Migration and Gender Politics in Southeast Asia

Abstract

As a region that has experienced major socio-political and economic transitions in recent decades, Southeast Asia provides a rich and variegated terrain to explore the gendered lives and experiences of men and women in a globalizing world of increased migrations and mobilities. Relations of equality and complementarity between Southeast Asian men and women have long been thought to be a regional characteristic (Andaya 2007) but much has changed in recent times. Deeper incorporation of the region into the global world order provides a mobile context shaping the gendered experiences and micropolitics that men and women sustain in reproducing and resisting socio-cultural change and economic development. By the closing decades of the twentieth century, Southeast Asian women, in particular, have seen their lives transformed by rapid but uneven economic growth and development, the penetrating reach of global capital and international business, the strengthening of economic-cum-cultural nationalisms, the accelerated pace of urbanization, downward trends in fertility, and the increasing feminization of labor migration in the region (Yeoh, Teo and Huang 2002). At the same time, Southeast Asian men are also experiencing pressures to perform masculine subjectivities differently or more flexibly, even if deep-seated transformations in gender ideologies or scripts are more resistant to change (Hoang and Yeoh 2011; Ford and Lyons 2012).

Lifestyles, sexuality and gender: vulnerability to STIs and unplanned pregnancy among female migrant beer promoters in Lao PDR

“…Opportunities for women can include greater access to education and economic resources and increased independence. Women's access to work however, is also shaped by gender norms that reinforce perceptions about women's role in society and at home (Yeoh 2016). At the same time, migration, economic participation, increased independence and exposure to new ideas can help young women challenge entrenched oppressive gender norms (Yeoh 2016).…”

Agency, precarity and recognition: reframing South East Asian female migrant workers on screen

“…By contrast, neo-Marxist approaches in migration studies place considerable emphases on the endemic features of power and profit extraction. Persistent inequalities and the exploitative nature of labour migration regimes, according to them (Parreñas 2008;Mavroudi and Nagel 2016;Yeoh 2016), are symptomatic of our global political-economic restructuring, coupled with the retreat of support and welfare provided towards domestic, reproductive and affective forms of labour in contemporary times. Nevertheless, as Hein de Haas cogently points out, the main drawback of neo-Marxist theories, like functionalist ones, is that its 'deterministic, top-down nature leaves little room for human agency ' (2014, 11).…”

Barriers to Sexually Exploited Cambodian Women Integrating in to Churches: Perspectives of Sexually Exploited Women and the Christian Community

“…As mentioned previously, this is a result of the problem and the complexity of stigma and discrimination. Southeast Asian women who work in the sex industry or in the nightlife are stigmatized and pervasively viewed as deviant and "out of place" (Yeoh, 2016). The migration of men in search of work in one particular Malaysia district has left behind women, resulting in the vulnerability of these women to sexual exploitation by affluent men.…”