Posted on 25 October 2013
Marriage between couples of different nationalities can act as an arena for banal nationalism according to new research.
When multinational couples have disagreements, the conflict gets supplanted onto cultural differences with the antagonists transformed into the embodiment of their nationalities.
“People negotiate symbols, various domestic values which go un-flagged, unnoticed every day but on which individuals make assumptions – this is their culture it is not mine,” says Irina Isaakyan Marie Curie Fellow with the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies. “It is one thing is to experience conflict with your husband or your mother-in-law in your own culture, but it doesn’t lead you to think ‘they are a different culture’.”
According to Isaakyan the banal role of nationalism causes certain disputes to become more entrenched than in a marriage where both partners are from the same country. Once each side has laid out their position they are less willing to negotiate because it would be seen as compromising their national values, regardless of any potential validity of their spouse’s argument.
“When the person understands that what they are doing is not quite right, but they can’t go against it, that is nationalism.”
In her work, Isaakyan looks specifically at the phenomena of Anglophone women moving to Italy and Greece. In cross border marriage there are fewer mechanisms to cope with the false expectations relating to, or because of, cultural difference, language barriers, and distance from previous support networks.
Such preparedness may be especially difficult for American and British women to attain, who have an expectation of a certain prevalence of their own culture in the host nation, which is not expected by migrants who move in the other direction.
The comparative strength of women’s rights in the host and origin countries can also affect integration, with it being easier to adapt to a country with a tradition of greater gender equality than less. While certain aspects of a traditional culture appear appealing from the outside many are not prepared for unforeseen implications of the associated patriarchy.
“I wanted to explore migration, and highly skilled migrants, but in a different way. In what context do highly skilled women remain highly skilled migrants. We were expecting the women who travel to have good careers, they were highly educated.
“What we found is that they travel for marriage, and they cease to be pragmatic actors and live a new lifestyle is often not supportive of their career development. We had a women with a Harvard Law Degree working in the family chicken business.”
Isaakyan’s research is on-going; if you would like to participate in the study an online survey can be found here.