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Marriage of Convenience

By , About.com Guides

Definition: A marriage of convenience is a marriage between two people for practical or financial reasons and not for love or intimacy.

Although illegal in many countries of the world, couples decide to have a marriage of convenience for immigration purposes.

Examples:
Widowed women of the old west in the U.S. often agreed to marriages of convenience in order to survive the hardships of homesteading during the 1800s.

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