The Globalisation of Marriage Fields: The Swedish Case

Abstract

Marriage fields -the geographical areas where people meet to partnertraditionally tend to be relatively small and local. Increasing international travel and the use of internet have broadened the geographical opportunity structure of potential partners. This increases the risk of meeting a partner from abroad, possibly resulting in an increase of international marriage migration. This paper uses unique longitudinal population data for the whole of Sweden to explore the globalisation of Swedish marriage fields. The results show an increase of marriage migrants in Sweden between 1990 and 2004, although absolute numbers remain relatively low. The paper yields two new insights not previously recorded in the literature. The first is that we found a substantial proportion of all marriage migrants in Sweden to be males while most existing literature on marriage migration focuses almost exclusively on females. The second is that the pattern of geographical origins of marriage migrants is highly gendered with male and female marriage migrants in Sweden originating from different regions in the world. The results suggest that different mechanisms underlie male and female marriage migration.

Marriage and divorce of immigrants and descendants of immigrants in Sweden

“…To illustrate, the most common reason for granting residence permits in Sweden is family reunification: in the period 2002-2006 three out of four of these permits were issued to "newly formed marriages" (Parusel 2009). Although an increasing number of marriage migrants arrive in Sweden to marry a native Swede (Niedomysl, Östh, and Van Ham 2010;Haandrikman 2014), it is more common to marry another migrant (Dribe and Lundh 2011). By contrast, if not motivated by marriage, the act of migration may instead postpone the entry into marriage.…”

Broken dreams of a better life in Sweden: Thai women’s lived experiences of intimate partner violence by Swedish men in international marriages

“…The largest proportion of ‘import marriages’ occur between Swedish men and women from Southeast Asia [1,2]. Imported wives’ marriages tend to be more unequal than other partnerships [3,6] and often include dependency and vulnerability on the woman’s part.…”

Migration Flows: Measurement, Analysis and Modeling

“…This does not mean men do not move for marriage; they do, but their marriage migration fields do not necessarily overlap with women's (e.g. Niedomysl et al 2010). Migration does not only lead to marriage.…”