Strangers in a Strange Land: Coping with Marginality in International Marriage

Abstract

As international contacts increase, more and more people find themselves living temporarily or even permanently outside their own societies. Taking two samples of foreign women married to Nigerian and Japanese men who have returned to live in their husband’s countries, this paper explores Hughes’ propositions on marginality and its reduction. The experiences of these foreign wives suggest that the same individuals use different mechanisms in different situations, and that different forms of marginality call for different reduction mechanisms.