Gendered Dimensions of African Transnational Couples’ Reunification in the Netherlands

This chapter examines the gendered implications of family reunification policy for transnational couples in the Netherlands, who are not often the focus of policy discussions and assistance. Contemporary migration literature on reunification highlights sponsors’ decision-making at the expense of their family members whose reunification motives remain unexplored. This omission contributes to the tendency for research and official policy discourses to frame transnational marriage as a strategic vehicle furthering undesirable migration in the eyes of the destination nation-state. This exploratory analysis of migrants in the Netherlands in transnational marriages suggests that for relatively recent migrant groups, reunification with a partner or spouse may be challenging to varying degrees with respect to Angolan as opposed to Nigerian migrants. Given their specific historical background and degree of intersection of insecure legal status and income, Nigerians as economic migrants may fall far short of the conditions for reunification relative to many Angolans who originally had refugee status. The chapter calls for studies that adopt an intersectional and transnational family life cycle perspective to understand the gendered family reunification experiences of sponsors and their stay-behind spouses.