Social Reproduction Bargain or Vietnamese Brides in Taiwan and South Korea

SOCIAL REPRODUCTION BARGAIN OF VIETNAMESE BRIDES IN TAIWAN AND SOUTH KOREA

Large flows of Vietnamese women to the two advanced East Asian nations of Taiwan and South Korea for the purpose of marriage, starting from the late 1990s, is an unprecedented phenomenon in the country’s long history of international migration. In fact, similar migration trends can also be found among other Southeast Asian nations just about the same time. Scholarly discussions of this type of migration, albeit still limited compared to those on other migratory movements, have already suggested useful analytical frameworks for its understanding. They include most notably discussions on changing landscapes of demography and political economy in the countries of destination, gendered international division of labor, organization of care regimes in global capitalism, state policies regarding domestic services, functions of intermediaries or migration industries in commodifying intimacy across national borders, or roles of migrant social networks.

A new but growing literature has recently proposed a shift of focus towards social reproduction in examining cross-border marriage. Situated within, or informed by, the feminist theories, these researches concern essentially the question of how the production of life is constructed within the domains of family and society at large. Social reproduction, in their view, should go beyond the sheer need of livelihood production to include biological reproduction or the organization of sexuality more broadly, child rearing, care provision for elderly, disabled and sick members of family, etc. Social reproduction is critically viewed as being embedded within, an in turn perpetuate, gendered social relations or class relations.

While these above frameworks are no doubt constructive, it should be noted that in general the role of agency of migrants themselves has not received sufficient attention as it should. Central to this concern is the question of how women migrating for the purpose of marriage exercise their agency regarding social reproduction. It is here that the concept of “reproductive bargain” introduced by Pearson (2007) particularly valuable. Reproductive bargain is a complex arrangement of institutions (household, state, and economy), ideologies, cultural norms and individual identities involving social provisioning and caring for human beings. Underlined this concept is the primary question of how power relationship dynamic is played among institutions and between individuals and institutions, what position and resource each player has, regarding social reproduction matters.

This Research in Progress Seminar will thus focus on the emerging issue discussed above by highlighting the reproductive bargain of Vietnamese brides in the Taiwan and South Korea, using empirical data drawn from indepth interviews of over 50 brides, undertaken in the period from 2007 to 2010.

Presented by:

Le Bach Duong and Khuat Thu Hong from the Institute for Social Development Studies, Vietnam

Le Bach Duong is the Director of the Institute for Social Development Studies, an independent research and advocacy institute based in Hanoi, Vietnam. Previously, he worked as senior researcher for the Institute of Sociology and the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies of the Vietnam Academy for Social Sciences. He has consulted key donors and international organizations including the World Bank, ILO, and UNDP as well as many international NGOs. His major areas of research include migration, development studies, and sexuality. He earned his PhD in sociology from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1998.

Currently professor Le Bach Duong is a visiting researcher in ISS, as part of the activities of the project on “Migration, Gender and Social Justice” financed by IDRC.  More information about the project available in http://www.iss.nl/research/research_programmes/international_migration_and_human_security/projects/idrc/

Further info:

For more information contact Roy Huijsmans