Marriage Trafficking: Demand, Exploitation, and Conducive Contexts—A Study in China–Vietnam Border Areas

Abstract

This study contributes to the marriage trafficking literature by highlighting its demand, unique forms of exploitation, and conducive context through a qualitative study in China–Vietnam border areas. The findings indicate: (a) local demand for marriage constitutes a premise for the emergence and development of a marriage trafficking market, (b) three forms of exploitation distinguish marriage trafficking from other trafficking forms; (c) the local contexts conducive to the formation and facilitation of marriage trafficking also impede trafficked women's agency. In-depth interviews were conducted with marriage trafficked women who have not exited the trafficking situations, and with key local social network actors in the trafficking areas.

The End of Feminized Migration?: Gendering Violent Borders and Geographies of North Korean Migration from the Arduous March to the COVID-19 Era

“…The undocumented marriage migrations, often in the form of marriage trafficking in China, have increased with marketization in China and are still being conducted (Zhao 2003;Zhuang 1998;Robinson, Branchini, and Weissberg 2018;Liang 2023). In China's peripheral regions, undocumented international marriages, specifically between people of the same ethnicity across borders are common.…”