Migration Regimes and Policy Implications

Abstract

This chapter will attempt to analyse the effect of policy on how and why marriage migration takes place. Many policies relating to cross-border marriage migration have the objectives of controlling flows of migrants and channelling and shaping migration according to the norms of the country of settlement. I will begin my discussion, however, by considering the impact of policy in the countries of origin and on how they promote or constrain marriage migration. Following that, will look more closely at policy in the countries of settlement — which has been far more heavily researched. My focus will be on identifying the underpinnings of policy and I will look in detail at how conceptions of citizenship impact on the lived experience of marriage migrants. A common theme in work on marriage migration is how policies act to restrict the agency of migrants even while policy-makers may have the publicly stated aim of protecting migrants from those wishing to take advantage of them — be they smugglers and traffickers or unscrupulous family members. This chapter attempts to provide an overview of how policy impacts upon marriage migrants both positively and negatively.