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Culture in the Borderlands: “Stories“ of Southeast Asian Domestic Workers in Taiwan

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Culture in the Borderlands: “Stories“ of Southeast Asian Domestic Workers in Taiwan Culture in the Borderlands: “Stories“ of Southeast Asian Domestic Workers in Taiwan Ph.D.Dissertation Huey-jen Sheu Department of Ethnology Heidelberg University July 2007 Contents INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................................1 THE ASIA-PACIFIC VERSION OF LABOR MIGRATION .............................................................................1 PLACE, VOICE AND CULTURE ...............................................................................................................3 METHODOLOGY....................................................................................................................................4 Methodological Considerations......................................................................................................6 FIELDWORK ..........................................................................................................................................8 OVERVIEW OF CHAPTERS ...................................................................................................................13 1 APPROACH AND THEORY ...........................................................................................................16 1.1 GENDER, MIGRATION AND DOMESTIC WORK ...............................................................................16 1.1.1 On the Gender Trail in Migration Research ......................................................................16 1.1.2 A Review of the Literature on Migrant Domestic Workers ................................................20 1.2 POWER AND RESISTANCE ..............................................................................................................28 1.3 THE CONCEPT OF BORDERLAND ...................................................................................................30 1.4 GENDER AND PERFORMATIVITY....................................................................................................31 2 MY PLACE OR YOURS? THE TAIWANESE AND THEIR MIGRANT WORKERS AT TAIPEI MAIN STATION ....................................................................................................................34 2.1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................34 2.2 SUNDAYS AT TAIPEI MAIN STATION...............................................................................................35 2.3 THE PROBLEMATIQUE ...................................................................................................................37 2.4 THEORIES......................................................................................................................................37 2.5 SPATIAL STORIES OF MIGRANT WORKERS AT TAIPEI MAIN STATION .............................................48 2.6 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................52 3 LIFE AS A MIGRANT DOMESTIC WORKER IN TAIWAN .....................................................54 3.1 A SNAPSHOT OF THE TAIWANESE CONTEXT ..................................................................................54 3.1.1 State Policy on Migrant Workers in Taiwan.......................................................................54 3.1.2 The Social Construction of the Domestic Worker in Taiwan.............................................59 3.2 DIFFERENT ETHNIC PATHWAYS TO TAIWAN ...................................................................................65 3.2.1 The Philippines....................................................................................................................67 3.2.2 Indonesia .............................................................................................................................73 3.2.3 Vietnam................................................................................................................................76 3.2.4 Thailand ..............................................................................................................................78 3.3 MIGRANT DOMESTICS’ COMMUNITY WITHIN THE CONTEXT OF THEIR MOBILITY.........................80 i 3.4 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................82 4 POSITIONING THE SUPERMAID: TRANSNATIONAL LABOR BROKERING FROM SOUTHEAST ASIA TO TAIWAN ......................................................................................................86 4.1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................86 4.2 MONEY MATTERS .........................................................................................................................89 4.3 TRICKS..........................................................................................................................................95 4.4 THE ROLE OF ETHNICITY IN SHAPING DOMESTIC EMPLOYMENT ..................................................99 4.5 CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................................................103 5 NEITHER VICTIMS NOR SLUTS: GENDER DISCOURSE AND MIGRANT WOMEN IN TAIWAN ..............................................................................................................................................105 5.1 SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN THE WORKPLACE ...............................................................................106 5.1.1 The Stigmatization of “Maids“ .........................................................................................107 5.1.2 May’s Story ........................................................................................................................108 5.1.3 The Commodified Sexual Images of Southeast Asian Women........................................109 5.1.4 An Episode in the Park ......................................................................................................111 5.1.5 Of My Own Experience..................................................................................................... 112 5.2 SEXUAL HARASSMENT OF MIGRANT DOMESTICS AS INTERETHNIC GENDER CONFLICT ............. 113 5.2.1 The Influence of Religion................................................................................................. 113 5.2.2 The Force of Fatherlands ................................................................................................. 116 5.2.3 The Feminine Ideal...........................................................................................................121 5.2.4 The Creativity of the Migrant Domestic Worker’s Response ...........................................125 5.3 THE ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS OF FOREIGN DOMESTIC WORKERS IN TAIWAN .........................127 5.4 CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................................................137 6 CAN THE SUBALTERN SPEAK?................................................................................................139 6.1 INCIDENT ....................................................................................................................................141 6.2 THEORIES....................................................................................................................................144 6.2.1 Austin’s View of Speech Act..............................................................................................144 6.2.2 Bourdieu’s Account of Speech Act....................................................................................145 6.2.3 Derrida’s Interpretation of Speech Act.............................................................................146 6.2.4 Butler’s Speech Act Theory...............................................................................................146 6.3 DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................................148 6.4 CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................................................154 7 CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................155 APPENDIX .........................................................................................................................................161 BIBLIOGRAPHY...............................................................................................................................164 ii SOURCES ...........................................................................................................................................175 ARCHIVES.........................................................................................................................................176 iii Introduction The Asia-Pacific Version of Labor Migration Migration and mobility is not a new phenomenon in human society. Historically, people have moved from one place to another either for reasons of survival or due to force in terms of slavery. Towards the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, migration began to be prompted by industrialization and urbanization. In past decades, international migration has increased in dimension
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