Fated for foreigners: Ecological realities shape perspectives of transnational marriage in northern Thailand

Fated for foreigners: Ecological realities shape perspectives of transnational marriage in northern Thailand

Around the world, intercultural contact prompted by modern globalization has reconstituted private dimensions of people’s lives. One such private dimension that has been significantly reshaped is that of kinship networks, due in part to the increasing feasibility and normalization of transnational marriage. This study examines perspectives of transnational marriage among adolescents and parents in northern Thailand, where such intimate intercultural relationships are increasingly common. Eighty Thai participants, evenly divided by ecological context (rural, urban) and generational cohort (adolescent, parent), participated in semi-structured interviews in which perspectives of Thai–foreigner marriages were discussed. Participants’ moral evaluations were examined quantitatively and moral reasoning was examined qualitatively. Quantitative analysis revealed that participants across ecological contexts and generational cohorts agreed that transnational marriage is mostly morally right and a little morally wrong. Qualitative analysis revealed differences across ecological contexts and across generations in the urban setting in values endorsed to support their evaluations. Rural adolescent and parent evaluations of transnational marriage were largely informed by local Thai values, urban adolescent evaluations were informed by autonomous Western values, and urban parent evaluations were driven by local and Western values. The distinct values endorsed across contexts and across generations in the urban setting point to how ecological realities—particularly exposure to and embeddedness in individualistic globalization discourses—shape perspectives of intimate intercultural relationships.

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