Unorthodox Sisters: Gender Relations and Transnational Marriages among Malayali Migrants in Italy

Particularly it explores the way in which migration contributes to a redefinition of marriage's symbolic and material meanings – in terms of spouse's selections and marriage payments - as well as of family and affinal relations.

In the first part of the paper I will reconstruct the history of Malayali migration to Italy, showing how peculiar socio-political and religious relations between sending and receiving contexts have deeply contributed to the formation of a transnational community. Within this process women have constantly played an important and active role in developing a wide network of kinship ties and in stimulating further female migration from Kerala during the last decade.