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While bicultural and/or binational couples used to be the exception rather than the norm in Western countries, they have become much more common in recent decades. In Switzerland, for example, intermarriage rates between Swiss and foreign nationals have increased substantially over the past 35 years. In 1980, only 18.0% of the Swiss population married a foreign national; this figure had risen to 42.2% by 2015 (BFS 2016d). Exogamous marriages are a little more common among Swiss men than women, as 54.8% of all binational marriages in 2015 (compared to 60% in 1980) were between a Swiss male and a foreign national. Similarly, demographic evidence from Germany and the USA provided by Piller suggests that international intimate relationships have also increased dramatically in these countries over the past 30 years (2007: 343). Piller argues that globalisation has facilitated this trend, since there is increased international mobility, data flow and cultural exchange (2007: 344). It is also possible that “advances in travel and education, military and political incentives, the introduction and effects of broader civil rights […] have all contributed to the increase of marriage between people of different faiths, cultures, nationalities, and races” (Perel 2000: 178).

Scholarly attention to cross-cultural couples has been moderate in the past. Before the 1990s, a number of studies were carried out on the experiences of cross-cultural, cross-national, interfaith or interracial couples, but the majority of them were small-scale studies on couples that consisted of a Western and a non-Western spouse (see Cottrell 1990: 152 for an overview of 33 studies on intercultural marriages). Some studies on bicultural couples have attempted to gain insight into their relationships by documenting the experience of the women (often the “foreign spouse”) in these relationships, rather than looking at the relationship as an entity. An example of this is Khatib-Chahidi, Hill, and Paton’s (1998) study on 20 women in mixed marriages, which addresses the question of motives for entering a cross-cultural relationship. The subjects were nationals of nine different countries, who had all met and married their foreign spouse in their own country. Khatib-Chahidi, Hill and Paton were interested in ascertaining whether the intermarriages of these women were a random choice, or whether they had selected their spouses, “consciously or unconsciously, according to certain predetermined criteria” (1998: 49). Many of their respondents reported that they married “out” because they felt marginalizedmarginalization within their families or in society, or because they wanted to escape the gender roles of their own culture (1998: 57–62). At the same time, many of the women emphasized that they had a lot in common with their spouse, and that they liked that their partner was different from their countrymen, whom they portrayed as “boring” (1998: 52–53). In addition, a large number of the interviewees “reported significant interaction with foreigners before meeting their husband” (1998: 57), which suggests that they were open to engaging with somebody with a different cultural background.

The study shows that marrying someone from a different culture may be seen as a means of escaping one’s own environmentenvironmentdifferent, and that the differences are often seen as interesting, enriching or attractive. At the same time, differing cultural practices and ideologies can also be a source of conflict (see also section 3.2.3, “Cultural challenges”). Breger and Hill put it follows:

By definition, culturally mixed marriages present those involved with a wider palette of cultural practices than culturally homogenous marriages, including such issues as gender roles, child-rearing, mores, language and general lifestyle by which to shape their lives. Sometimes, there may be little awareness of difference, or indeed the differences may be minimal […] On the other hand, in the process of everyday life, differences can become clearer, forming a highly charged minefield of conflict, or a source of enriching diversity, or even both. (1998: 19)

Such issues and challenges for bicultural relationships have been highlighted and examined by a relatively large body of research. Older studies in particular often assumed that bicultural relationships are problematic, and that there is a “higher risk of communication difficulties, marital dissatisfaction, [and] divorce” (Killian 2009: xix). This view has only started to change in recent years, as “cross-cultural couples have increased in both numbers and social acceptance, and there is now a growing awareness of how little we really know about them” (Killian 2009: xix).