Love, Papers, or Both: The Marriage Pathway and the Lay Moralities of Undocumented Filipino Immigrants

ABSTRACT This paper explores the moral sensibilities and capacities of undocumented Filipino immigrants within the context of the so-called “marriage pathway”—a route for regularization through marriage to a U.S. citizen. Advocating for the inclusion of the moral dimension in examinations of the social lives of undocumented immigrants, it explores how the Filipino immigrants’ lay moralities factor in their evaluations and decision-making regarding marriage and legalization, shedding light on their moral responses to consider or reject notions of marriage based on instrumental grounds. It argues further that the immigrants’ moral sentiments, empathy and fellow-feeling, enduring commitments to moral norms, and dispositions of care help overcome their status concerns and imbue their actions with moral force and legitimacy amidst social pressures to enter marriage with a view for regularization. Finally, it makes a case for the moral potency of moral communities as a source of meaning that immigrants respond to and identify with, suggesting that evaluations of immigrants’ marital motivations must also consider the quality and intensity of the ties within their networks of moral support.