Short Summary: Marriage and marriage migration are often downplayed in the migration literature. The role of location in decision making underlying marriage migration, and the relations between marriage and labour migration, are little understood. Research that focuses on international marriages and on Western or capitalist economies has highlighted marriage as a strategy, but little attention has been given to domestic marriage migration in socialist and transitional economies. On the basis of a field study of two villages in western Guangdong, China, and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data from that study, two arguments are advanced. Firstly, changing inequalities between areas have reinforced the importance of location in the matching and trade-off processes that lead to marriage migration. Secondly, increased opportunities for labour migration - a product of economic transition - have enlarged peasants' marriage market and at the same time intensified the gender division of labour within marriage. The findings underscore household and individual strategies in response to macro level constraints and opportunities, the centrality of marriage for understanding migration, and the relations between marriage and labour migration.
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