Synthesizing Research On Marrying Into a Culture, Religion, or Race Different than Your Own

The economic principle that I examined was Institutions and cultures. There are many examples of how this economic principle can be applied to the real world. While studying what kinds of things people give up or gain, or the challenges that people go through when they marry into a different religion, race, or culture, I found many examples of this principle.

First, the different challenges that couples may face in a multicultural marriage can include troubles with deciding what side of the family to spend what holidays with, deciding where to live if you come from two different countries, and even giving up some of the traditions that you once did and trading them for different ones.  Ashley Bess Lane talks about the challenges she had with her marriage in “Cultures Collide: 6 Things To Realize Before Marrying Someone From Another Country.” Lane is an American woman who married an Englishman from the UK. Bess talks about the challenges that an multicultural couple may face while married with ways to get through them. Bess states that “As an American who has married an Englishman, I can safely say that marrying someone of a different background is both exciting and interesting. It also requires a lot of empathy and understanding on both of our parts.” Bess understands that there are going to be challenges and there are going to be some rough spots along the way, but the most important thing to remember is that it is all worth it in the end. Secondly, similar to multicultural relationships comes interracial relationships. There are going to be challenges with what people say about you as a couple, how you decide to raise your children, and sharing different traditions. An article from the Spruce written by Sheri Stritof called, “The Challenges of an Interracial Marriage,” they talk about the challenges that come with marrying somebody from another race than your own. Problems from family, friends, and even strangers can be an everyday struggle. Also the problems that a couple may even face coming from two different races. Stritof talks about similar ideas to Bess in that communication is key. If you are not able to talk to your partner about the difficulties that arise and how to get through them then you aren’t going to make any progress. The best way for your relationship to stay healthy is to face all of the problems that arise together. Lastly, despite the problems and challenges that couples go through, why would they do it if they know what they may experience? María J. García San Martín is the author of her own blog called “Stop and Learn English.” A piece titled “Advantages and drawbacks of cross cultural marriages,” where she talks about why people actually go through with a cross cultural marriage despite the problems that a couple would face. According to the source “marrying a foreigner is an exciting adventure, and despite the variety of special, new and strange issues it might arise, it could be though, interesting and challenging.” Despite the challenges and rough spots that a couple may experience throughout their relationship, being together is more important that being apart.  

When most people are getting ready to marry the love of their life they aren’t thinking about the sacrifices, the challenges, and the hardships that they are going to face as a couple. When you marry someone from another culture, race, or religion it can come with decisions like choosing what traditions you are going to follow, where to live, whose family to visit during holidays, and how to raise your children. All of which come with challenges and sacrifices that have to be made in order to make the relationship work. Although it may be difficult to handle, there are definitely ways to get through the problems that may arise in relationships like these.