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Romance on a global stage: relationship sequences between French men and Russian women

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Romance on a global stage: relationship sequences between French men and Russian women

Laure Sizaire, Maks Banens

To cite this version:

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Laure Sizaire, University Lyon 2,

Centre Max Weber UMR (5283)

socio-anthropologist

Maks Banens, University Lyon 2,

Centre Max Weber UMR (5283),

socio-demographer

Methodology and fieldwork

Background

Each year, close to 1000 Russian spouses

marry French husbands in France. They

form the third group behind Moroccan and

Algerian spouses. More Russian women

marry

French

men

in

Russia

before

migrating into France. At the 2010 Census,

11 700 French-Russian married couples

lived in France of which 10 100 (86%) were

Russian women with French husbands.

Who are these wives and who are their

husbands? How did they meet? What are

their motivations? How do they action

“gendered geographies of power” (Pessar &

Malher, 2001)? French literature is limited

(Giabiconni,

2008).

Elsewhere,

these

questions are in debate. (Heyse, 2010;

Levchenko & Solheim 2013).

References

Giabiconi Dominique, 2005 « Les mariages mixtes

franco-polonais », Revue européenne des migrations internationales, Vol. 21, n°1, p. 259, 273.

Goffman Erving, 1977, L’arrangement des sexes, Paris, éd. La dispute, 2002.

Heyse Petra, 2010 « Deconstructing fixed identities: An

intersectional analysis of Russian-speaking female marriage

migrants’ self-representations », Journal of Intercultural Studies, 31, pp.65-80.

Levchenko Polina, Solheim Catherine, 2013 « International Marriages between Eastern European-Born women and US born men », Family Relations, 62, pp. 30-41.

Malher Sara and Pessar Patrica, 2001 « Gendered Geographies of Power: Analyzing Gender across Transnational Space », Identities:

Global Studies in Culture and Power, vol. 7, n°4 : 441-459.

Main results

Russian born spouses are highly educated and so are

their non-Russian husbands. Considering the wives’

educational and sociodemographic characteristics, their

husbands are much alike husbands of French born

spouses except age: they are four years older. The age

gap might suggest French men are ageing when they

enter the global wedding stage.

A longitudinal study of St-Petersburg data shows no

increase

of

dissolution

risks

for

French-Russian

marriages compared to French-French marriages. It also

highlights a modern way of life on the global stage,

using English as the common language, and internet

matching before international romance or personal

networks.

In-depth interviews suggest highly educated Russian

born women marry French born husbands for gender

reasons: demographical misbalance between the sexes

and a local masculinity not enough desirable regarding

the gendered norms push Russian women to look abroad

where they think to find a “good” husband.

Romance on the global scene: relationships between French men

and Russian women

Our study uses data of the French 2010 Census and

marriage registration, as well as 671 files of

French-Russian marriages at the French consulate of Saint

Petersburg,

including

pre-marriage

investigation

notes.

Fieldwork observation has been done in matrimonial

agencies, in France as in Russia, and 20 in-depth

interviews have been analysed.

Discussion

Tourisme 29% Internet/ Matchm aking 37% Work / Study 22% Friends 12%

Spouses met by…

English 49% French 14% Russian 10% None 6% Mix 21% Common language France 53% Russia 27% France / Russia 5% Europe 5% USA 5% Other 5% Country of settlement

French-Russian couples increase since the collapse of soviet union and the NTIC development. Russian

born female spouses rank third in recent French statistics of mixed marriages. Like Levchenko and

Solheim (2013) in the USA, we find strong social homogamy between partners that are both highly

educated. We also observe an important age gap between and a high proportion of housewives. It points

to the hypothesis of men exchanging nationality, high income, education and status against female

youth, domestic care and potentially sexual work. Yet, discourse analysis puts into light empowerment

motivations of Russian women looking for better matrimonial opportunities. More research is needed to

understand if the new international “arrangement of sexes” (Goffman, 1977) is recycling old patterns of

domination or if it empowers women who would remain caught in local networks of male domination.

3 000 2 000 1 000 0 1 000 2 000 3 000 4 000 5 000 0 - 4 5 - 9 10 - 14 15 - 19 20 - 24 25 - 29 30 - 34 35 - 39 40 - 44 45 - 49 50 - 54 55 - 59 60 - 64 65 - 69 70 - 74 75 - 79 80 - 84 85 - 89 90 +

Russian born residents in France (2010 Census)

Single Cohab with Russian Married with Russian Cohab Mixed Married Mixed Single Cohab with Russian Married with Russian Cohab Mixed Married Mixed

FRANCE 2010 CENSUS

Russian born female immigrants are mainly single (blue) having migrated with their parents (median age of arrival 14 years), or spouses in mixed unions (green). Female spouses outnumber by far male spouses in recent marriages.

Real and expected husbands of Russian born female

spouses married with non Russian husbands, France 2010

Real husbands Expected husbands n = 6 646 Median age 44,7 39,8 University degree 42% 40%

Short term employment 3% 4%

Long term employment 62% 71%

Managers 42% 38%

Employees 8% 11%

Manual workers 12% 18%

FRANCE CENSUS 2010

Russian born female spouses are highly educated. So are their French husbands.

Table 1 compares their real husbands with the ones they would have had if, with the same sociodemographic characteristics, they were French born. Their real husbands are slightly more educated and occupy slightly more frequently managment positions, but the main difference between real and expected husbands is age: their real husbands are five years older than expected, bringing the age gap in the mixed French-Russian marriages at almost 7 years.

ST-PETERSBURG 2012-2014

More than half of St-Petersburg mixed marriages intend to settle in France.

Half of the mixed marriages use English as everyday language.

Références

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