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Saskia Bonjour and Apostolos Andrikopoulos address the interaction between marital status and migration policies in same-sex couples’ access to family migration and family-reunification routes. They focus on the tension created as marriage rights have expanded in many countries while marriage migration policies have become more restrictive.
Bringing family migration research into dialogue with queer migration studies, the authors discuss the constraints and opportunities faced by same-sex couples and their families. They argue that this perspective opens new ways of analysing the relationship between marriage, migration and sexuality, while prompting both fields to confront their established limitations.
The interaction between marital status and migration policies in same-sex couples' access to family migration and family-reunification routes
The work shows that the recognition of same-sex marriage and access to family migration do not necessarily move in the same direction, requiring marital status to be considered alongside migration policy. By connecting family-reunification and queer-migration scholarship, it brings into view family and relational dynamics that each field has tended to leave underdeveloped.
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies · 2026
DOI 10.1080/1369183x.2026.2708437
Saskia Bonjour, Apostolos Andrikopoulos, “Same-sex marriage and migration: politics of belonging, state regulations, and new ways of doing family across borders”, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 2026-08-31, 10.1080/1369183x.2026.2708437. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183x.2026.2708437