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Marital Power and the Law

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Abstract

This chapter discusses the power relations between the spouses. Although transnational marriage can be connected to a range of intersecting power-related issues, such as the division of labour during the marriage, access to divorce and dependent residence status, little is known about the power relations in transnational marriages or their impact on divorce. In this chapter, I will provide a theoretical framework and focus on two power-related issues: the division of labour in marriage and domestic violence. As we will see, these two issues are of great importance for power relations in transnational marriages, due to shifts in gender roles related to migration, and state interventions through migration law.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The interviewee uses the Dutch word ‘man’, a word which means both adult male and husband.

  2. 2.

    Korvorst and Traag (2010). In 2009, 57 % of couples had two employed partners. However, only in 20 % of these couples, both partners worked full-time, and in over 80 % it was the husband who had a highest income. (CBS, see: http://www.cbs.nl/nl-NL/menu/themas/inkomen-bestedingen/publicaties/artikelen/archief/ 2011/2011-3291-wm.htm, accessed on 22 July 2013).

  3. 3.

    I suspect the interviewee refers to the social security procedures for illness he started after being expelled from the Netherlands.

  4. 4.

    With 4.9 % of employees in geriatric care being male and 3.4 % in child care in 2006 (van der Velde et al. 2009: p. 8-13).

  5. 5.

    This meant that, for example, when initially approaching NGOs or lawyers for potential respondents in the first phase of my fieldwork I also asked them not to include cases of domestic violence. However, after the first four interviews all contained at least some reference to domestic violence, I changed my approach and no longer mentioned domestic violence as an issue to exclude when looking for research participants.

  6. 6.

    Unfortunately I have not been able to access the full report, but a summary can be found on the Women Living Under Muslim Law website http://www.wluml.org/fr/node/6113, accessed 13 May 2013.

  7. 7.

    There were more reasons to suspect underreporting, for example, that no Dutch-Moroccans over 50 reported any domestic violence (van Dijk and Oppenhuis 2002: p. 9, p. 21-24).

  8. 8.

    For men in both cases 1 %.

  9. 9.

    A few lawyers I interviewed for this research also mentioned that if there had been violence in the marriage they generally advised mothers not to mention this fact in court unless they had proof, such as a criminal conviction of the father.

  10. 10.

    When quoting from his former wife’s notes, René uses English instead of Dutch.

  11. 11.

    As their marriage had not lasted long enough to grant him independent residence and because there was no contact arrangement, he could not claim residence on the ground of the presence of his child in the Netherlands.

  12. 12.

    Quotation marks gesticulated by interviewee.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lichtenberg-Kolleg Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Göttingen, Geismar Landstraße, Göttingen, Germany

    Iris Sportel

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Sportel, I. (2016). Marital Power and the Law. In: Divorce in Transnational Families. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-34009-8_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-34009-8_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-34008-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-34009-8

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