Marriage and Migration, Past and Present

Anja Schwalen

Reprinted from the OAH Magazine of History
14 (Fall 1999). ISSN 0882-228X
Copyright (c) 1999, Organization of American Historians
 

The following article provides a lesson plan for a unit on marriage and migration, including primary sources by members of four different ethnic groups and three different time periods. One source consists of immigrant letters; the second is from an immigrant autobiography; and the other two are from contemporary matchmaking web sites. This unit emphasizes students' independent work with sources as well as the ability to work in groups. I have designed preliminary activities and class presentations to connect students' life experiences with the subject matter.

1. To describe different types of marriage migration.

2. To name and explain factors on both sides of the ocean (such as demographics, politics, economics) that influence migration and marriage.

3. To analyze a source in order to recognize both individual motivations and larger historical and cultural patterns.

4. To recognize and discuss continuity and contrasts in human behavior (such as love, marriage) over time and throughout different cultures.

I. Background

Before starting this unit, students should have some general information about migration to the U.S. in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; they should be familiar with countries of origin, reasons for migration, and the main periods of immigration to the United States. This can be accomplished through an earlier general unit on immigration.

II. Preparatory Activity and Discussion

These activities will help students become interested in the topic by drawing upon their own life experiences.

A. Put up or hand out photographs of different unknown people (from magazines, commercials, etc.) and have students react to them. How do you like this one? Who seems nice, trustworthy, attractive? Why?

B. Students should pick one picture of the opposite sex and write a brief letter to this person wanting to get to know him/her. How does that feel?

C. Have students discuss the following questions in small groups or with the whole class:

1. Why would you marry?
   
2. How do you think you will get to know your future partner?
   
3. Can you imagine a situation in which you would leave your country and marry one of the people from the pictures?
   
4. Would you let your parents, siblings, other relatives, or friends pick a boyfriend/girlfriend for you?
   

III. Gaining Subject Knowledge

In this part of the unit, the teacher will give background information on marriage migration using the article by Suzanne Sinke on the international marriage market (in this issue). This can be done either through a lecture or by having students work in groups, with each group focusing on a small part of the text and then presenting the information to the rest of the class. Groups can each take a section of the article as the author divides it: 1) demographics, 2) legal policies, 3) cultural perceptions, and 4) information and technology.

Helpful questions:

A. How did demographic imbalance influence marriage migration?

B. What was the nature of legal policies on migration? What were their consequences?

C. What are some examples of different cultural perceptions regarding marriage and finding a partner?

D. How have information technologies changed over the last century and a half?

IV. Working with Sources

Please print out the following to distribute to the class:

Source A
Source B
Source C

Working with sources will help the students become more familiar with the subject and see different perspectives. All sources included with this article come with a set of questions for the students to work with.

A. Divide the class into three groups, each of which will work with one source.

B. Students should read the documents in their groups, then discuss the accompanying questions and write down their answers for presentation before the whole class.

C. Prepare an overhead transparency or handout with the main results from each group, to be shared during the presentation.

D. One of the questions uses a role-play activity. This question is optional (depending on the amount of time the teacher wants to devote to the unit) but could be acted out at the beginning of each presentation to get the rest of the class involved.

V. Presentation and Final Discussion

After the group presentations, the teacher should lead a class discussion based on the questions below. Alternatively, students can consider the questions in groups before having a discussion with the entire class.

A. In all sources, what did the women have in common and what was different? Think of living conditions, social status, age, etc.

B. According to the sources, what most strongly motivated women to migrate and marry somebody they hardly knew? Have motivations changed over the years?

C. What have been the expectations of a good marriage over the years? Can you detect any impact of the women's movement or feminism in Source C? Compare Philippino and Indian women in regard to their criteria for a husband.

D. What do you perceive about the emotional stress of the men and women in the sources? What were their hopes? What were their fears?

E. Who took the greater risk in marriage arrangements?

F. How did couples try to preserve traditions, and where can you see breaks with the original culture?

Kamphoefner, Walter D., Wolfgang Helbich, and Ulrike Sommer, eds. News From the Land of Freedom: German Immigrants Write Home. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1991.

Rikoon, J. Sanford, ed. Rachel Calof's Story: Jewish Homesteader on the Northern Plains. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995.

A Foreign Affair's Women from the Philippines: <http://www.loveme.com/foreign-affair/infopage/phil4.htm>. Accessed February 1999.

Indian Matrimony Service: <http://www.22support.com/matrimony/women.htm>. Accessed February 1999.

Anja Schwalen studied history and Spanish at the University of Bochum, Germany, earning her Master's degree in 1993. Following her marriage migration to the United States, she taught high school Spanish and German in College Station, Texas, and is currently spending a guest year with her husband and children in Germany.