Interacting Legal Norms and Cross-Border Divorce: Stories of Filipino Migrant Women in the Netherlands

Authors

  • Asuncion Fresnoza-Flot Laboratory of Anthropology of Contemporary Worlds (LAMC), Institute of Sociology, Université libre de Bruxelles

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.59670/ml.v16i4.669

Keywords:

measuring religiosity, conceptual approaches, refugees

Abstract

The Philippines is one of only two states in the world in which absolute divorce remains largely impossible. Through its family laws, it regulates the marriage, family life and conjugal separation of its citizens, including its migrants abroad. To find out how these family laws interact with those in the receiving country of Filipino migrants and shape their lives, the present paper examines the case of Filipino women who experienced or are undergoing divorce in the Netherlands. Drawing from semi-structured interviews and an analysis of selected divorce stories, it unveils the intertwined institutions of marriage and of divorce, the constraints but also possibilities that interacting legal norms bring in the life of Filipino women, and the way these migrants navigate such norms within their transnational social spaces. These findings contribute interesting insights into cross-border divorces in the present age of global migration.

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Author Biography

Asuncion Fresnoza-Flot, Laboratory of Anthropology of Contemporary Worlds (LAMC), Institute of Sociology, Université libre de Bruxelles

Asuncion Fresnoza-Flot is a permanent research associate of the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (FRS-FNRS) and senior lecturer (maître d’enseignement) at the Laboratory of Anthropology of Contemporary Worlds (LAMC) of the Université libre de Bruxelles (Belgium). Her on-going research examines the contextual mobility of Belgian-Asian couples, a research programme supported by the FRS-FNRS and by a “Concerted Research Action (ARC) Consolidation” grant from the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. Her recent publications include the edited Special Issue “Transnational perspectives on intersecting experiences: gender, social class and generation among Southeast Asian migrants and their families” (with Kyoko Shinozaki, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 2017) and the edited volume International marriages and marital citizenship. Southeast Asian women on the move (with Gwénola Ricordeau, Routledge 2017).

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Published

2019-09-30

How to Cite

Fresnoza-Flot, A. (2019). Interacting Legal Norms and Cross-Border Divorce: Stories of Filipino Migrant Women in the Netherlands. Migration Letters, 16(4), 521–529. https://doi.org/10.59670/ml.v16i4.669