Marriage Without Borders

In popular songs, televised media, news outlets, and online venues, a jabaaru immigré ("a migrant's wife") may be depicted as an opportunistic gold-digger, a forsaken lonely heart, or a naïve dupe. Her migrant husband also faces multiple representations as profligate womanizer, conquering hero, heartless enslaver, and exploited workhorse. These depictions point to fluctuating understandings of gender, status, and power in Senegalese society and reflect an acute uneasiness within this coastal West African nation that has seen an exodus in the past thirty-five years, as more men and women migrate out of Senegal in hope of a better financial future. Marriage Without Borders is a multi-sited study of Senegalese migration and marriage that showcases contemporary changes in kinship practices across the globe engendered by the neoliberal demand for mobility and flexibility. Based on ten years of ethnographic research in both Europe and Senegal, the book examines a particular social outcome of economic globalization: transnational marriages between Senegalese migrant men living in Europe and women at home in Senegal. These marriages have grown exponentially among the Senegalese, as economic and social possibilities within the country have steadily declined. More and more, building successful social lives within Senegal seems to require reaching outside the country, through either migration or marriage to a migrant. New kinds of affective connection, and disconnection, arise as Senegalese men and women reshape existing conceptions of spousal responsibility, filial duty, Islamic piety, and familial care. Dinah Hannaford connects these Senegalese transnational marriages to the broader pattern of flexible kinship arrangements emerging across the global south, arguing that neoliberal globalization and its imperative for mobility extend deep into the family and the heart and stretch relationships across borders.

This multi-sited ethnography provides a rich account of the costs of global neoliberal economic policy for families in the global south. With a focus on Senegalese migrants in Europe and their wives who are left behind, Hannaford illustrates how new understandings of intimacy, gender, and class are forged in a culture of migration.

What if the traditional narrative about immigrant women--that those who come to the United States will succeed as long as they work hard, stay focused, and have supportive families--is a lie? Of the 73 million women in the US workforce, 11.5 million are foreign-born. The truth is--even in the midst of headlines and political debates about immigration reform and in the wake of MeToo and other female-centric movements--millions of immigrants, especially women, aren’t living their fullest potential. Based on her personal experience and the stories of trailblazing women from around the world and in diverse industries, author Chinwe Esimai shares five indispensable traits that make an ocean of difference between immigrants who live as mere shadows of their truest potential and those who find purpose and fulfillment--what Chinwe refers to as their immigrace: Saying yes to your immigrace, an immigrant woman’s expression of her highest purpose and potential Daring to play in the big leagues Transforming failure Embracing change and blending differences Finding joy and healing These five traits are the foundation of the Brilliance Blueprint, a step-by-step guide to help readers achieve to their own extraordinary results and build their own remarkable legacies.

The story of one couple - first from the husband's point of view, then from the wife's. The husband, a painter in Casablanca, has been paralyzed by a stroke at the very height of his career and becomes convinced that his marriage is the reason for his decline. Walled up within his illness and desperate to break free of a deeply destructive relationship, he finds escape in writing a secret book about his hellish marriage. When his wife finds it, she responds point by point with her own version of the facts, offering her own striking and incisive reinterpretation of their story.

Let us begin with the notion that there is nothing like a blueprint for a successful dating relationship or marriage. No one can teach anyone how to enter into and maintain a perfect marriage or relationship or avoid the common mistakes people make that wreck marriages and relationships. Not even a counselor, psychologist, or minister or anyone else can provide a plan that can guarantee a successful romance, marriage, love affair, or a dating relationship. There are just too many variables involved that make such a prediction impractical, if not impossible. Relationships, marriages, and love affairs work as a result of the time, effort, and energy put into it by those involved. For some, everything works out just fine and everybody is happy, but sometimes, the opposite happens and the question becomes: why do some succeed, while others fail? It gets even more complicated when one of the two people involved is from another race, country, or culture.

An eye-opening guide to the world’s best parenting strategies Research reveals that American kids lag behind in academic achievement, happiness, and wellness. Christine Gross-Loh exposes culturally determined norms we have about “good parenting,” and asks, Are there parenting strategies other countries are getting right that we are not? This book takes us across the globe and examines how parents successfully foster resilience, creativity, independence, and academic excellence in their children. Illuminating the surprising ways in which culture shapes our parenting practices, Gross-Loh offers objective, research-based insight such as: Co-sleeping may promote independence in kids. “Hoverparenting” can damage a child’s resilience. Finnish children, who rank among the highest academic achievers, enjoy multiple recesses a day. Our obsession with self-esteem may limit a child’s potential.

From the founder of This Gathered Nest YouTube channel, an uplifting story of Angela Braniff's unusual path to becoming the mother to seven children through various methods of adoption and biological approaches, encouraging women and mothers to embrace the unique purpose that God has put in their lives. Angela’s love for life and her family radiates through everything she does. The Braniff household includes their two biological daughters, Kennedy, 12, and Shelby 10; Rosie, 7, who was adopted from China with Down syndrome; Noah, 7, adopted from Congo; Jonah 5, adopted domestically; and finally, Ivy and Amelia, their one year old twins who were adopted as embryos, and implanted in Angela, who gave birth to them. In fact, after the book was finished, they joyfully welcomed a new baby into their home, Benjamin, through adoption, making them now a family of ten! Love Without Borders shares Angela's relatable, humorous, and honest view of motherhood. Angela chronicles her journey to discover God’s purpose for her life. For years she walked the safe, expected path, until one day she could feel God calling her to boldly step out and follow him into new places, which led her to raise a large, non-traditional family that looked different than she ever imagined. It was a winding path to motherhood, complete with heartbreak from failed adoptions, challenging pregnancies, and secondary infertility, but through it all Angela found the unique adventure God had for her. She has shared her family’s stories on her popular YouTube channel, This Gathered Nest, and now invites us in to go deeper and listen to where God might be calling us to go and who we’ve been tasked with loving, no matter how unusual (or just plain crazy) it may sound! The beauty of God’s plan is he uses imperfect people to bring about perfectly beautiful stories.

After living in El Salvador and witnessing the cost of the political violence and economic hardship there, Mark and Louise Zwick founded Casa Juan Diego. Mercy Without Borders tells the story of the beginnings of the Catholic Worker in Houston, a city that has become a destination for waves of refugees from Mexico and Central America. Over the years, they have received the poor, the weary, and the destitute, seeing only the face of Christ regardless of immigration status. In addition to sharing their stories of Casa Juan Diego and many of its guests, the Zwicks analyze some of the causes of the economic imbalances that result in destitution south of the U.S. border, in countries where people toil in factories for little or nothing, only to see the fruits of their labor shipped to the affluent north. Why would these victims of injustice not seek a better life for themselves and their children? Book jacket.

Across half a century, from the division of Germany through the end of the Cold War, a cohort of thirty women from the small German town of Schönebeck in what used to be the GDR circulated among themselves a remarkable collective archive of their lives: a Rundbrief, or bulletin, containing hundreds of letters and photographs. This book draws on that unprecedented resource, complemented by a set of interviews, to paint a rich portrait of “ordinary” life in postwar Germany. It shows how these women—whether reflecting on their experiences as Nazi-era schoolchildren or witnessing reunification—were united by their complex interactions with official power and their commitment to sustaining a shared German identity as they made the most of their everyday lives in both the GDR and the Federal Republic.

This book offers a comprehensive exploration of key issues in contemporary global migration and considers the theological implications for Christianity, in general, and for Christian faith and practice in various parts of the world, in particular. Migrant Christians, who make up the majority of believers on the move and in diaspora, play an increasingly vital role in world Christianity today. Drawing on cases from across the globe, Gemma Tulud Cruz considers how Christians are faced with immense gifts and tremendous challenges brought by the ever-increasing presence of migrants in their midst and the conditions that characterize contemporary global migration. Migrant Christians themselves face multiple challenges, which have been made more stark by the coronavirus pandemic. The volume will be relevant to scholars of religion and of migration who are interested in a closer examination of what happens to Christians and Christianity, (faith) communities, and nation-states in the age of migration.