Invisible divides: Marriage & migration among high-skilled Syrians

Utilizing data from thirty-one in-depth interviews collected over two and a half months, this paper examines marriage choices made by transnational migrants who left Syria as adults and later returned to the homeland to enter the labor market. The literature on international marriage traditionally focuses on migrant settlers, conceiving marriage as an event that occurs following international migration from peripheral to core countries. Moreover, scholars of international marriages focus almost exclusively on marriage choices among low-skilled male migrants. This paper broadens the transnational marriage literature by focusing on the previously unexplored issue of marriage choices among high-skilled return male and especially female migrants whose initial intention to settle was flexibly determined.  Although the migrant men discussed in this chapter had opportunities to marry during the migration period, all married upon return.   By examining the marriage decisions of high-skilled women and men in their homeland, this paper illuminates the cultural logics of a burgeoning sub-class within the Syrian upper class.  I show how the nexus of marriage and migration is linked to larger questions about national identity, cultural maintenance, and gender ideologies across time. I argue that for Syrian men, academic credentialing in the West vastly increases their marriage options, both within Syria and on the international marriage market. Whereas for returning women, their Western degrees became a mark of cultural deviance, decreasing their marriageability in a manner distinct from the previously researched effects of earning an advanced degree.  This paper expands our understanding of global masculinities, marital selection, transnationalism, and migration.