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Berlin Institute for Comparative Social Research Marriage Migration And Berlin Institute for Comparative Social Research Member of the European Migration Centre (EMZ) Marriage Migration and the Significance of this Migration Issue in Germany. Country Study. Mária Guličová – Grethe Project: Marriage as Immigration Gate: the Situation of Female Marriage Migrants from Third Countries in the EU Member States (HeiRat I) DAPHNE Programme – European Commission March 2004 Introduction In Germany, public discussion on immigration issues has revolved around a series of opposing key concepts: German versus foreign, temporary versus permanent, labour versus welfare migration. At least since the 1980s, anti-immigration feelings have been called upon during elections. The long history of predominant anti-immigration rhetoric has prevented general reforms and deepened mental obstacles to migration. At the same time, many changes in legal and administrative regulations have influenced the volume and composition of immigration substantially. The number of naturalisations in Germany has been rising steadily from 1994 onwards, with the majority of applicants coming from Turkey, Iran, the former Yugoslavia, Lebanon, Morocco, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, the Russian Federation, Vietnam and Bosnia-Herzegovina. However, the most frequent countries of origin of foreigners living in Germany in 2001 were Turkey, the former Yugoslavia, Italy, Greece, Poland, Croatia, Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Portugal, Spain, Great Britain, the US, Netherlands, France and Iran.1 This country study investigates the implications of the issue of marriage migration to Germany. In the first section of the study, the topic of marriage migration, the main tendencies in research, statistical data available, the role of various organisations and the main groups of migrants involved in some way in the migratory moves on the basis of bi-national marriage are introduced. The second section of this study presents an overview of the relevant legal acts pertaining to female marriage migrants, from the member states of the EU as well as from the third countries. State institutions and non-governmental organisations providing help to migrant women are described in the third part of the study, with a focus on their active interest in some aspect of marriage migration. Partner mediation and marriage arrangement agencies are briefly described in the fourth part, where the presentation of these agencies in the internet is depicted, and some details on their functioning are provided. A short analysis of various problems linked to prearranged marriages, forced marriages and the relevant efforts and problems of involved actors are illustrated in the fifth and concluding part of this country study on Germany. 1See Bericht der Beauftragten der Bundesregierung für Ausländerfragen über die Lage der Ausländer in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, September 2002, S. 389ff. 2 1. Marriage Migration in Germany The current legislation in Germany results in the fact that marriage with a German man is almost the only possibility to be granted legal residence status. On the basis of the marriage, women are subsequently granted a work permit. As some researchers maintain, there are different expectations with which these women and men decide to marry (women seek material and emotional security, men expect thankfulness, subordinate and undemanding women) support the establishment of physical and psychological violence and contribute to the breakdown of some bi- national marriages.2 In the research on marriage migration in Germany, two main currents can be identified. On the one side, the research project conceptualises the activities of the marriage arrangement agencies as a form of trading in marriages (since the benefits are can reach high numbers), assuming that marriage arrangement in many cases involves the trafficking in human beings. The women have no language skills, they can be ‘checked out’ by the customers for probationary period, and in case man does not like the woman, the woman can be returned. If the marriage is not accomplished, the women have to pay the extremely high agency fee themselves, which amounts to 5,000 Euros on average. The women are therefore often forced into prostitution.3 Ms. Schrage from the organisation Agisra, has a reserved, when not contradictory attitude towards marriage arrangement agencies, and maintains that as long as the agency works seriously, there is no problem in accepting their work, since even though the position of foreign women in arranged marriages is particularly problematic, problems also occur any partnership.4 On the other side of the spectrum of debate and research on marriage migration are bi-national marriages which are a “result of love”. There are a few organisations devoting their work to the protection and defence of rights of the individuals living in binational partnerships and marriages (e.g. Verband Binationaler Familien und Partnerschaften). The daily problems they encounter are linked to the fact that when bi-national couples wish to live together, whether or without the marriage certificate, whether of the same or opposite sex, they have to start fulfilling the different regulations of the aliens’ legislation, bureaucratic institutions, often they experience racism, and all this becomes the centre of their daily life. In Germany, the debate surrounding the issue of marriage migration moves around a few main notions - "love marriage” (Liebesehe)", "protection marriage” (Schutzehe, also called "marriage of convenience" (Scheinehe5), "forced marriage” (Zwangsehe), "marriage for a particular purpose” (Zweckehe). 2 HWP – Hamburger Universität für Wirtschanft und Politik. Projekt Hansen/Wittich-Neven. „Internationaler Frauenhandel und Organisierte Kriminalität": http://www.hwp-hamburg.de/schwerp/SP_Geschlechter/Projektskizzen.htm. 3 HWP – Hamburger Universität für Wirtschanft und Politik. Projekt Hansen/Wittich-Neven. „Internationaler Frauenhandel und Organisierte Kriminalität": http://www.hwp-hamburg.de/schwerp/SP_Geschlechter/Projektskizzen.htm. 4 Florian Töpfl: Liebe? Überflüßig! Katalogenehen haben einen schlechten Ruf, besonders wenn sie zwischen deutschen Männern und ausländischen Frauen geschlossen werden. Zu Unrecht. Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, pp. 21-25. 5 See the Council Resolution 97/C 382/01 of 4 December 1997 on measures to be adopted on the combating of marriages of convenience (http://europa.eu.int/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l33063.htm). This resolution defines "marriage of convenience" as "a marriage concluded between a national of a Member State or a third-country national legally resident in a Member State and a third-country national with the sole aim of circumventing the rules on entry and residence of third-country nationals and obtaining for the third-country national a residence permit or authority to reside in a Member State." 3 In Germany, 19 percent of married Turkish women and 16 percent of married Turkish men (in the Integration Survey) were kindred. Migrants in Germany ascribed the arrangement of marriage and mediation of partners through family members and networks of friends as having a relatively high importance, according to the Integration Survey (Haug 2002: 419). The differences in family building are interpreted by Naunck (2002) as having a “layer effect” (Schichteffekt), mediated through the level of education and the family structure which itself is dependent on the general structural conditions for the integration of migrant families to the majority society in the country. Even though many different groups of third county-nationals live in Germany, they all have more or less the same problems, which vary from legal regulations guiding the residence of third country nationals in Germany to problems with social integration of migrants into the majority society in the country. For instance, the organisation Imbradiva carries out counselling work for Brazilian- and other Portuguese- speaking migrants, primarily women, living in Germany. That their work is indispensable results from the fact that 27,000 Brazilians legally reside in the country, of whom 75 percent are women (20,000).6 There is no information on the number of illegal residents. Based on the example of this specific group of migrants, the problems that all groups of migrants share are evident. The beginning of their stay in Germany is, in majority of cases, influenced by dreams of a better life and better social and economic opportunities. In reality, they may only find illegal work, may be involved in drug trafficking and/or prostitution. The immigrants enter Germany through various forms of entry which include sex tourism, drug carriers, informal “women’s networks” of friends and acquaintances. In some cases, they may enter as victims of trafficking in women. Specifically, marriage migration is a natural consequence of human interaction and is a result of tourism, business contacts, scientific exchange programmes and contacts established through economic aid to developing countries, as well as through the above-mentioned women’s networking or through assistance or mediation of marriage arrangement agencies.7 Thailand is the country of origin of many women who are living as wives of German men. There are approximately 20,000 Thai women living in Germany. 8 Problems and obstacles hindering particular female migrants are linked to the difficulties they face in integrating into every sphere of daily life, beginning with a language barrier. As far as professional life is concerned, non-recognition of qualifications when trying
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