Intercultural marriage

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The cross-cultural marriage , also bicultural marriage , refers to the marriage between people of different nationalities , ethnicities or cultures . When using this term, in contrast to the term interdenominational and interreligious marriage , the religious worldview does not play a primary role.

Any laws or state rules that restrict the choice of a spouse ethnically, nationally, culturally or religiously conflict with the human right to free choice of spouse (Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ).

Bicultural vs. binational

While the concept of intercultural or bicultural marriage is broadly defined, binational marriage can be narrowed down to marriages in which the partners belong to different countries.

The frequency of binational marriages also depends on national laws on citizenship. In Germany, until March 31, 1953, a foreigner automatically became a German when she married a German and, conversely, a German lost her German citizenship when she married a foreigner, provided she did not become stateless as a result. December 1969, a foreigner who married a German could acquire German citizenship by declaration (see: “German Citizenship”, section “Marriage” ).

In Germany, according to the 2017 microcensus, of the 1.5 million heterosexual couples in Germany, 85% were German-German couples and 7% were German-non-German couples.

Evaluation in history

In the history of Europe, cross-border marriages initially took place primarily among the high nobility , with considerations of power politics, such as the formation of alliances, playing an essential role. The acquisition of a bride of the highest rank brought with it considerable symbolic capital , as did family networks of relationships that were used for state politics (see also: marriage policy ). A dynastic marriage also resulted in a cultural transfer that radiated beyond the court into the country.

A negative evaluation of intercultural marriage can be proven partly for societies in the past and partly also for the present. In the times of colonialism , the colonial powers problematized the marriages of representatives of the "ruling class" with the locals who were viewed as racially inferior, an example of which is the mixed marriage debate in the German Reichstag (1912) . In many cases, “multiracial” marriages were expressly forbidden by the state, for example through the “anti-miscegenation laws” in the USA, a practice that was established in 16 states in the USA in 1967 by the highest court judgment Loving v. Virginia came to an end. In an opinion poll a year later, 20% were in favor of "multiracial" marriages and 73% against (whites: 17% for, 75% against; blacks: 56% for, 33% against). The supporters only became a majority in 1991.

The persecution of "mixed marriages" between non-Jews and Jews during the Third Reich played a special historical role .

Kinship relationships in the context of intercultural partnerships and international adoptions are the subject of research as transcultural kinship .

Children's biculturalism

Bicultural is the term used to describe people who grow up with two cultures, for example because their parents embody two different cultures or because their parents or the family as a whole migrated to another country. In intercultural families, children are therefore typically bicultural. Like Third Culture Kids , they grow up with multiple cultures.

Bicultural children are often bilingual or multilingual . The migration sociologist Hacı-Halil Uslucan emphasizes that biculturalism and bilingualism offer extraordinary development opportunities; bicultural people are able to change their cultural perspective, and there are indications that bilingualism also promotes metalinguistic abilities and benefits the ability to abstract .

The measure, to be perceived as compatible or overlapping in the two cultural identities of the person concerned, V. Benet-Martínez called the bicultural identity integration ( Bicultural Identity Integration , BII ). According to Benet-Martínez, this characteristic has a lasting impact on the behavior and cognitive processing of bicultural people: People with a low BII would rather experience their biculturalism as conflictual and often have the impression of having to choose between two cultures, whereas people with a high BII more easily choose between two cultural frameworks changed.

See also

Portal: Integration  - Articles, categories and more on intercultural dialogue and integration

literature

  • Heinz Pusitz , Elisabeth Reif (ed.): Intercultural partnerships. Encounters of life forms and sexes. IKO - Publishing House for Intercultural Communication, Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3-88939-375-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Significantly more binational couples in Germany. In: FAZ. September 4, 2018, accessed June 16, 2019 .
  2. From mixed marriage to bicultural partnership. In: Diversity moves Frankfurt. Integration and diversity portal of the city of Frankfurt am Main. Retrieved June 5, 2017 .
  3. Sebastian Becker: Dynastic Politics and Legitimation Strategies of the della Rovere: Potentials and Limits of the Dukes of Urbino (1508–1631) , Walter de Gruyter, 2015, ISBN 978-3-11-039422-1 , p. 25 .
  4. ^ Alois Schmid: From Bavaria to Italy: transalpine transfer in the early modern period , CH Beck, 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-10679-8 , p. 153
  5. ^ Heinz Duchhardt: The dynastic marriage. In: European History Online (EGO). December 3, 2010, accessed June 5, 2017 .
  6. ^ Joseph Carroll, Most Americans Approve of Interracial Marriages , gallup.com, August 16, 2007
  7. Bettina Beer: Interethnic Relationships and Transcultural Relationships Using an Example from Papua New Guinea. Archived from the original on April 22, 2016 ; Retrieved July 10, 2017 .
  8. Hacı-Halil Uslucan : Psychological Aspects of the Integration of Immigrants. Retrieved May 22, 2016 . P. 44.
  9. ^ V. Benet-Martínez, J. Haritatos: Bicultural Identity Integration (BII): Components and Psychosocial Antecedents . In: Blackwell Publishing (Ed.): Journal of Personality . tape 4 , no. 73 , August 2005, p. 1019-1023 , doi : 10.1111 / j.1467-6494.2005.00337.x ( urv.cat [PDF; accessed June 11, 2017]).