Writer
Postdoctoral research fellow, University of Amsterdam
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Apostolos Andrikopoulos can not work for, consult, own stocks in or get financing from any organization or organization that could reap the benefits of this informative article, and it has disclosed no appropriate affiliations beyond their educational visit.
Lovers
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“how come you need to marry a Nigerian?”, a visa officer at a European embassy in Nigeria asked Helen while her partner had been interviewed in a nearby space. “I’m asking this more as a dad than an officer,” the man added.
“Because I like him,” Helen answered.
Marriages with non-European nationals, such as compared to Helen along with her Nigerian partner, tend to be suspected of being “sham” and put through controls that are strict. For immigration authorities, a “sham wedding” or even a “marriage of convenience” is one that’s contracted because of the reason for allowing the migrant partner to get a visa or even a residence permit.
The officer appeared to accept that Helen and her partner had been in a relationship and planned to obtain hitched. But he had been still doubting the motives of her Nigerian partner. “Do you see that?” he asked Helen, pointing together with his little finger up to a building opposite the embassy. “Yes, i really do,” she responded.
Well, A nigerian guy is effective at attempting to sell you this building today and tomorrow you recognise that the building never really existed.
A weeks that are few, Helen along with her partner received the news headlines that their visa demand was in fact refused. The main reason given was there have been doubts about whether or not the wedding motives associated with the Nigerian man were “genuine”.
This tale had been recounted for me by Helen while I became research that is conducting the problem associated with the role marriages play in gaining entry to countries in europe. Within the last years many have begun investigating marriages involving spouses that are foreign. Limitations and settings to marriage migration, that may end up in maintaining the partners aside, in many cases are justified as necessary measures to safeguard ladies from bad marriages. The reason why provided is the fact that they have been “sham”, “forced“arranged” or”.
Such claims offer legitimacy to countries that are european intervene into the intimate life of partners. Immigration authorities deter all but that is“love-based. In this context, love becomes something for migration control as well as for protecting the career of married ladies (as seen by these authorities).
The differentiation between “sham” and “genuine” marriage is founded on the presumption that motives of love and interest are split from one another. In a present article we argue that this dichotomy is simplistic and deceptive. We question the basic proven fact that love is through standard best for females, specially when love is recognized as unrelated to interest.
The content is dependant on ethnographic fieldwork i did so during the period of per year when you look at the Netherlands, Greece and Ghana regarding the marriages of West migrants that are african European females. The fieldwork included interviews with partners, lawyers and immigration officers.
Sham versus genuine
We challenge an assumption that is fundamental the debate on “sham” versus “genuine”, which can be that love and interest are mutually exclusive. Evidence implies they may not be.
As my studies have shown, marriages between African and European nationals are inspired both by interest (documents, cash) and emotions (love, care, intimate satisfaction). The entanglement of intimate emotions with product gains will not make these marriages 
distinct from the people of non-migrant partners. To the contrary, we argue they are quite similar.
Think, as an example, of partners whom formalised their relationship for reasons such as for example income tax purposes, inheritance and social safety. Feminist and kinship scholars have remarked that marriage constantly involves exchanges of numerous resources and solutions between partners – sometimes clearly, sometimes maybe perhaps perhaps not. Included in these are care, economic protection, love, sex and work that is domestic.
An additional element is the fact that norms of love differ for men and ladies. The expectation to show love for household through self-sacrifice is more typical for females compared to males.
The paradox
Immigration policies are made regarding the presumption that love cannot co-exist with change. Countries in europe justify determining against cross-broder marriages from the grounds that the ideal is being used by them of like to protect females. But right here lies the paradox: this ideal might deprive females of the bargaining energy in wedding and their search for recognition in a relationship.
The dichotomies of love and interest and of “sham” versus “genuine” marriage are not only inaccurate and misleading for this reason. They’re also possibly disempowering, especially for feminine partners.