ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the local and transnational social networks of partners in national and binational couples, as well as how these networks structure people’s lives and the support that they provide. The chapter reveals that partners in binational couples benefit from dense local and transnational networks. The latter are what distinguish binational from national couples most. The chapter also shows that while propitiating travel abroad, transnational friendship and family networks somewhat restrict the freedom that binational couples have to organize their free time and their choice of destinations when traveling. The chapter engages with Favell’s highly influential book Eurostars and Eurocities. It confirms his insights about the problems faced by highly educated movers in European cosmopolitan cities and expands on his contribution by comparing highly educated to less educated foreign partners in binational couples. Statistical analysis reveals that, less educated foreign partners secure more social support when confronting everyday problems than do more educated ones. This is partly because a greater proportion among them benefits from the presence of blood relatives in the country in which they reside.
