Stories of conflict: Ethnicity, social class, and difference in transnational divorce narratives

Abstract

Based on a study of transnational divorce in Dutch–Moroccan and Dutch–Egyptian families, this paper will analyse the role of ethnicity, social class and difference in transnational divorce narratives. It will show how public narratives on marriage migration, fraudulent marriages and cultural difference influence the stories people tell about their marriage and subsequent divorce and how they make sense of their experiences. These public narratives are not limited to a national context but move across borders, circulating in transnational social fields. By studying at both intra-ethnic and inter-ethnic relationships, this paper also aims to further complicate notions of ethnicity in transnational relationships. By studying these two categories of transnational marriage together, it becomes clear how ethnicity intersects with other social inequalities such as social class as well as how differences ascribed to regional origin can produce ethnic differences even within inter-ethnic marriages.