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

Abstract

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 marriage in Yiwu, China: trade, settlement and mobility

“…Among the four who have ambiguous attitudes, two have little confidence in the future of their relationship although they report attachment to their husbands. As many scholars have pointed out, intimacy, love, affect and partnership play key roles in migration decision-making and behaviour (Faier 2007;Mai and King 2009;Walsh 2009;Bloch 2011;Brettell 2017, 89). Women in Yiwu also put emotional and relational aspects at the centre of their consideration when it comes to whether to migrate or not.…”

“…'Men and women are migrating to marry or marrying in order to migrate, with greater or lesser degrees of agency and in the context of varied structural constraints and opportunities' (Brettell 2017, 82). Recent works (Piper and Roces 2003;Burgess 2004;Constable 2005;Freeman 2005;Lauser 2006;Faier 2007;Wang 2007;Bloch 2011;Cole 2014) have challenged such 'dichotomous thinking' that presupposes strong differences between 'love/instrumentalism, autonomy/dependence, dominance/subordination, home/host country' (Brettell 2017, 91). They have focused on migrants' agency and portray a more complex picture of their lived experience in marital families and receiving countries (see also Kim 2010, 722-725).…”

Re-chercher l’amour transnational

“…Certains auteurs qualifient même ces relations de « ticket out of poverty » (Beck-Gernsheim, 2011). Si plusieurs soulignent au contraire que certaines préoccupations d'ordre utilitaire, telles qu'assurer à la famille de meilleures conditions de vie, ne s'opposent pas au développement de sentiments d'affection envers le conjoint (Bloch, 2011 ;Constable, 2003 ;Faier, 2007 ;Padilla, 2007), il existe de sérieuses lacunes au niveau de la description et de l'analyse de l'expérience vécue de la relation amoureuse, dans son rapport à la distance géographique, chez les couples transnationaux, qu'ils soient mixtes ou non. À cet effet, Maité Maskens (2013 : 66) soulève l'importance du concept d'amour dans le cadre du champ d'étude de la « migration par le mariage », où différentes conceptions de l'amour s'affrontent et structurent l'expérience des conjoints.…”

The effects of Russia-Turkey crisis on mixed families in İstanbul: Hearing the voices of women

“…Yuliya and Russian women coming to Turkey with her worked at male-dominated places in Trabzon and Istanbul (Aydın, 2006;Bloch, 2011;Yükseker, 2003) where they performed different works such as shuttle trading, prostitution, caring works and salesperson. After 2000's they tried to hold on to life by working at hotels and tourism agencies in Antalya where wealthy Russian tourists were served.…”