The Place of Vietnamese Marriage Migrants in Singapore: social reproduction, social ‘problems’ and social protection

Yeoh, Brenda S. A.; Chee, Heng Leng; Baey, Grace

doi:10.1080/01436597.2013.851959

Cited by 26 publications

(16 citation statements)

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“…Incorporated into families as unpaid reproductive workers, the relations and meaning of 'family' for marriage migrants can be double-edged. On the one hand, the marital family can be a site of exploitation; on the other hand, the family is also 'an important source of care provision for the migrant and may be generative of meanings and relations of intimacy that confer well-being' (Yeoh et al, 2013(Yeoh et al, : 1938. Focusing on negotiations of intimate care labour within commercially-mediated cross-border marriages in Singapore, Yeoh et al (2014: 285) observe that the meanings of specific acts of care-from companionship to cooking-depend on the relational context in which they are performed and that the perceived quality of care tended to be used as a barometer for love.…”

Section: Social Reproduction and Cross-border Marriagementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cross-border marriages are symptomatic of the broader trend where social reproduction is no longer confined within the nation-state but increasingly takes place transnationally (Douglass, 2006;Lee,2012;Yeoh et al, 2013;Yeoh et al, 2014). On the one hand, individuals, families, and households face increasing difficulties meeting livelihood and reproductive needs in neoliberal economies with inadequate state support for social security, childcare, education, health care, and elderly care.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Family Social Reproduction: Conflict and Compromise in Cross-Border Marriages between Chinese Malaysian Men and Vietnamese Women

Chee

Yeoh

2021

IJIE

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In this paper, we use the framework of family social reproduction to investigate care relationships within cross-border marriages in Malaysia. Examining the narratives of Chinese Malaysian men and their Vietnamese spouses, we find that (i) the Malaysian men’s labour migration during their twenties and thirties leads to the deferment as well as enablement of marriage, reconfiguring social reproduction temporally and spatially within their life courses, while (ii) the Vietnamese women’s aspirations for migration, work, and marriage interlink with their desire to seek a better life, and their motivations to secure better options to contribute to the social reproduction of their natal families. Tensions in cross-border marriage arise from unmet expectations of care and sustenance, leading to frictions over contested roles and responsibilities in daily household maintenance and care activities, and compromises as marriage partners formulate social reproductive strategies. Exchanges of care, reproductive labour, and money within these marriages are embedded in relational meanings, pointing to the significance of recognising that the care work that shapes and sustains marital relationships is bidirectional, reciprocal, and undertaken by husbands as much as wives.

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Section: Social Reproduction and Cross-border Marriagementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Family Social Reproduction: Conflict and Compromise in Cross-Border Marriages between Chinese Malaysian Men and Vietnamese Women

Chee

Yeoh

2021

IJIE

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“…In a similar vein, scholarship on marriage migration undertaken by mainland Chinese women to Singapore argue that precisely because they bear racial sameness to Singaporean Chinese, they are constructed as the sexualised Other who pose a great threat to the fabric of the Asian family (Yeoh and Huang 2010). When a foreign bride enters Singapore as a potential citizen subject and a mother to the next generation, she occupies an ambiguous position defined through discourses of 'social reproduction, social "problems" and social protection' (Yeoh, Chee, and Baey 2013). The figure of the foreign woman in Singapore is therefore highly contentious, eliciting mixed notions of desirability and aversion (Lu, Zhang, and Yeoh 2016).…”

Section: Cross-border Marriages and Oriental Desiresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Searching for oriental simplicity: foreign brides and the Asian family in Singapore

Zhang

Yeoh

2019

Gender, Place & Culture

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This article examines the oriental project of imagining migrant women through commercially arranged cross-border marriages. Taking the 'foreign bride' in Singapore as a subject of 'oriental simplicity', it shows how contemporary orientalism continues to shape practices and beliefs in something as familiar as searching for a wife and having a family. The article questions the gendered, classed and sexualised politics that render the migrant woman from less developed nations an ambivalent figure of desire, further complicating the already problematic articulation of womanhood and selfhood in the post-colonial state. By reinforcing a cultural marketability of 'oriental simplicity', commercially arranged cross-border marriages serve to naturalise patriarchal family structures and strengthen the hegemonic ideology of the Asian family.

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“…Abby and Mahamoud, 2005), marriage migration (e.g. Constable, 2003; Davin, 2007; Kang, 2011; Kim, 2015; Tyldom, 2013; Yeoh et al, 2013), migrant rights (e.g. Choo, 2013), return migration (e.g.…”

Section: Migrations and Migrantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Migration, migrants, and human security

Purkayastha

2017

Current Sociology

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This introductory article outlines a framework to bridge some of the current fragmentation and knowledge hierarchies in the sociological field of migration. The article builds on the insights – and epistemological roots – used in different parts of the world to reflect on 21st-century realities of migration and human security. It considers international migrants, internally displaced persons, refugees and trafficked persons as part of a continuum of migrants who exhibit seasonal, temporary and long-term migration patterns. The framework draws upon the scholarship of the Global South and North on political-economic processes that have historically influenced migration and migrants’ lives and continue to do so today. It considers the dominant approach used in studies of international migration and shows why it is necessary to go beyond the focus on nation-states and an emphasis on a particular group of migrants. The framework weaves the insights of scholars who work on international, internal migration and forced migration, as well as the critical literatures on intersectionality and human rights to build an approach that centers questions of migrants’ human security. The framework emphasizes the glocal – i.e. intersecting global-national-local – terrains of migration and discusses human security within glocal terrains.

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The Place of Vietnamese Marriage Migrants in Singapore: social reproduction, social ‘problems’ and social protection

Cited by 26 publications

References 0 publications

Family Social Reproduction: Conflict and Compromise in Cross-Border Marriages between Chinese Malaysian Men and Vietnamese Women

Family Social Reproduction: Conflict and Compromise in Cross-Border Marriages between Chinese Malaysian Men and Vietnamese Women

Searching for oriental simplicity: foreign brides and the Asian family in Singapore

Migration, migrants, and human security

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