Abstract
This chapter examines the gendered implications of family reunification policy for transnational couples in the Netherlands, who are not often the focus of policy discussions and assistance. Contemporary migration literature on reunification highlights sponsors’ decision-making at the expense of their family members whose reunification motives remain unexplored. This omission contributes to the tendency for research and official policy discourses to frame transnational marriage as a strategic vehicle furthering undesirable migration in the eyes of the destination nation-state. This exploratory analysis of migrants in the Netherlands in transnational marriages suggests that for relatively recent migrant groups, reunification with a partner or spouse may be challenging to varying degrees with respect to Angolan as opposed to Nigerian migrants. Given their specific historical background and degree of intersection of insecure legal status and income, Nigerians as economic migrants may fall far short of the conditions for reunification relative to many Angolans who originally had refugee status. The chapter calls for studies that adopt an intersectional and transnational family life cycle perspective to understand the gendered family reunification experiences of sponsors and their stay-behind spouses.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
See Mazzucato et al. (2015) for sampling strategy.
- 2.
Data on administrative practice is in general limited, and the TCRA dataset does not identify how the interpretation and implementation of policy by street-level officials shapes the reunification process.
References
Beauchemin, C., Nappa, J., Schoumaker, B., Baizan, P., González-Ferrer, A., Caarls, K., & Mazzucato, V. (2015). Reunifying versus living apart together across borders: A comparative analysis of Sub-Saharan migration to Europe. International Migration Review, 49(1), 173–199. https://doi.org/10.1111/imre.12155
Bijwaard, G., & van Doeselaar, S. (2014). The impact of changes in the marital status of return migration of family migrants. Journal of Population Economics, 27, 961–997. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-013-0495-3
Bledsoe, C., & Sow, P. (2008). Family reunification ideals and the practice of transnational reproductive life among Africans in Europe (Max Plank Institute of Demographic Research Working Paper WP-2008). https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822393948-017
Bonizzoni, P. (2014). Immigrant working mothers reconciling work and childcare: The experience of Latin American and Eastern European women in Milan. Social Politics, 21(2), 194–217. https://doi.org/10.1093/sp/jxu008
Bonjour, S., & De Hart, B. (2013). A proper wife, a proper marriage: Constructions of ‘us’ and ‘them’ in Dutch family migration policy. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 20(1), 61–76. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350506812456459
Boyd, M., & Grieco, E. (2003). Women and migration: Incorporating gender into international migration theory. Migration Information Source, 1(35), 28.
Bryceson, D. F. (2019). Transnational families negotiating migration and care life cycles across nation-state borders. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 45(16), 3042–3064. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2018.1547017
Burek, W. (2016). Family reunification regulations and women: The perspective of international law. Polish Yearbook of International Law, 36, 83–108. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3025867
CBS, Netherlands Central Bureau of Statistics. (2010). Statline. https://opendata.cbs.nl/statline. Accessed 15 Sept 2020.
Charsley, K., & Benson, M. (2012). Marriages of convenience, and inconvenient marriages: Regulating spousal migration to Britain. Journal of Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Law, 26(1), 10–26. http://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/9205
Charsley, K., & Bolognani, M. (2019). Marrying ‘in’/marrying ‘out’? Blurred boundaries in British Pakistani marriage choices. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2019.1625131
Charsley, K., & Liversage, A. (2013). Transforming polygamy: Migration, transnationalism and multiple marriages among Muslim minorities. Global Networks, 13(1), 60–78. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-0374.2012.00369.x
Chereni, A. (2014). The more things change the more they stay the same: Decision-making in Zimbabwean transnational families. Migration Letters, 11(3), 341–352.
Cleton, L., Seiffert, L., & Wörmann, H. (2017). Gezinshereniging van derdelanders in Nederland (Family reunification of third-country nationals in the Netherlands). Immigration and Naturalisation Service & Dutch national contact point for the European Migration Network.
Cole, J. (2014). Working mis/understandings: The tangled relationship between kinship, Franco-Malagasy binational marriages, and the French state. Cultural Anthropology, 29(3), 527–551. https://doi.org/10.14506/ca29.3.05
Cortes, R. (2008). Children and Women Left Behind in labour sending countries: an appraisal of social risks. United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Policy, Advocacy and Knowledge Management Section, Division of Policy and Practice.
De Haas, H., & Van Rooij, A. (2010). Migration as emancipation? The impact of internal and international migration on the position of women left behind in rural Morocco. Oxford Development Studies, 38(1), 43–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600810903551603
Della Puppa, F. (2018). Ambivalences of the emotional logics of migration and family reunification: emotions, experiences and aspirations of Bangladeshi husbands and wives in Italy. Identities, 25(3), 358–375. https://doi.org/10.1080/1070289X.2016.1238381
Della Puppa, F. (2019). Bodies at work, work on bodies: Migrant bodies, wage labour, and family reunification in Italy. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 20, 963–981. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-018-00644-x
Desai, S., & Banerji, M. (2008). Negotiated identities: Male migration and left-behind wives in India. Journal of Population Research, 25(3), 337–355. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03033894
Erez, E. (2011). Migration/immigration, domestic violence and the justice system. International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice, 26(2), 277–299. https://doi.org/10.1080/01924036.2002.9678692
European Migration Network. (2017). Family reunification of third-country nationals in the EU plus Norway: National Practices. European Commission.
Fernández, N. T. (2019). Tourist brides and migrant grooms: Cuban–Danish couples and family reunification policies. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 45(16), 3141–3156. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2018.1547025
Gallo, E., & Scrinzi, F. (2016). Migration. Palgrave Macmillan.
Gemmeke, A. (2013). West African migration to and through the Netherlands: Interactions with perceptions and policies. Urban Anthropology and Studies of Cultural Systems and World Economic Development, 57–94. Retrieved from June 24, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/24643099.
González-Ferrer, A. (2011). Spousal reunification among recent immigrants in Spain: Links with undocumented migration and the labour market. Gender, Generations and the Family in International Migration, 193–218. https://doi.org/10.1515/9789048513611-009
Graham, E., Jordan, L. P., Yeoh, B. S., Lam, T., Asis, M., & Su-Kamdi. (2012). Transnational families and the family nexus: perspectives of Indonesian and Filipino children left behind by migrant parent (s). Environment and Planning A, 44(4), 793–814. https://doi.org/10.1068/a4445
Grillo, R., & Mazzucato, V. (2008). Africa<> Europe: A double engagement. Journal of ethnic and migration studies, 34(2), 175–198. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691830701823830
Haagsman, K. (2018). Do transnational child-raising arrangements affect job outcomes of migrant parents? Comparing Angolan parents in transnational and non-transnational families in the Netherlands. Journal of Family Issues, 39(6), 1498–1522. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X17710773
Hoang, L., & Yeoh, B. (2011). Breadwinning wives and “left behind” husbands: Men and masculinities in the Vietnamese transnational family. Gender & Society, 25(6), 717–739. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243211430636
Joppke, C. (2007). Beyond national models: Civic integration policies for immigrants in Western Europe. West European Politics, 30(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402380601019613
Khoudja, Y., & Platt, L. (2018). Labour market entries and exits of women from different origin countries in the UK. Social Science Research, 69, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2017.10.003
Kofman, E. (2004). Family-related migration: a critical review of European Studies. Journal of Ethnic and Migration studies, 30(2), 243–262. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183042000200687
Kofman, E., & Sales, R. (1997). Gender differences and family reunion in the European Union: implications for refugees. Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees, 16(4), 26–30. https://doi.org/10.25071/1920-7336.21932
Kontos, M. (2013). Negotiating the social citizenship rights of migrant domestic workers: The right to family reunification and a family life in policies and debates. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 39(3), 409–424. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2013.733861
Kraler, A., & Bonizzoni, P. (2010). Gender, civic stratification and the right to family life: Problematising immigrants’ integration in the EU. International Review of Sociology, 20(1), 181–187. https://doi.org/10.1080/03906700903525792
Lorber, J. (2000). Using gender to undo gender: A feminist degendering movement. Feminist Theory, 1(1), 79–95. https://doi.org/10.1177/14647000022229074
Lyberaki, A. (2011). Migrant women, care work, and women’s employment in Greece. Feminist economics, 17(3), 103–131. https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2011.583201
Mazzucato, V. , Dito, B. D., & Haagsman, K. (2015). Codebook: Transnational child raising arrangements between Africa and Europe Parent dataset (TCRAf-Eu & TCRA-Ghana). Version 18/11/2015. Maastricht University: Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. http://fasos-research.nl/tcra/tcraf-eu/.
Moskal, M. (2011). Transnationalism and the role of family and children in intra-European labour migration. European Societies, 13(1), 29–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2010.497225
Parreñas, R. (2005). Long distance intimacy: class, gender and intergenerational relations between mothers and children in Filipino transnational families. Global Networks, 5(4), 317–336. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-0374.2005.00122.x
Pellander, S. (2019). Buy me love: entanglements of citizenship, income and emotions in regulating marriage migration. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2019.1625141
Peng, Y., & Wong, O. M. (2013). Diversified transnational mothering via telecommunication: Intensive, collaborative, and passive. Gender & Society, 27(4), 491–513. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243212473197
Poeze, M., & Mazzucato, V. (2016). Transnational mothers and the law: Ghanaian women’s pathways to family reunion and consequences for family life. In Family life in an age of migration and mobility (pp. 187–211). Palgrave Macmillan.
Raghuram, P. (2004). The difference that skills make: gender, family migration strategies and regulated labour markets. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 30(2), 303–321. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183042000200713
Rai, S. M., Hoskyns, C., & Thomas, D. (2013). Depletion: The cost of social reproduction. International Feminist Journal of Politics, 16(1), 86–105. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616742.2013.789641
Riaño, Y. (2011). “He’s the Swiss citizen, I’m the foreign spouse”: Binational marriages and the impact of family-related migration policies on gender relations. Gender, Generations and the Family in International Migration, 265–283. https://doi.org/10.1515/9789048513611-012
Ruffer, G. B. (2011). Pushed beyond recognition? The liberality of family reunification policies in the EU. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 37(6), 935–951. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2011.576196
Sargent, C. F., & Larchanché-Kim, S. (2006). Liminal lives: immigration status, gender, and the construction of identities among Malian migrants in Paris. American Behavioural Scientist, 50(1), 9–26. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764206289652
Scheel, S., & Gutekunst, M. (2019). Studying marriage migration to Europe from below: informal practices of government, border struggles and multiple entanglements. Gender, Place & Culture, 26(6), 847–867. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2018.1489375
Schweitzer, R. (2015). A stratified right to family life? On the logic(s) and legitimacy of granting differential access to family reunification for third-country nationals living within the EU. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 41(13), 2130–2148. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183x.2015.1037256
Strasser, E., Kraler, A., Bonjour, S., & Bilger, V. (2009). Doing family: Responses to the constructions of ‘the migrant family’ across Europe. The History of the Family, 14(2), 165–176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hisfam.2009.02.005
The Netherlands Government (IND). (2019, December 10). Welke documenten voor vreemdelingen zijn er in Nederland? (What documents are there for foreigners in the Netherlands?) Retrieved September 16, 2020, from https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/buitenlandse-werknemers/vraag-en-antwoord/document-vreemdeling.
Van Wijk, J. (2010). Luanda–Holanda: Irregular migration from Angola to the Netherlands. International Migration, 48(2), 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2435.2008.00485.x
White, A., Dito, B. B., Veale, A., & Mazzucato, V. (2019). Transnational migration, health and well-being: Nigerian parents in Ireland and the Netherlands. Comparative Migration Studies, 7(1), 44. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-019-0147-1
Yerby, J. (1995). Family systems theory reconsidered: Integrating social construction theory and dialectical process. Communication Theory, 5(4), 339–365. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.1995.tb00114.x
Zontini, E. (2010). Transnational families, migration and gender: Moroccan and Filipino women in Bologna and Barcelona (Vol. 30). Berghahn Books.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Dito, B.B., Vanore, M. (2023). Gendered Dimensions of African Transnational Couples’ Reunification in the Netherlands. In: Cienfuegos, J., Brandhorst, R., Fahy Bryceson, D. (eds) Handbook of Transnational Families Around the World . Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15278-8_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15278-8_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-15277-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-15278-8
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)