Introduction

In the context of more restrictive immigration policies across Europe and the Netherlands, in particular, marriage migration and more broadly family-related migration have become the most accessible and feasible mode to enter the Netherlands. Women married to a Dutch husband are actually by far the largest group of Thai immigrants in the Netherlands. Many traditional accounts of marriage migration have highlighted the economic disparity between poorer countries in the global South and rich, developed countries in the global North as the main stimulus driving brides from poorer countries to marry grooms in wealthier ones. This chapter deconstructs these simplistic and mechanistic notions. It demonstrates that economic motivations are constructed around imaginations about the affluent and modern European society and the high value Thai people assign to living overseas, and are thus deeply influenced by cultural ideas about marriage, migration and Europe. The popularity of tourism in Thailand, the advancement in communication technology, changed attitudes towards mixed marriage, fantasies about gender and sexuality and local constraints on marriage opportunities – combined with the women's social positions – all have a great impact in shaping marriage migration. This chapter also touches upon the immigration regulations of the Netherlands, which render intermarriage as a particular route for Thai immigration and generate a power imbalance among Thai-Dutch couples by making the women dependent on their Dutch spouse's support of their legal residency (see also Fleischer and Riaño this volume).