Katharine A H Charsley

Risk, trust, gender and transnational cousin marriage among British Pakistanis

Abstract The substantial numbers of incoming spousal migrants from Pakistan is a notable feature of contemporary British immigration. This article argues for the utility of viewing such marriages, which are commonly between cousins, not only in terms of migration strategies or kinship obligations, but as part of the negotiation of the risks of marriage in a transnational context. Focusing on matches between British women and men from Pakistan, it explores conceptualizations of marriage and risk, relatedness and place, and closeness and distance, to explain the appeal of transnational close kin marriage. But while these arrangements hope to reduce some risks, they also produce others, generated both by the incentives of migration, and by internal logics of marriages between relatives. Marital choices among British Pakistanis, and resulting migration, can thus be seen as a consequence of a culturally-grounded dialogue on risk and how best it can be managed.

Risk and Ritual: The Protection of British Pakistani Women in Transnational Marriage

With increasing numbers of Pakistani nationals entering Britain as the spouses of British Pakistanis, concern has been voiced over the risks faced by British Pakistani women entering into such marriages. This article takes the issue of risk as a central explanatory factor in examining the effects of transnationalism on Pakistani marriage ceremonies. The involvement of marriages in multiple legal systems, together with the individual circumstances of geographically divided kingroups, may lead to additions or adaptations to wedding practices. The focus on risk, however, illuminates a novel strategy employed by some British Pakistani families to reduce the risks to young women marrying Pakistani nationals: the delaying of the couples cohabitation until after the husbands successful migration. The challenge for state intervention in the regulation of risks to its citizens through immigration policy is to keep pace with these changing phenomena.

Marriage-Related Migration to the UK

Spouses form the largest single category of migrant settlement in the UK, but research and policy making on marriage-related migration to Britain provides incomplete coverage of the phenomenon, having been dominated by a focus on the South Asian populations that are among the largest groups of such migrants. By bringing together immigration statistics with information from academic and third-sector sources, this article attempts to provide a more balanced and nuanced portrayal of patterns and practices of marriage-related migration to the UK. In doing so, it reveals important nationality and gender differences in migration flows and considers how varying marriage practices, social and political contexts, and policies of both receiving and sending countries may work to influence marriage-related migration streams. It also exposes the limitations and lacunae in existing research on this diverse form of migration, highlighting the danger that immigration policy made on the basis of partial evidence will produce unexpected consequences.

Vulnerable Brides and Transnational Ghar Damads

Based on research in Pakistan and the English city of Bristol, this article examines the increasingly common practice of transnational marriages between British-born Pakistanis and Pakistani nationals, in which the latter normally migrate to join their spouses in the UK. Informants and the literature stress the risks faced by women in marriage, and these may be heightened by the increased distance between migrant brides’ natal and marital homes in transnational marriages. The challenges faced by migrant husbands in the culturally unusual position of moving to join their wives have, however, received far less attention. These are examined in terms of cultural models of marriage and migration, asymmetry in expectations of marital ‘adjustment’ and compromise, masculinity and the position of the uxorilocally resident son-in-law (ghar damad). It is suggested that this approach, which recognises the relational character of gender, has much to contribute to the understanding of the dynamics of transnational marriages, including insights on marriages that have ended with the husbands violence or desertion.

Introduction: The Invisible (Migrant) Man

Migration scholarship has often lagged behind developments in gender studies. The importance of gender has gained increasing recognition, but this has predominantly meant a focus on women migrants. Only recently has a gendered lens been turned to the study of migrant men. Discourses surrounding migration in law and government, and in legal scholarship, remain characterized by neglect or dismissal of the gendered experiences of male migrants. Where they do appear, men are frequently cast as the oppressor of family members or as abusing legal channels of migration. Their vulnerabilities and affective ties and needs are rarely foregrounded. This negative representation may be instrumentalized at a variety of levels, and for a variety of purposes, making it difficult for more nuanced critiques to gain purchase. This special issue seeks to extend the discussion of migration and gender by exploring the ways in which men’s gendered experiences of migration remain marginalized.Migration scholarship has often lagged behind developments in gender studies. The importance of gender has gained increasing recognition, but this has predominantly meant a focus on women migrants. Only recently has a gendered lens been turned to the study of migrant men. Discourses surrounding migration in law and government, and in legal scholarship, remain characterized by neglect or dismissal of the gendered experiences of male migrants. Where they do appear, men are frequently cast as the oppressor of family members or as abusing legal channels of migration. Their vulnerabilities and affective ties and needs are rarely foregrounded. This negative representation may be instrumentalized at a variety of levels, and for a variety of purposes, making it difficult for more nuanced critiques to gain purchase. This special issue seeks to extend the discussion of migration and gender by exploring the ways in which men’s gendered experiences of migration remain marginalized.

An Audible Minority: Migration, Settlement and Identity Among English Graduates in Scotland

This paper is concerned with migration across national borders but within state boundaries; specifically, movement between England and Scotland. It focuses on an under-researched area—the medium-term migration behaviour and motivations of graduates—within a demographic and political context where there is a premium on the attraction of highly qualified migrants. It examines the potential influence of national identities upon migration and long-term settlement among this group. The status of ‘English’ graduate migrants as an ‘audible minority’ in Scotland is highlighted. Identification and affinity with Scotland are widespread, and can be developed through a number of routes, thus indicating a positive potential for turning ‘migrants’ into ‘settlers’ in order to meet demographic and political objectives. However, there are also significant barriers to belonging which relate to the national identities of migrants. This shows that incongruity between formal citizenship and belonging may be a significant feature not only for those who migrate between states, but also for migrants who cross national borders within the same state, and this in turn may influence their future migration decisions.

Marital instability among British Pakistanis: transnationality, conjugalities and Islam

Abstract This article offers insights into the dynamics underlying an increase in marital instability in British Pakistani families, thus challenging stereotypes of British South Asian populations as representing ‘old-fashioned’ families, with their lower rates of divorce in contrast with the wider British population. In addition to problems of compatibility, domestic violence and infidelity, we explore dynamics that may be more specific to the British Pakistani population, namely the transnational nature of many marriages, attitudes to parental involvement in arranging marriages, and the place of Islam. We suggest that, while arranged marriages were conventionally seen as safer than love marriages, both young people and their parents may now be viewing arranged marriages as riskier. In an arranged marriage that brings family approval but not personal fulfilment, young people are increasingly supported to divorce and remarry, with a greater degree of personal say in spouse selection.

Silenced Husbands: Muslim Marriage Migration and Masculinity

In both Denmark and Britain, legal and policy discourses have relied on a range of problems implicitly or explicitly linked to transnational marriages involving ethnic minorities in order to control and change the character of spousal immigration. These discourses often focus on the vulnerability of Muslim women, while Muslim men appear as patriarchal figures abusing their power over co-ethnic women. In this article, we use qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with Pakistanis in the United Kingdom and Turks in Denmark to explore gendered challenges for Muslim migrant husbands and demonstrate experiences inconsistent with the assumptions that underpin regulation. Attention to intersecting identities reveals weaknesses in such men’s relational positions and multiple arenas in which their masculinity is problematized or denigrated. In combination, these representations function to limit such men’s ability to give voice to their vulnerabilities and the challenges they face and thus to reinforce assumptions of male hegemony.

Being a freshie is (not) cool: stigma, capital and disgust in British Pakistani stereotypes of new subcontinental migrants

ABSTRACT Intra-ethnic discrimination, in the form of stereotyping of recent migrants by settled ethnic minorities, has been interpreted as internalized racism, displacing stigma and negotiation of local hierarchies of belonging. Stereotypes of ‘Fresh off the Boat’ migrants construct cultural boundaries and assertions of belonging, offering clues to processes of identity-making where ethnicity is complicated by ongoing migration. In British Pakistani portrayals of ‘freshies’, this assertion of difference coexists with familial ties and a high incidence of transnational marriage. Analysis of the figure of the ‘freshie’ in internet comedy videos, combined with qualitative research material, provides insight into dynamics of cultural and social capital, immigration and sexuality through manifestations of difference, similarity and disgust. Together these not only reveal the weakness of recent migrants’ positions in structures of socio-economic and symbolic power, but the blurring of social categories, and the continuing importance of transnational kinship in negotiations of identity amongst British Pakistanis.

Conceptualising integration: a framework for empirical research, taking marriage migration as a case study

Enquiry into the factors which impact on ‘integration’ requires clarity on the nature of the integration processes in which individuals are engaged, the intersection of those processes and the factors that may affect their operation over time. Elaborating on debates among European scholars which conceptualise integration as a series of multi-directional, inter-active processes in related but separate domains, we use the term ‘effectors’ to explore five sets of factors which have been shown to facilitate or impede those processes, setting out a framework capable of empirical and comparative application. We demonstrate the utility of this model in a case study funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (2013–2015) exploring the impact of transnational marriages in the UK, illustrating the conceptual and empirical value of the model when investigating the complexity of the factors involved in shaping the outcomes of integration processes. The model is illustrated in diagrammatic form. The case study in turn informs the model, highlighting the relevance of family and life-course events within an understanding of the full range of factors impacting on the integration processes in which individuals are engaged.