Europe in Love : Binational Couples and Cosmopolitan Society Paperback / softback

Inter-marriage both reflects and brings social change.

This book draws on a unique survey of randomly selected samples of national and European binational couples to demonstrate that the latter are core cells of a future European society. Unrestricted freedom of movement has enabled a rise in the number of lower-class and middle-class binational couples among Europeans.

Euro-couples fully integrate in their host cities but secure less support in solving everyday problems than do national ones, partly because of a relatively small network of relatives living close-by.

Embeddedness in a dense international network and a cosmopolitan outlook also distinguish them from national couples.

The book challenges the view of cosmopolitanism as exclusively middle-class and highlights contrasts between lower-class and middle-class binational couples.

Furthermore, it shows that social cosmopolitanism among binational couples is not matched by a commensurate weaker national identification that would enhance support to a more federal Europe.

This book is primarily addressed to the general public interested in contemporary European society and to academics interested in inter-marriage.

Since the chapters are quasi stand-alone pieces devoted to specific topics, it provides suitable reading material for social stratification, social networks, civil society, popular culture, and European integration undergraduate and graduate courses.