Transnational Marriage - One Debate: Should National Laws Discourage or Encourage Transnational Marriage?

One Debate: Should National Laws Discourage or Encourage Transnational Marriage?

Currently, it can be legally difficult to have a transnational marriage. There are many barriers, for example in Indonesia it can be very difficult for the married couple if the husband is not Indonesian. As a result of increasing transnational marriage, policy makers in various countries are starting to consider whether they should discourage or encourage transnational marriage.

The grounds given for discouraging transnational marriage are that:

• False marriages occur to gain citizenship or conduct human trafficking.
• The marriages are cross-cultural and thus children or spouses may not be as loyal or patriotic to the new country.
• There is a lack of assimilation and creation of ghettos if second and third generation immigrants are still marrying persons from the country of their ancestors.

The grounds given for encouraging transnational marriage are that:

• Transnational marriage reconnects extended families or even persons of similar backgrounds that are living all over the globe.
• It helps relations between countries by strengthening trade and contact, or in case of war, enables one country to know more about the other (case of Kibei or Japanese-Americans during WWII).
• People are increasingly marrying across national boundaries and harsh laws just tear families apart.