The Intersections and Phenomenology of Heterosexual Transnational Interracial and Interethnic Couples Parenting in the United States

Abstract

Over a million people migrate and resettle in the United States every year. Subsequent to the diversification of the US population, is a rising rate in intermarriage. Juxtaposed with the increasing prevalence of intermarriage is historical restrictions and continued antipathy of such marriages and the families that they build. Using a hermeneutic phenomenological design, this study explores how heterosexual transnational interracial/interethnic couples experience their partner and parent roles as they are impacted by their racial/ethnic, national, and gender identities. Six couples were interviewed, with a total of 18 interviews; each partner separately and then together with in-depth questions about how their family and context informed their identities and roles, and how they navigated the intersections of their relationship as transnational interracial, interethnic parents and partners. Two analytical processes were conducted. Within-group analyses resulted in findings uniquely salient for each couple, and across-group analyses resulted in themes that emerged from all the couples’ narratives, and the two correlated. Despite the diversity of the couples, there were significant connections between them. The couples spoke of two intersecting processes, one internal and the other external for how they interacted and navigated their different values, each other, and other systems in their lives. The ways in which each partner constructed their identities and roles were interlocked with their partner’s identity and role construction process as well. Implications for future research and clinical recommendations and discussed.