Transnational divorce and remarriage between Pakistan and Britain: Intersectionality, harmful immigration rules and internal racism

This paper examines marital instabilities in the transnational social field connecting Pakistan and Britain, distinguishing between first marriages and remarriages. In British Pakistani families, national statistics show transnational marriage to be the dominant practice, although there is significant differentiation in its popularity. I show that in their remarriages, participants re-evaluate the merits of transnational marriage, based on their experience of their unsuccessful first marriage. Despite considerable ambivalence towards cross-border marriage, remarriage continues to be a channel for marriage migration because British nationality, citizenship and permanent settlement status can raise a participant’s marital capital in a transnational social field, mitigating the devalued identity associated with divorce. Overall, the material raises concerns about internal racial discrimination and the harmful immigration policies that enable and support such processes. I show the necessity of adopting a combined intersectional and transnational approach to the study of transnational divorce.