Marriage & Migration
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Reading Shah's account of dual marriages as a result of migration reminded me of another example of how immigration laws influenced marriage in the early 1900s in Canada. I recently read Fred Wah's book Diamond Grill, in which he writes about how his grandfather was unable to bring his Chinese wife with him to Canada due to immigration laws that prevented Chinese women from coming to Canada. As a result, he married a white women in Canada, had four mixed-race children with her, and then sent 2 of his children back to China to appease his Chinese wife. Canada's exclusionary migration laws thus resulted in a hybrid family that transcended the borders of both race and nation. I found this similar to Julio/Jawala's story, especially with his insistence on keeping his Mexican marriage and Punjabi marriage completely separate from each other, highlighting how the imposition of colonial migration laws results in blurred racial lines.