Expanding the family circle: Local in‐law relationships and their role in supporting foreign spouses

• Published date: 01 October 2024
• Author: Ruth Ang‐Tan,Hyekyung Choo
• Date: 01 October 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.13022

RESEARCH

Expanding the family circle: Local in-law

relationships and their role in supporting

foreign spouses

Ruth Ang-Tan | Hyekyung Choo

Department of Social Work, Faculty of Arts

and Social Science, National University of

Singapore, Singapore

Correspondence Ruth Ang-Tan, Department of

Social Work, Faculty of Arts and Social

Science, National University of Singapore,

Arts Link AS3, Level 4, 117570, Singapore.

Email: ruthtan@u.nus.edu

Funding information

My research team and I acknowledge the

funding support for the study from Social

Science Research Council, Singapore, and

Singapore Ministry of Education (Social

Science Research Council Thematic Grant

Award MOE2017-SSRTG-003).

Abstract

Objective: This study investigates the role of local families-

in-law in the lives of foreign spouses from low-income,

cross-national families in Singapore, focusing on their

potential as a source of support for social integration and

access to resources.

Background: Foreign spouses in Singapore face challenges

related to social integration and access to resources, and

local in-law relationships have been identified as a poten-

tial source of support.

Method: In-depth interviews with 18 Chinese-national for-

eign spouses were analyzed using thematic analysis.

Results: Siblings-in-law were vital to foreign spouses, provid-

ing more emotional and practical support than parents-in-

law. Local in-law relationships influenced foreign spouses’

identification with locals, and the local in-laws’familiarity

with local resources and networks facilitated access to formal

and informal services, contributing to equitable outcomes.

Conclusion: Local families-in-law play a critical role in the

lives of foreign spouses in Singapore, especially siblings-in-

law. The findings highlight the potential of local in-law rela-

tionships as a support system for cross-national families.

Implications: The study’s findings can inform policies and

practices that support the well-being of cross-national fam-

ilies. Policymakers and practitioners should recognize the

potential of local in-law relationships and develop pro-

grams to strengthen them.

KEYWORDS

family systems, foreign spouses, immigration, in-law relationships,

multicultural families

Received: 6 April 2023 Revised: 3 January 2024 Accepted: 20 January 2024

DOI: 10.1111/fare.13022

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits

use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or

adaptations are made.

© 2024 The Authors. Family Relations published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of National Council on Family Relations.

Family Relations. 2024;73:2455–2473. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/fare 2455

Compared to a century ago, people are more open to traversing national boundaries. Over the

past 50 years, air travel has become more widely available, making it viable for people all over

the world to travel abroad for business, pleasure, education, and marriage. Singapore has long

been a desirable migrant destination in Asia. Since 1998, cross-national marriages—marriages

between Singaporeans and people from other countries—comprised about one third of all citizen

marriages (Department of Statistics Singapore, 2021). Past studies on cross-national families in

Singapore and other Asian countries tend to highlight the detrimental effect of migration on the

social support system and mental health of foreign spouses (Fresnoza-Flot & Ricordeau, 2017;

Im et al., 2014;H.S.Kim,2011; Shu et al., 2011). The distance from their original sources of

informal support weakens access to emotional and practical resources. Foreign spouses face

stressors of forming a new family and also challenges of acculturation in a new country. As a

result, cross-national families often experience considerable health and social concerns

(Quah, 2020;Shinetal.,2012;Yangetal.,2010; Yeoh et al., 2013). In particular, cross-national

families with low income had emerged as a social issue in many Asian states, such as Singapore,

South Korea, and Taiwan (Quah, 2020;Won&Kim,2014; Y.-L. Wu, 2023). A national survey

of families in Singapore found that cross-national families between a Singaporean man and a

non-Singaporean woman have the lowest income and highest level of family conflict (Singapore

Longitudinal Early Development Study, 2020) as compared to other types of families. To gain

in-depth understanding of cross-national families with low income within the context of the host

country, cross-national marriages cannot be analyzed merely from the perspective of geographi-

cal migration, but must also be analyzed with regard to the process of family formation and sys-

temic interaction of the family with the host state.

Cross-national marriage ties the foreign spouse not only to the local spouse but also to the

local spouse’s family. Migration and noncitizen status often leaves foreign spouses with a

reduced safety net and limited access to formal support systems (Quah, 2020). Moreover, for-

eign spouses from families with low income encounter difficulties in financially supporting their

natal family’s relocation or prolonged stay in the host country (Nana, 2008; Quah, 2020).

Hence, the foreign spouse’s core social network in the host country would likely comprise of

local in-laws, including parents-in-law (PILs), siblings-in-law (SILs), and other individuals.

Local in-laws might represent the only extended family members for foreign spouses, shaping

their notion of “family”in the host country. Despite the likely presence of local in-laws during

the initial stages of family formation and the lives of cross-national families, local in-laws are

rarely discussed in literature.

This study aims to examine the involvement of local in-laws in the lives of foreign spouses

from low-income, cross-national families by addressing the following research question: How

do foreign spouses experience their local in-laws, with regard to their relationships with them,

social support transaction, and social integration? To do so, this study used a qualitative

research design to explore foreign spouses’lived experiences with their local in-laws. The two

main types of local in-law relationships and sources of support—PILs and SILs—were exam-

ined from the foreign spouses’perspectives.

CONCEPTUAL MODEL

From the family system’s perspective, in-law relationships tend to be accorded lower priority

than the couple and the parent–child subsystems (Morr Serewicz, 2008). Relationships with and

roles of in-laws, particularly PILs, have been examined largely for conflictive features, resultant

negative impacts on marriage, and grandparenting (Jappens & Van Bavel, 2019). Most concep-

tual or analytic models for understanding relationships with in-laws tend to focus on their com-

munication process, alongside factors affecting family subsystems, to generate practical

2456 FAMILY RELATIONS