ABSTRACT
Drawing on qualitative interviews with immigrants and their descendants living in Denmark and the UK, this chapter investigates polygamous Muslim marriages from a wellbeing perspective. The data indicates that polygamous marriages, while relatively uncommon amongst Muslim immigrants, take varied forms and are shaped by the transnational social space inhabited by the immigrants and their families. Some polygamous marriages seem a transient phenomenon, arising out of male-only out-migration. Others are negotiated by the parties involved and arise from an effort to meet different family needs related to health and care issues. In such polygamous unions, the wellbeing of the husband and the two wives are differently impacted. There are also polygamous marriages which men contract secretly, enabled by their independent mobility and the geographical distances in the transnational social field that they inhabit. The first wives often feel betrayed when they find out about the second marriage. Some of these wives have the resources and options gained through migration to end their unwanted polygamous marriages, while other first wives are differently positioned in the transnational social field and are too vulnerable to leave these marriages, engendering considerable ill-being.
