Foreign spouses in Germany: Fraud and Abuse in Transnational Marriages (?)

My doctoral project is dedicated to bi-national couples and female marriage migration from economically weaker non-EU countries in Germany. My interest in this topic lies within the domain of victimization-agency dilemma, links to sex tourism and marriage migration control from the state. Co-operating with several NGOs for migrants and adopting an ethnographic approach, in the framework of my fieldwork I am collecting life stories of foreign spouses in Hamburg. Critically analyzing the term of “mail-order bride” and giving voice to the informants focusing on their own experiences and perceptions of cross-national relationships, my study intends to bridge the gap between the radical feminist and libertarian discourses on transnational marriages.