1887
Volume 2015, Issue 1
  • EISSN: 2309-3927

Abstract

Egyptian communities are increasing in Europe, and Italy is the first European country targeted by a number of Egyptians. While other Arab countries (i.e. Morocco) are experiencing a progressive “feminization of migration”, Egyptian migration remains a male-dominated phenomenon. One of the main issues around the big presence of young Egyptian single men in Italy is that of transnational marriages, which migrants engage in with women from their original villages.

In this paper I focus on the families that are created through what I call “marriage with an absentee”, investigating the value of transnational marriages both for migrants and for Egyptian women who marry men who are working abroad. I describe those marriages in their organizational aspects—entering into the details of the rituals of the engagement and of the marriage. I also discuss some of the consequences of this practice. I.e., on one hand the creation of a transnational family (characterized by the new bride staying in Egypt), and on the other hand the woman's prospect of international mobility, which can be achieved only through family reunification.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.5339/difi.2015.6
2015-10-15
2024-10-04
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/difi/2015/1/difi.2015.6.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.5339/difi.2015.6&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Abdelaal D. Gender Dimension of Internal and International Migration in Egypt. Cairo: IOM 2011.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Ahmed YM. The New York Egyptians: Voyages and Dreams. Cairo: American University of Cairo Press 2010.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Ambrosini M, Schellenbaum P. La comunità sommersa: Un'indagine sull'immigrazione egiziana a Milano. Quaderni Ismu, 3 . Milan: Ismu 1994.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Amin GA, Awny E. International Migration of Egyptian Labour: A Review of the State of Art. Ottawa: International Development Research Centre 1985.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Binzel C, e Assaad R. Egyptian men working abroad: Labor supply responses by the women left behind. discussion paper n. 5589. Bonn: Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) 2011.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Bourdieu P. Esquisse d'une Théorie de la Pratique. Paris: Seuil 1972.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Brink J. The effect of emigration of husbands on the status of their wives: An Egyptian case. International Journal of Middle East Studies. 1991; 23:2:201211.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Campo JE. The Other Sides of Paradise: Explorations Into the Religious Meanings Of Domestic Space in Islam. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press 1991.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. De Haas H, Fokkema T. Intra-household conflicts in migration decision-making: Return and pendulum migration in Morocco. Population and Development Review. 2010; 36:3:541561.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Delaney C. The Seed and the Soil: Gender and Cosmology in Turkish Village Society. Berkeley: University of California Press 1991.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Eickelman DF. The Middle East: An anthropological Approach. 2nd ed. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall 2001.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. El-Azhari Sonbol A. Women, the Family and Divorce Laws in Islamic History. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press 1996.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Ferrero L (f. c.). Egyptian women by their own abroad: forms of autonomous life in Italy. In: Prager L, ed. Beyond the Patriarchal Family: Forms of uxori/matrilocality and matrifocality in Muslim societies. Past and Present. London: IB Tauris.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Ferrero L. “Generi, generazioni e famiglie in movimento tra le due sponde” (Gender, generations and families on the move between the Mediterranean shores). In: Cingolani PRicucci R, eds. Trasmediterranei: Generazioni a confronto tra Italia e Nord Africa (Trasmediterranei: Generational Contrast Between Italy and North Africa). Turin: Academia University Press 2014;:3655.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Fog Olwig K. A wedding in the family: home making in a global kin network. Global Networks. 2002; 2:3:205218.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Hoerder D. Cultures in contact: World migration in the second millennium. Durham: Duke University Press 2002.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Hoodfar H. Between marriage and the market: Intimate politics and survival in Cairo. Berkeley: University of California Press 1997.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Kaser K. Patriarchy after Patriarchy: Gender Relations in Turkey and in the Balkans, 1500-2000. Berlin: LIT 2008.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Khadr Z, El-Zeini LO. Family and households: Headship and co-residence. New Arab Family: Cairo Papers in Social Sciences. 2003; 24:1-2:140164.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Kraler A, Kofman E, Kohli M, Schmoll C. Gender, generations and the family in international migration. IMISCOE Research Series. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2011.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Lacoste-Dujardin C. Yasmina et les autres de Nanterre et d'ailleurs: filles de parents maghrebins en France. Paris: La Decouverte 1992.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Lievens J. Family-forming Migration from Turkey and Morocco to Belgium: The demand for marriage partners from the countries of origin. International Migration Review. 1999; 33:3:717744.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Marcus GE. Ethnography in/of world system: The emergence of multisited ethnography. Annual Review of Anthropology. 1995; 24::95117.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Peleikis A. Lebanese in Motion: Gender and the Making of a Translocal Village. Bielefeld: Transcript 2003.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Saad R. Egyptian workers in Paris: Economic migration and the male burden under transnationalism. Kvinder, Kon and Forskning. 2007; 2-3::1024.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Salih R. Gender in Transnationalism: Home, Longing and Belonging Among Moroccan Migrant Women. New York: Routledge 2003.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Schmoll C , Muslim women and the negotiation of autonomous migration: The case of female migrants from the Maghreb region in Italy. Paper, presentato alla conferenza Mediterranean Social and Political Research Meeting, Florence and Montecatini Terme, 21–25 March 2007;.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Singerman D. Avenues of Participation: Family, Politics, and Networks in Urban Quarters of Cairo. Princeton: Princeton University Press 1995.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Singerman D, Ibrahim B. The cost of marriage in Egypt: a hidden dimension in the new Arab demography, in Hopkins, N., (ed.). The New Arab Family: Cairo Papers in Social Sciences. 2003; 24:1-2:80116.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Uthman M. The Laws of Marriage in Islam. London: Dar Al Taqwa 1995.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Weyland P. Inside the Third World Village. London: Routledge 1993.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Zohry A , Migration and the left behind families: Findings from Rural Egypt. Paper, presentato alla conferenza Gendering Migration in the Middle East: Migrants’ Presence and Absence, Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS), Copenhagen, 4 May 2006;.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Zohry A. The migratory patterns of Egyptians in Italy and France. CARIM Research reports 2009/17, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies. San Domenico di Fiesole: European University Institute 2009.
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.5339/difi.2015.6
Loading
/content/journals/10.5339/difi.2015.6
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Research Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error