“We no longer fear brides from afar”: Marriage markets and gendered mobilities in rural Vietnam

Abstract

Since the late 1990s, Vietnamese women’s participation in international marriage migration has garnered academic and media attention. In contrast, internal marriage migration, a key driver of overall internal migration flows, has received scant consideration. In this paper, we examine marriage and migration dynamics in four rural communes that have “lost” significant numbers of their single women to international marriage and gained brides through internal migration. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2012 and 2013 in four villages and analysis of local marriage registration data and census data, this article examines internal and international marriage migration. We probed marriage migration vis-a-vis marriage markets, internal labor migration and gendered mobility patterns. The increased diversification of marriage with respect to spousal places of origin indicates a reconfiguration of marital norms and practices and changing social constructions of a desirable wife and daughter-in-law. Results underscore the role of labor migration and interprovincial networks in expanding mate-seeking circles among rural youth and in altering marital norms. Female international marriage migration is one piece of a larger puzzle whereby various forms of mobility are intertwined with changes in the realms of gender, family and marriage.

Domestic Violence in Cross-Border Marriages: A Systematic Review

“…In Malaysia, where dual citizenship is not recognized, cross-border wives lose both identity and inheritance (Chee et al, 2014; Tang & Wang, 2011; Yeoh et al, 2017). Also, a study of Bangladeshi returned migrants (Bélanger & Haemmerli, 2019) and Nepalese women reveals that they are stigmatized and marginalized upon their return to their country of origin because of the gendered attitude that women’s place is in the home. It thus affects their re-integration.…”

“…These cultural conflicts and misunderstandings often end in divorce/separation because the men failed to understand why a Thai woman should send money home (Fresnoza-Flot, 2021Tang & Wang, 2011). All these increases crossborder wives' vulnerability (Bélanger & Haemmerli, 2019) and constitute risk factors of domestic violence discovered in the review. This vulnerability faced by migrant women in crossborder marriages in areas of uncertain citizenship both legalgrants of rights to full rights of residence, work welfare, citizenship, and protection of state and social citizenship-which allows people to participate fully as active and independent agents in the society of the country of residence soon negatively affect them.…”

“…They are also vulnerable to abandonment (Roy et al, 2019; Sha, 2020), racism(Collet, 2012; Decimo, 2020; Tschirhart, Diaz, & Ottersen, 2019), they try their best to be responsible daughters to their families in their countries (Jongwilaiwan & Thompson, 2013; Straiton et al, 2019). They also risk revocation of their visa where the husband is the donor (Roy et al, 2019) and soon become homeless (Sha, 2020) hence prone to all manner of abuse which is a risk factor for them (Bélanger & Haemmerli, 2019; Moses & Woesthoff, 2019). Because they are far from home, they do not have a voice in the destination country as such when they are domestically violated, the citizens tend to overlook than help them (Carver, 2016; Williams, 2010b; Williams & yu, 2006).…”