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In Indonesia, the number of mixed marriages, especially Javanese women who are married to
French locals and migrate to France, continues to grow. According to Paclarin (2010), more women are
moving out of their country to migrate to the home country of their husbands to settle and raise their own
families. An increasing number of Asians have moved to other continents, most notably to North America
and Europe (Yeung and Mu, 2019). When Javanese women decided to migrate to France, it means that
they must start a new life in a foreign country and society that has different cultures and values from
Javanese cultures that have been believed and embedded. Most migrations were motivated by better
economic opportunities in the receiving communities. Migrant social life is also greatly shaped by their
migration experience because migration often occurs around the life stage of emerging adulthood and
could last for extended period time (Lee and Pol, 1993; Liang, 2001; Zenteno, Giorguli, and Gutiérrez, 2013;
Yeung and Mu, 2019). This can be supported by Jones and Shen (2008), who stated that migration
marriages are often hypergamous in which wives marry to improve their socio-economic status.
Furthermore, Mu and Hu (2018) mention that migrants’ (in this study: Javanese women) family
background behaviour has profound implications for their emotional well-being, lifestyle choice, as well
as their socio-economic prospects. According to Jones and Shen (2008), migrant women negotiate their
gender roles in sending and receiving communities. They chose globalisation and marriage to improve
their economic status back home, and to attain greater social status and increased autonomy in decision
making, although previous research has documented positive and negative impacts of cross-border
marriages (Ehrenreich, Hochschild, and Key, 2003; Huang, Yeoh, and Lam, 2008). Women migrants
frequently vulnerable and face economic, cultural, and legal constrain (Constable, 2005).
Some researchers have also reported that romantic relationships between culturally diverse
individuals are difficult to establish and maintain (Frame, 2004; Gaines & Agnew, 2003; Kim, 2018). Ting-
Toomey, Yee-Jung, Shapiro, Garcia, Wright, and Oetzel (2000) pointed out that spouses must first
understand how the two cultures are different, adapting to other cultures (Berry, 2008), and developing
intercultural communication competences (Arasaratnam and Doerfel, 2005; Fantini, 2020). This will
become an interesting study to understand how the Javanese culture will be merged with the French
locals. Moreover, research about the intercultural communication among Javanese married women to
French locals, and the Javanese values of 3M: Macak-Manak-Masak in the context of
Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité in France are significant in understanding how the form of intercultural
communication, especially in how cultural adaptation among Javanese married women to French locals
related to Javanese values of 3M: Macak-Manak-Masak and their role in cultural integration in the region
of Parisienne.

Intercultural Communication

Globalization had witnessed intercultural communication in intermarriage between Javanese
women and French locals. Intercultural Communication in general shall be viewed as a combination of
diverse forms of relationships, negotiating shared meanings, interactions, and communication between
individuals and groups from different cultures (Samovar, Porter, Mc Daniel, and Roy, 2017). Furthermore,
Knapp (2015) stated Intercultural Communication defined as Interpersonal Communication between
individuals from various cultures including knowledge conveyed and language formed of symbolic
behaviour. The ability of intercultural married couples to adapt to cultural differences should be improved
to overcome communication barriers. Social competence, openness to various ways of thinking, language
skills, cultural adaptation, flexibility, stress management capacity, patience, adaptability, and sensitivity
are all approaches to overcome barriers towards intercultural communication (Rumondor, 2005). Sadokhin

International Conference on Local Wisdom of the Malay Archipelago (COLLEGA 2023) Page - 609 -