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This article approaches marriage migration ‘from below’ by examining the journey of marriage migration from the perspective of Australian women who are sponsors to their African male partners. The article asserts that journeys of marriage migration can be seen as examples of cruel optimism: while women in binational, interracial relationships embarked on their journeys of marriage migration as to pursue a happy future, in reality, the journey of marriage migration itself obstructed happiness. Geopolitical inequalities, stemming from colonial discourses on race and difference, affect both public and intimate perceptions and biases regarding male marriage migrants. In particular, this article narrates the ways in which gendered and race discrepancies in imaginings of cross-border love and intimacy impact happiness in relationships. Intimate gendered racialisations are present throughout journeys of marriage migration as they are part of women’s attraction to their partners, during the visa application process, as well as in everyday life intimate relationships after settling in Australia. Such experiences, together with the migrant men’s not always easy journey of marriage migration, make women experience intimate relationships as not as happy as previously imagined and instead created a context for unhappiness. Marriage migration thus becomes a case of cruel optimism.

A case of cruel optimism: white Australian women’s experiences of marriage migration