engleski

Transnational Roma Marriage Migration: Challenges and Opportunities

A number of studies argue that marriage migration (migration for the purposes of, or following marriage) invokes numerous anxieties, strategies and ambitions and may therefore be seen as potentially problematic and controversial. More positively, past research has shown that migration can be an emancipatory experience and may be celebrated as a form of agency as women’s marriage migration may be the most efficient and socially accepted means available to disadvantaged women to achieve a measure of social and economic mobility. Conversely, marriage migration may also be an experience of disempowerment because in- marrying wives once in their new environment are often unfamiliar with local customs and family traditions and frequently experience language barriers. Overall, Roma marriage migration in both intra and transnational contexts has been largely neglected as a research theme. This paper offers a preliminary study, based on information from Roma NGO representatives and public officials in Croatia, which attempts to narrow this gap in the literature. We are particularly interested in how Roma NGOs understand the situation of early marriage migration/arranged marriages and give some examples of their advocacy in the area of children’s/women’s rights. Using an intersectionality lens, this study maps out the various circumstances in which Roma women and migration fuse together as entangled trajectories producing situations of vulnerability (and possibly of opportunities). Specifically, this paper explores how ethnicity, gender, age, class, legal status and their intersections are associated with vulnerabilities. In order to examine the multiplicity of factors shaping Roma women’s experience as migrants to Croatia, this article discusses some of the challenges and opportunities that they face in Croatia. This study shows that there is a need for further empirical research on the intersection of marriage and migration from an ethnic/gender/age/class perspective to show how discrimination is multiplied.

arranged marriage, migration, Roma, vulnerabilities

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