Abstract
The phenomenon of marriage migration in Taiwan began in the mid-1980s when it moved from the supposed periphery to the semi-periphery in the world system. Most marriage migrants decide to marry Taiwanese men because they hope to escape poverty and turbulence in their home countries, which are intensified by capitalist globalization. According to statistics released by Taiwan’s Ministry of Interior, as of October 31, 2008, there were 411,315 foreign spouses (30.6 percent from Southeast Asia and 63.32 percent from mainland China) in the country. Ninety-two percent of these foreign spouses are women. Among the women from Southeast Asia, 64.1 percent are from Vietnam, 20.7 percent from Indonesia, 6.7 percent from Thailand, 5 percent from the Philippines, and 3.5 percent from Cambodia. Marriage migrants mainly marry farmers and working-class men (Hsia, 2004). Most arrive without knowing much Chinese or other languages commonly used in Taiwan, which leads to greater isolation. These women are constrained by stressed economic conditions, lack of social networks and support, and discriminatory practices in everyday lives, policies, and laws (Hsia, 2009).
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© 2010 Aziz Choudry and Dip Kapoor
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Hsia, HC. (2010). The Subjectivation of Marriage Migrants in Taiwan: The Insider’s Perspectives. In: Choudry, A., Kapoor, D. (eds) Learning from the Ground Up. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230112650_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230112650_7
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