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Intimate migrations refer to cross-border movements that fulfil the intimate needs of individuals, particularly those that pertain to the emotional and sexual realms, which can include migration for marriage, sex work, or romance. 1 Building upon a narrower definition of intimacy, we distinguish this type of migration from those of domestic workers. Eileen Boris and Rhacel Parreñas (2010) formulate an expansive definition of intimacy and include care and domestic work in their definition of ‘intimate labour’. In so doing, they consider the meeting of personal needs to be an intimate matter, which is a logic that agrees with that of Viviana Zelizer who sees intimacy as entailing the sharing of ‘knowledge and attention that are not widely available to third parties’, including ‘such elements as terms of endearment, bodily services, private languages, emotional support, and correction of embarrassing defects’(Zelizer 2005: 14–15). In our definition of intimate migrations, we make a distinction between the personal and intimate needs of individuals. Met by domestic and care workers, and family members, personal needs involve the