Marriage Migration and State Interests: Reflections from the Experiences of Marriage Migrants from the People’s Republic of China in Taiwan

Abstract

This paper, by building on the empirical case of marriage migration across the Taiwan Strait, problematises the consequences, on migrants’ lives, of state-to-state relations, especially when sending and receiving states hold antagonistic nationalistic interests. This paper aims to contribute to the empirical literature on marriage migration, particularly in the East Asian context, by adding the dimension of state to state relations in shaping contemporary movements for family formation. Furthermore, this paper contributes to the broader debate on transnational migration studies by arguing that the power of the nation-state over contemporary migration flows is not fixed and immutable, but it is rather a dynamic force that changes depending on broader factors related not only to global restructuring but also to the relations between sending and receiving state. Ultimately, migrants may have a degree of agency in responding to sending and receiving country’s nationalistic agendas.