Governing through mobilities and the expansion of spatial capability of Vietnamese marriage migrant activist women in South Korea

Abstract

This paper revisits the debate on marriage migration by highlighting the role of governing power and individual response in the process of migration decision‐making and post‐settlement of Vietnamese marriage migrant activist women in South Korea. It contributes to current marriage migration debates by employing the lens of ‘governmobility’ and ‘spatial capability’. The research looks at how female migrant activists maneuver coercion, resistance, and activism, both governed by nation‐state politics, but also actively deciding their fate amidst pressures of the global marriage market. Based on in‐depth interviews with 21 Vietnamese marriage migrant women who have worked in mentoring, counselling and translating for other Vietnamese migrants, our findings demonstrate that marriage migrants are positioned in between two nation‐states whose perspectival focus is on relieving the tensions of their own domestic job and marital markets. At the same time, these women have broken free from the inertia of socio‐familial status quo and state intervention to become self‐governing agents of mobility in various stages of their migration and adaptation. Fueled on by their position as activists, the marriage migrants then expand their spatial capability to place‐making—shifting the notion of freedom from simply taking part in mobility to reshaping their locale.

Motherhood, empowerment and contestation: the act of citizenship of vietnamese immigrant activists in the realm of the new southbound policy

“…'Political motherhood' becomes a practice undertaken by Indonesian mothers who assert their mixed children's right to inherit Indonesian nationality (Winarnita 2008), by foreign mothers in Malaysia who demand their right to citizenship in view of their parenting duties and thus contribution to Malaysian families (Chin 2017), and by immigrant women in Taiwan who vote and engage in community work in order to ensure their children's future (Cheng 2017). Scholarship on the effect of citizenship in facilitating integration has also given attention to immigrant women's participation in civil organisations, advocacy work and in rights-claim movements aimed at changing public discourse or reforming migration legislation (Lee 2003;Kim and Shin 2018;Choo 2016Choo , 2017Tsai and Hsiao 2006;Hsia 2009;Lin, J. H. Lin 2018a;Chang 2020). These studies also caution that when offering counselling or implementing integration programmes, service-providing organisations may deepen the internalisation of gender values amongst immigrant participants (Choo 2017;Lin 2018b;Chang 2020).…”

“…These studies also caution that when offering counselling or implementing integration programmes, service-providing organisations may deepen the internalisation of gender values amongst immigrant participants (Choo 2017;Lin 2018b;Chang 2020). Yet, such literature also points up the fact that immigrant women may become their own agents in negotiating the host state's gendering schemes (Kim and Shin 2018).…”

How Can Marriage Immigrants Contribute to the Sustainability of the Host Country? Implications from the Leisure and Travel Patterns of Vietnamese Women in South Korea

“…Different from migration in many other countries, arranged international marriage, supported by the marriage broker system and governments' policies, has triggered marriage immigration in Asian countries [8,9]. The scholarly focus of marriage immigrant women in Asia are those who got married through some institutional arrangements.…”

“…The significance of this study is as follows: First, this study focuses on the role of Vietnamese marriage immigrants comprehensively-linking leisure, tourism, public diplomacy, and destination management, and focusing on the contribution to sustainability. Second, instead of generalizing Vietnamese marriage immigrants as marginalized, this study applies a stream of research illuminating the active role of this group in contributing to, negotiating with, and resisting the social system [9]. Third, this study highlights the potentials of the marriage immigrant group not only in terms of the consumers of domestic leisure services but also in terms of contributors to the VFR market, both of which are expected to contribute to alleviating risks and recovery from crisis [28].…”

Editors’ Introduction: Socio-Cultural and Political Changes in South Korea through a Discursive Lens

“…A major reason for this, according to some scholars, is the strong class bias among policymakers and within South Korean society more generally. 8 This bias quite likely served as an important, albeit not the sole, 9 basis for relegating certain members of the Korean diaspora-i.e., those from relatively poor regions in China and Central Asia (former Soviet states such as Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan)-to second class status, compared to members from wealthier parts of the diaspora, in the context of South Korea's immigration and naturalization regime. Surprisingly, this unequal treatment has resulted in serious and ongoing tension in the relationship between "poor cousin" ethnic Koreans, especially Korean Chinese or Chosŏnjok, and the South Korean state and society.…”