Gender, Conflict and Subordination within the Household: Turkish Migrant Marriage and Divorce in Denmark

ISSN： 1469-9451

Source： Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol.38, Iss.7, 2012-08, pp. : 1119-1136

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Abstract

The European-raised children of Turkish immigrants often marry spouses from their parents' home country. This article investigates the interplay between gender and residency when such transnational couples develop the culture of their newly formed households. While migration scholars state that such household culture is constructed as a ‘bricolage’ of elements from both the country of cultural origin and the present host country, they pay little attention to the influence of both gender and power on this process. Drawing on a body of life-story interviews, the article compares the narratives of one male and one female marriage migrant to Denmark, both of whose marriages ended in divorce. Life in these households, as well as their processes of dissolution, shows how Danish residency may empower the European spouse, regardless of gender. Although ethnic minority women raised in Europe may seek to use this power to shape their household culture into a more gender-equal ‘bricolage’, they may remain embedded within the broader patriarchal structures of the immigrant community.