| Abstract: |
Marriage has not been, historically, a major reason for people to migrate across borders. Instead, most people migrate for economic reasons in search of land, a better job, or more opportunity. In recent decades, there has been increased international migration for family reasons to reunite with emigrant kin, to seek refuge from violence, to escape famine and natural disaster or simply to retire to a sunny paradise. Historically, if marriage was the reason to migrate, most unions would have occurred between migrants of the same nativity, strengthening family ties and reinforcing trans-national networks between countries of origin and destination. As we have seen in some migrant communities in Europe and America, often international migrants favor marriage with individuals from their country of origin. This is a common pattern of first and second generation Moroccans and Turks in Western Europe (Cottrell 1973; Cretser 1999; Lievens 1999; Glowsky 2007; Niedomysl et al. 2010), as it was a century ago with Italians, Greeks and many other ethnicities in the United States (McCaa 1993; McCaa et al. 2005). |
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