Conclusion and a Proposed Research Agenda

Abstract

In this final chapter, I will round up my argument and propose four themes that have come out of this study. First, I argue for the value of analysis of the balance of structure and agency in the lives of cross-border marriage migrants. Such an analysis reveals how the lives of many migrants are constrained by the structures of society, culture, family, gender roles and policy but emphasises that within those structures there remains space for individual agency. Second, comparing marriage migration globally is an important, if complex, task but one that places marriage migration within the human context of a search for love, companionship, family life and intimacy which can be lost when marriages in distinct communities or parts of the world are studied in isolation. Third, I argue that this study has implications for the study of transnationalism as it has placed marriage at the heart of transnational communities and networks and shown how marriage can play a role in all stages of transnational projects — from the first connections between communities to the maintenance of closely interwoven networks based on kinship or cultural commonality. Finally, this study has important implications for the study of gender — on gender roles and on how gendered assumptions affect the processes of migration. I have argued that attitudes to migrants and marriage migration across the globe are generally negative and that these attitudes are highly gendered and have undermined the capacity of women migrants to act as autonomous agents even when policy has been enacted ostensibly to promote their rights.