or marriage with partners outside the community may have poor outcomes; hence marriages with Pakistan-based cousins are often less risky. This is reiterated by Shaw and Charsley (2006) who attribute the popularity of such marriages to the emotional ties of kinship and affection towards transnational relatives as strong motivations for consenting to a life partner from Pakistan. According to Charsley (2005), for British Pakistani men also, marrying a bride from one’s extended family, or larger community in Pakistan has certain advantages. While cross- and parallel-cousin marriages between partners in Britain and Pakistan are a continuation of a long-established practice, there is increasing significance in the role played by transnational marriage alliances, reinforcing family bonds across the international divide, states Shaw (2001). 3.2 Mutual Benefits: Mail-Order Wives from Russia for American Men In Ericka Johnson’s book Dreaming of a Mail-Order Husband, 2007, the true stories of six Russian women whom the author interviews, are portrayed as separate narratives. They found their western husbands from the United States through the Internet, with expectations for a better life after emigrating to the new country. These Russian mail-order brides cannot be described uniformly because their backgrounds, economic situations, as well as levels of education differ. Johnson (2007), working on research related to gender and technology examined each of the women’s narratives. The extreme social and economic struggles faced by the women in Russia, particularly during the period of transitional economy, and their low chances for marriage after the age of twenty-three are some of the reasons for emigrating to the United States forging a marriage connection. Further, there is a large proportion of women in Russian society who are single through being unmarried, divorced or widowed who do not believe in the possibility of finding a Russian husband. Another reason is that close family members such as children or elderly parents make it necessary for those in their twenties and early thirties to look for a better life in an advanced country such as America. In Olga’s story ‘Feminism or femininity’, Ericka Johnson addresses the issue of Russian women’s search for a groom from the west, through the Internet. She also emphasizes on the phenomenon of several American men’s quest for a bride from Russia for whom their cultural concept of marriage or vyiti zamuzh meant “to follow the man”. In western countries, the notion of marriage defined a woman in relation to her husband, but the Russian theory of marriage from the women’s approach, meant the bride literally following her husband. Olga, the attractive twenty-one year old, who was about to graduate as a trained teacher, had received several letters proposing marriage from American men, which she showed to the author, Ericka Johnson. She was encouraged in her search for an American husband, by her mother, an educated and independent working woman. From the letters it was clear that the men considered American women to be damaged by their ideas of feminism; moreover, many women already had children from earlier relationship/ relationships, they “did not take care of their looks, carried a lot of emotional baggage” (Johnson, 2007, p.28), among other complaints that formed a long list. Women in Russia wholeheartedly supported the author Ericka Johnson’s criticism of feminism, and it was apparent to her that the women subscribed to the ideal of womanhood as related to domesticity and an appearance of subservience to their husbands; while the greatly criticized feminist position was associated with women who hate men, children and the family. “The Russian ideal of femininity requires a husband and children which makes the threat of being an old maid painful” (Johnson, 2007, p.29) and it was this prospect that Olga was trying to avoid. At the same time, however she said that the man she would consider marrying needed to be interested in her as a person, her likes, and the course she was completing. Thus, it is evident that the attraction for each other’s perceived characteristics was from Russia as well as America. However, from among the American men who had written to Olga, she had not found her potentially ideal match and had not replied to most of the letters. Though she did not label herself as a feminist, Olga had definite views on having the freedom to choose whether she wanted to work after marriage; not electing to live in a small town, but only in a large city with its greater opportunities; and in being in control over her own life in several ways. Therefore, the author concludes from her meeting with Olga that the latter being labelled a nonfeminist was based only on the fact that she “did not come across as frightening” (Johnson, 2007, p.48). 3.3 Educated Vietnamese Brides and Low-Wage Vietnamese U.S. Immigrants Highly educated Vietnamese women seek to escape the traditional cultural environment of their native country where women are expected to be subordinate to men, and their main role was that of a care-giver for the family including the parents of her husband who lived with them. Even highly educated Vietnamese women who held jobs had no power to exert their own will, and could not participate in family decision-making or other tasks considered to be in the male domain. One such case study is that of Thanh married to Minh in living in Quincy in the United States. From vastly different social worlds, they formed one of more than 20 million legal marriage migrants entering the United States annually. “About a quarter of all men and more than 40 percent of all women who currently enter the United States are marriage migrants” (Thai, 2002, p.231); of these immigrants more than 65 percent are women. “The marriage of Minh and Thanh follows a global trend that has been gathering momentum over the last forty years” (Thai, 2002, p.231) with immigrants increasingly seeking wives from their home countries. Nearly two-thirds of all marriage migrants are of the same ethnicity, and in the United States migrants marrying noncitizen permanent residents are 90 percent women. In the arranged marriage of Thanh and Minh, both individuals were confronted with the problem of being “unmarriageables”. This is because a highly educated woman in Vietnam finds it difficult to find a suitable partner, similar to the Vietnamese man earning a low wage oversea. Even though Thanh chose to marry down economically and socially, she considered it worthwhile to avoid marrying into the male-dominated culture prevalent in her homeland. However, Minh’s hopes of continuing to care for his elderly parents, and his desire for a traditional wife requires a great deal of adjustment on Thanh’s part, and her only sustenance is her hope for a better future. 4. Conclusion This paper has highlighted the increase in transnational arranged marriages between Asia and the west. This is mainly due to the effects of globalization which creates job opportunities, reduces international distances, increases communication facilities, and creates loneliness among immigrant workers who face marginalisation and isolation in their adopted country. The evidence indicates that youth from poor countries such as Bangladesh migrate to Europe or the United States to marry within their own community, to achieve increased economic stability and a better life. This was seen among the youth from Sylhet in Bangladesh. Women from Russia such as Olga in search of a better life and enhanced economic opportunities use the Internet to form marriage alliances with American men who in turn choose to marry Russian women considered to be less feminist, more conducive as marriage partners, and willing to take up domestic and child care responsibilities. Similarly, Vietnamese men such as Minh earning low wages in the United States unable to find suitable wives in their country of adoption, are able to marry highly educated brides like Tanh from their homeland, looking for greater equality in their marriage relationships, than they would get from a husband back in Vietnam. Hence, it is concluded that transnational marriages share the common quest for an economically better and more egalitarian future, whether arranged within the community, or by the use of advanced technology like Internet characterizing globalization. 5. 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