SOJOURNERS IN THE COUNTRY OF FREEDOM AND OPPORTUNITY: THE EXPERIENCES OF VIETNAMESE WOMEN WITH NON-IMMIGRANT DEPENDENT SPOUSE VISAS IN THE UNITED STATES
Thi Hai Ly Tran
A Dissertation
Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
May 2021
Committee:
Alberto González, Advisor
Sudershan Jetley Graduate Faculty Representative
Sandra Faulkner
Jolie Sheffer
© 2021
Thi Hai Ly Tran
All Rights Reserved iii
ABSTRACT
Alberto González, Advisor
This dissertation examines how the U.S. visa regime interacted with various aspects of identity such as race, class, gender, and nationality to influence the experiences of
Vietnamese women holding nonimmigrant spousal visas in the U.S. Through in-depth interviews with twenty Vietnamese women coming to the U.S. as spouses of temporary skilled migrants, my study reveals the racial, class, and gender discrimination against post-1990 Vietnamese temporary skilled migrants and their spouses in both U.S. immigration laws and daily practices.
In the dissertation, I clarify how the U.S. gendered and racialized visa regime and the permeation of colonialist attitude in American society relegated many Vietnamese accompanying women to the domestic sphere. I also discuss the negative impacts of Vietnamese accompanying women’s housewifization on their psyches, familial relationships, and social integration. Although my study emphasizes the personal agency of Vietnamese accompanying spouses who found different ways to navigate changes in their gender roles, to solve their financial problems, and to create social bonds in the U.S., my study calls for a comprehensive reform in immigration policy toward temporary skilled migrants from the Global South and their accompanying spouses who are currently “wanted but not welcome” immigrants in the U.S. My study makes valuable contributions to various fields of critical studies such as women’s and gender studies, critical race studies, and postcolonial studies.
Key terms: Skilled migration, gender and migration, accompanying spouses, visa regime, housewifization, social integration, globalization, women’s and gender studies, critical race studies, postcolonial studies, Vietnamese studies iv
For Vietnam v
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
When I think of my PhD journey, I get emotional because it has been a long, arduous but also rewarding journey through which I have grown both professionally and personally.
I would like first to express my deep gratitude to dedicated professors and staffs at
Bowling Green State University (BGSU) who provided me with enormous supports when I juggled studying and parenting during my two years of coursework. I am particularly indebted to
Dr. Alberto González, my great dissertation supervisor, without whom, I might have not been able to complete my dissertation. I always remembered the time when I was struggling to assemble my dissertation committee, Dr. González was the one who respected my thoughts, valued my research, and agreed to guide my dissertation. Dr. González’s knowledge, professionalism, inspiration, and endless support enabled me to write an important dissertation that I could be proud of. I am also thankful to all members in my dissertation committee, Drs.
Sandra Faulkner, Jolie Sheffer, and Sudershan Jetley for their valuable contributions to this dissertation. Dr. Faulkner helped me advance my understanding of feminist theories and methodologies which were used in my research. Dr. Sheffer, despite her busy schedule, spared much time to provide me with invaluable feedback and suggestions. Dr. Jetley gave me stimulating ideas through his questions in the dissertation committee meetings. In general, my professors’ genuine commitment to students’ success has inspired me to be a dedicated teacher in the future.
I am also grateful for the generous financial support from the government of Vietnam and the tremendous emotional support from my colleagues at the Banking Academy of Vietnam vi during my study in the U.S. My special thanks also go to my research participants whose valuable sharing of their lived experiences has made this project possible. I truly appreciate their trust and long-lasting friendship even after my research was completed. In addition, I am blessed to have such supportive friends in Bowling Green as Mr. Jim, my kind landlord who frequently brought toys to my young children; Mr. Leroy Josephsen and Ms. Linda Wahlie-Valentine whose beautiful friendship has made my family’s time at Bowling Green a happy memory.
Moreover, words cannot adequately express how appreciative I am to my beloved extended family – my parents, parents-in-law, brothers, sisters, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins whose wholehearted supports motivated me to take and complete this adventurous, tough, but full-of-love PhD journey.
Finally, to my wonderful partner - Nguyen Hoang Duong, my caring daughter – Nguyen
Quynh Anh, and my loving son – Nguyen Hoang Thai Minh, thank you for your unconditional love and support! I could not have obtained this achievement without you by my side.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
CHAPTER I. GLOBALIZATION AND GENDERED MIGRATION: FOUNDATIONS FOR
THE STUDY ON VIETNAMESE ACCOMPANYING WOMEN IN THE U.S...... 1
Introduction ...... 1
Rationale and Research Questions ...... 6
Literature Review...... 9
Gender and Migration ...... 9
Globalization and Gendered Migration ...... 10
Visa Regimes and Gendered Migration ...... 12
Race, Class and Gendered Migration...... 14
Impacts of Gendered Migration on Transnational Migrants ...... 15
Changes in Gender Relations ...... 15
Identity Negotiation among Dependent Spouse Visa Holders ...... 17
Vietnamese Transnational Migration to the U.S...... 18
Theoretical Framework ...... 22
Standpoint Theory ...... 22
Theory of Intersectionality ...... 25
Gendered Geographies of Power ...... 27
Michel Foucault’s Theories of Govermentality and Power/ Knowledge ...... 29 viii
Other Critical Theories ...... 31
Methodology and Procedures ...... 32
Overview of the Study ...... 38
CHAPTER II. GLOBALIZATION AND THE GENDERING OF THE POST-1990
VIETNAMESE SKILLED MIGRATION TO THE U.S...... 40
An Overview of Vietnamese Migration to the U.S. prior to the 1990s ...... 42
Vietnam’s Post-war Development Policies ...... 46
“Đổi Mới” Policy ...... 47
Vietnam’s Post-1995 Education Policies ...... 51
Vietnam’s Gendered Demand for Overseas-trained Highly Skilled Labor ...... 55
The U.S. Gendered Demand for Highly Skilled Migrant Labor ...... 57
Gender Ideologies and Practices in Vietnam ...... 59
Conclusion ...... 66
CHAPTER III. CONSTRUCTING DEPENDENCE: STRUCTURAL AND CULTURAL
BARRIERS TO VIETNAMESE ACCOMPANYING WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN
THE U.S. LABOR FORCE ...... 67
The U.S. Visa Regime and the Housewifization of Vietnamese Accompanying
Women in the U.S...... 68
The Racial, Class, and Gender Biases in the U.S. Immigration Policies
toward Highly Skilled Temporary Migrants ...... 69 ix
Governmentality, State Power, and the U.S. Visa Regime ...... 74
Other Structural Barriers to Vietnamese Accompanying Women’s Employment ...... 77
Complicated, Lengthy, and Costly Immigration Processes ...... 77
U.S. Bureaucracy and their Ignorance of Vietnamese Culture ...... 80
The Devaluation of Migrants’ Foreign Credentials ...... 83
Cultural Barriers...... 91
U.S. Employers’ Implicit Biases in Hiring process ...... 92
Wage Discrimination and Other Discriminatory Practices ...... 93
Conclusion ...... 94
CHAPTER IV. FOR A HEALTHY MARRIAGE: VIETNAMESE ACCOMPANYING
WOMEN’S NEGOTIATION OF GENDER ROLES AND FAMILIAL EXPECTATIONS
IN THE U.S...... 96
Negotiating Gender Roles and Spousal Power Relations ...... 99
Gender Roles in Middle-class Families in Vietnam ...... 101
Gender Roles and Spousal Relations among Vietnamese Nonimmigrant
Married Couples in the U.S...... 108
Handling In-law Tensions ...... 123
Dealing with Monetary Expectations from Natal Families ...... 129
Assessing Marital Satisfaction and Family Well-being ...... 132
Conclusion ...... 140 x
CHAPTER V. SEARCHING FOR A COMMUNITY OF BELONGING: THE SOCIAL
INTEGRATION OF VIETNAMESE NONIMMIGRANT WOMEN IN THE U.S...... 142
Theories on Social (Dis)integration of Immigrants ...... 144
The (Dis)integration of Vietnamese Accompanying Women in the U.S...... 149
Vietnamese Accompanying Women’s Cultural, Social, and Economic Integration ... 154
Vietnamese Skilled Migrants’ (Dis)integration into Vietnamese American
Communities ...... 170
The Emergence of Imagined Vietnamese Communities in the U.S...... 183
Conclusion ...... 188
CHAPTER VI. NAVIGATING GLOBALIZATION: VIETNAMESE ACCOMPANYING
WOMEN’S STRUGGLES AGAINST SUBORDINATION IN THE U.S...... 190
Vietnamese Accompanying Women’s Struggles against Subordination in the U.S. .. 191
Definitions of Power and Empowerment ...... 191
The (Dis)empowering Effects of Globalization ...... 193
Regaining their Lost Confidence and Social Independence: Vietnamese
Accompanying Women and their Journeys to Obtain White-collar Jobs ...... 194
“Globalization from Below”: Vietnamese Accompanying Women and their
Engagement in Globalization Processes ...... 202
Summary of the Study ...... 211
The Significance of the Study ...... 216 xi
BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 221
APPENDIX A. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAILS OF THE RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS ...... 248
APPENDIX B. VISA RESTRICTIONS FOR ACCOMPANYING SPOUSES OF
VIETNAMESE TEMPORARY SKILLED MIGRANTS IN THE U.S...... 253
APPENDIX C. ABBREVIATIONS, ACRONYMS, AND VIETNAMESE TERMS ...... 256
APPENDIX D. CONSENTS ...... 257
APPENDIX E. QUESTIONS FOR OPEN-ENDED INTERVIEWS...... 270
xii
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
1 Vietnamese highly skilled migration to the U.S. (1997-2017) ...... 54 1
CHAPTER I. GLOBALIZATION AND GENDERED MIGRATION: FOUNDATIONS
FOR THE STUDY ON VIETNAMESE ACCOMPANYING WOMEN IN THE U.S.
Introduction
The emergence of a global economy which resulted from centuries of expanding trade and the more recent technological revolution has led to an increased competition among countries around the world. To promote their economic competitiveness, many nation states enter the “global race for talent” – a “global competition for attaining highly skilled people” 1 to increase human capital for the development of a knowledge economy, which is defined as “an economy where knowledge-related activities such as production, creation, use, and dissemination are primary contributors to the economic growth.”2 While developing countries send their promising talents to developed countries for higher education, simultaneously creating systems of control to ensure the return of their talents, economically advanced countries implement immigration policies to both attract highly-skilled foreign workers and constrain the foreign mobile bodies.
According to the Economist Intelligence Unit (2015), the U.S. has long been the country ranking the first, and well ahead of other countries, in producing and attracting talent.3 Since the enactments of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, the U.S. has placed employment-
1 Chi Hong Nguyen, “Transnational Mobilities of Australia-Educated and Domiciled Professional Migrants from Vietnam” (The University of Queensland, 2015), 1, https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:372322.
2 Mitt Nowshade Kabir, Knowledge-Based Social Entrepreneurship: Understanding Knowledge Economy, Innovation, and the Future of Social Entrepreneurship (London: Palgrave Macmillan US, 2019), 36.
3 Danny Kalman et al., “The Global Talent Index Report: The Outlook to 2015,” 2011, http://graphics.eiu.com/upload/eb/HeidrickGTI.pdf. 2 based preferences for aliens with economic potential, skills, and education. The creation of various nonimmigrant visa programs such as the F-1 visas for international students, J-1 visas for exchange visitors (usually research scholars and professors), L-1 visas for intracompany transferee executives, managers, and professional employees with specialized knowledge, H-1B visas for foreign workers in specialty occupations, and O-1 visas for “individuals with extraordinary ability and achievement,” can be seen as one of the U.S. government’s attempts to attract and retain skilled migrants for economic growth.
A report by Migration Policy Institute in 2006 points out that since the early 1970s, the
“source of highly skilled foreign-born workers in the United States has shifted from Europe to
Asia.”4 Especially, after the technology industry boom of the 1990s which created a thriving job market for people with technical and scientific skills, the numbers of immigrants from Asian countries, particularly from India and China to the U.S. dramatically increased.5 As the country opens its door to welcome more people from previously restricted countries, William Bernard argues that the U.S. immigration policy has “gradually evolved from narrow and prejudiced restrictions to a system that shows growing tolerance for ethnic diversity, liberalism and generosity.”6 In addition, because a majority of the U.S. public supports an immigration system
4 Neeraj Kaushal and Michael Fix, “The Contributions of High-Skilled Immigrants,” 2006, 7, https://www.migrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/publications/TF16_Kaushal.pdf.
5 Tim Henderon, “More Educated Asians Are Coming to America,” USA Today, March 26, 2016.
6 William Bernard, “Immigration: History of U.S. Policy,” in The Immigration Reader: America in a Multidisciplinary Perspective, ed. David Jacobson (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 1998), 48–71. 3 that favors highly skilled immigrants,7 research on skilled migration usually focuses on the impacts of skilled migration on sending and receiving countries, overlooking the challenges that highly skilled migrants and their significant others encounter in the U.S.8
The plight of highly skilled migrants’ accompanying spouses in the U.S. generally went unnoticed until Hearts Suspended, a twenty-minute autobiographical documentary film by
Meghna Damani which initiated intense debates about an immigration law reform relating to H-4 visa category was released in 2007.9 The film reveals the untold story of highly educated South
Asian immigrant women who came to the U.S. with H-4 visas and struggled to survive the serious emotional distress stemming from the denial of what they considered to be their basic right to work. As dependent spouses of highly skilled workers, H-4 visa holders were prohibited from generating any type of income in the U.S until their application for permanent U.S. residency was approved. Accordingly, while holding an H-4 visa, they were ineligible to obtain a social security number, unable to qualify for student loans, and despite their ability to open a bank account or apply for a driver’s license, without any sources of income, they did not usually do so without the approval of their husbands. H-4 dependent spouses had to “put their lives on hold”, often waiting from several years to more than a decade before they became permanent residents and can legally work. Since most of the women were well-educated and financially
7 Phillip Connor and Neil Ruiz, “Majority of U.S. Public Supports High-Skilled Immigration,” 2019, https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2019/01/22/majority-of-u-s-public-supports-high- skilled-immigration/.
8 Ajay Bailey and Clara H. Mulder, “Highly Skilled Migration between the Global North and South: Gender, Life Courses and Institutions,” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 43, no. 16 (2017): 2689–2703, https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2017.1314594.
9 Meghna Damani, Hearts Suspended (The United States, 2007), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj34k6fLpf4. 4 independent prior to immigration, many of them faced “loneliness, depression, loss of self- identity, strained marital relations and - in extreme cases - exploitation and abuse” when they were forced to become “dependents” in the U.S.10
Hearts suspended gives voice to the marginalized and silenced women whose presence in the U.S. is legal but largely unreported. It explores the private and public contexts that shape the inner turmoil and lack of agency of many H-4 visa holders and “links H-4 subjectivity and identity to gendered patterns of transnational labor, patriarchal immigration systems, and oppressive visa regimes.”11 The documentary achieved remarkable success when it made its way to six different film festivals, unified South Asian dependent spouses who make up more than fifty percent of H-4 visa holders through social networks, and bolstered public activism and support for reforms relating to H-1B and H-4 visas. 12
The activism of H-4 visa holders together with the great efforts of lobbying and advocacy groups such as the non-profit organization Immigration Voice and other U.S. technology trade groups representing Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and Google made a significant achievement on
May 26, 2015 when the Obama administration issued a rule through the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) that allowed H-4 visa holders to get work authorization after their H-
1B spouses have started the process of seeking employer-sponsored permanent residency. This
10 Madhavi Mallapragada, “Immigrant Activism: Narratives of the ‘H-4 Life’ by Indian Women on YouTube,” Communication, Culture and Critique 10, no. 1 (2017): 82, https://doi.org/10.1111/cccr.12147.
11 Mallapragada, 78.
12 Sacks Brianna, “Visa Restrictions Turn Indian Women into ’ Involuntary Housewives ’ in the United States,” GlobalPost, April 9, 2014, https://www.pri.org/stories/2014-04-09/visa- restrictions-turn-indian-women-involuntary-housewives-united-states. 5
H-4 EAD (Employment Authorization Document) rule significantly reduced the waiting time for
H-4 visa holders to get a work permit because for certain countries such as China and India, it usually took applicants more than a decade to get a green card, and given the growing backlog under the present system of “per-country limits” on permanent residencies, the green card processing time might increase up to 70 years for Indian H1-B and H-4 visa holders in the future.13
However, the H-4 EAD rule was challenged after President Trump took office as the
Trump administration announced its intention to block work permits to the spouses of H-1B visa holders to avoid “displacing genuine American workers.”14 Although a final decision relating to
H4 EAD rule had not been made before President Trump left his office in 2021, many H-4 visa holders were anxious over the possibility of losing their recently-gained right to work. Neha
Vyas, a H-4 visa holder who got her EAD in November 2016 and a job in a company which designs environmentally sustainable buildings in Washington D.C. on February 22, 2017 exclaimed “It's amazing to be free and do something to save the planet and give to this country where I live. Here I am helping to make buildings more efficient and environmentally friendly, and now I have to think about possibly packing up and leaving. I feel like they will make me a prisoner again - no driver's license, no social security number, no bank account of my own, no
13 Yashwant Raj, “For Spouses of Indians with H-1B Visa, Trump’s Plans Are a Nightmare Coming True,” Hindustan Times, December 18, 2017, https://www.hindustantimes.com/world- news/their-work-permits-in-doubt-h-1b-spouses-wait-fearing-the-inevitable/story- VghZ8dEJJb7Z8Ghyx1WjXO.html.
14 Saurabh, “H4 Visa EAD 2018 News - Lawsuit Status, Trump Administration Impact,” 2018, https://redbus2us.com/h4-visa-ead-2017-news-lawsuit-status-trump-administration-impact/. 6 financial independence."15 Meghna Damani, the director of Hearts Suspended also replied to people who say H-4 visa holders should be happy that they are not in the situation of many less fortunate, asking “What do you mean by ‘fortunate’? Just having a home and food to eat is like what any animal could also have. We are human beings. We want to create value.”16
Rationale and Research Questions
The light shed on the lives in the “golden cage” of specialty workers’ accompanying spouse heightens public awareness about the challenges facing highly skilled migrants’ significant others and their families.17 Although a considerable amount of research has been conducted on the experiences of nonimmigrant spousal visa holders, existing literature mostly focuses on the negative impacts of the U.S. immigration law which prohibits dependent spouses from working on the identity and personal agency of accompanying women.18
Few studies investigate how various cultural and social structural factors interact with the
U.S. visa regime to affect the economic and social integration of highly skilled migrants’ families in the host country as well as how accompanying spouses of highly skilled migrants navigate their post-migration challenges in both their family and social lives. In addition, little
15 Ela Dutt, “H4 Visa-Holders Anxious Over Court Challenge To Right To Work,” News India - Times, March 17, 2017.
16 Dutt.
17 Sonia Paul, “Proposed Changes to the H-1B Visa Program Could Put Many Women Back into a ‘golden Cage’ | Public Radio International,” January 4, 2018, https://www.pri.org/stories/2018- 01-04/proposed-changes-h-1b-visa-program-could-put-women-back-golden-cage.
18 Sabrina Balgamwalla, “A Woman’s Place: Dependent Spouse Visa Holders and the Legacy of Coverture,” 2013, https://law.ubalt.edu/centers/caf/pdf/Sabrina Balgamwalla.pdf; Samit Dipon Bordoloi, “How Immigration Law Impacts the Household Life of F-2 Wives in the USA,” Open Journal of Social Sciences 4 (2016): 111–29, https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2016.410009. 7 effort has been made to clarify whether the U.S. immigration policy truly promotes “ethnic diversity, liberalism and generosity” and if highly skilled migrants are truly welcomed in the
U.S. Furthermore, there is a lack of research which situates highly skilled migrants’ accompanying spouses, the seemingly powerless and unimportant “dependent” women, in globalization processes to analyze the (dis)empowering effects of globalization. Further, almost no attention has been paid to a large number of accompanying women who, despite their ability to obtain work authorization, experience a downward mobility, changing from primary wage- earners in their home country to workers doing low-paid, unofficial work or economic dependents of their partners because of various cultural and structural barriers in the host country.
My study which examines the lived experiences of Vietnamese women holding nonimmigrant spousal visas who, under the current immigration law, may or may not be authorized to work in the U.S. was conducted to fill those gaps. My study explores the following questions:
(1) How do various aspects of identity such as race, class, gender, ethnicity, and nationality
intersect with visa regimes to influence the lived experiences of Vietnamese women
coming to the U.S. as accompanying spouses of temporary skilled migrants?
(2) What aspects of Vietnamese and American cultures are revealed and made salient
through the lived experiences of Vietnamese accompanying women?
(3) What characteristics of globalization and transnational migration are illuminated through
the lived experiences of Vietnamese accompanying women?
Under these guiding questions, more specific questions were raised and answered in the process of collecting and interpreting the women’s narratives. Those questions include: 8
(1) What challenges did Vietnamese women coming to the U.S. with nonimmigrant spousal
visas encounter in the U.S.?
(2) What did they do to overcome those challenges?
(3) How did transnational migration impact the women’s identity and agency?
(4) Were there any changes in gender relations in the families of the women? If yes, how
were the women empowered or disempowered compared with their time in Vietnam?
(5) How did accompanying spouses of temporary Vietnamese skilled migrants integrate into
American society? Were there any barriers to their economic and social integration in the
U.S.?
(6) How did Vietnam-U.S. relations together with the gender, social, and cultural dynamics
in Vietnam and the U.S. influence the lived experience of those women?
(7) What kinds of support do accompanying women need from their families, their country
of origin (Vietnam) and the host country (the U.S.) to better their experience in the U.S.?
By providing answers to these questions, my study not only broadens our understanding about the lived experiences of highly skilled migrants’ accompanying spouses, globalization, and gendered migration but also fills in the gap of research on the Vietnamese experience in the U.S. which focuses on the experiences of post-1975 Vietnamese refugees and overlooks the experiences of more recent migrants who came to the U.S. for education and employment purposes. My study aims to give voice to Vietnamese accompanying women and to provide them with an opportunity to receive more respect, sympathy, and support from their families, their home country, and the host country. It was also designed to help the U.S., a country of immigrants, understand more about the challenging circumstances of its newcomers, and accordingly, make necessary efforts to remedy existing social injustices. 9
Literature Review
As explicated above, my study makes a considerable contribution to the existing literature on the topics of globalization, gendered migration, and the Vietnamese experience in the U.S. In the next part, I review major works in these fields that are in conversation with my dissertation.
Gender and Migration
Feminist scholars argue that “immigration is fundamentally a gender issue” as a person’s gender shapes every stage of the migration experience from the reasons for migrating to how people migrate, opportunities and resources available in the receiving country, and relations with the sending country.19 This argument was developed based on a number of studies which were conducted on various ways that gender shapes migration, explicating why women started to join the moves;20 how migration policy and migration process are gendered; 21 how law is patriarchal
19 Katharine M. Donato et al., “A Glass Half Full? Gender in Migration Studies,” International Migration Review 40, no. 1 (2006): 3–26, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-7379.2006.00001.x; Yen Le Espiritu, “Americans Have a Different Attitude: Family, Sexuality, and Gender in Filipina American Lives,” in Gender through the Prism of Differences, ed. Maxine Baca Zinn and Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 233–41; Chien-Juh Gu, The Resilient Self: Gender, Immigration, and Taiwanese Americans (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2017), 2.
20 Mirjana Morokvasic, “Birds of Passage Are Also Women ...,” International Migration Review 18, no. 4 (1984): 886–907, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13398-014-0173-7.2.
21 Nicola Piper, “Gendering the Politics of Migration,” International Migration Review, 2006, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-7379.2006.00006.x; Donato et al., “A Glass Half Full? Gender in Migration Studies”; Patricia R. Pessar and Sarah J. Mahler, “Transnational Migration: Bringing Gender In,” International Migration Review 37, no. 3 (2006): 812–46, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-7379.2003.tb00159.x. 10 in nature; 22 why globalization is critical for the rise in international migration,23 and why the relation between gender and migration should be considered in the nexus of migration and development.24
This study illustrates the gendered nature of migration when explicating how Vietnam’s post-war development policies, the gendered demands for skilled labor in both Vietnam and
U.S., and Vietnamese traditional gender roles “forced” many Vietnamese women to migrate as accompanying spouses. It also explains how the U.S. immigration laws are gendered, and how gender ideologies and gender stereotypes shaped the migration experiences of well-educated, middle-class Vietnamese accompanying women in the U.S.
Globalization and Gendered Migration
One of the areas in the scholarship on gender and migration that is critical for my study is the complex relation between migration and globalization. Critical social theorists have pointed out that migration is a key mechanism of globalization with the Global North using migration as a tool to import labor from the Global South to serve the profit goals of the northern elite in the global capitalist market.25 Globalization, from critical social theorists’ perspective, is a highly
22 Kitty Calavia, “Gender, Migration, and Law: Crossing Borders and Bridging Disciplines,” International Migration Review 40, no. 1 (2006): 104–32.
23 Lourdes Benería, Carmen Diana Deere, and Naila Kabeer, “Gender and International Migration: Globalization, Development, and Governance,” Feminist Economics 18, no. 2 (2012): 1–33, https://doi.org/10.1080/13545701.2012.688998.
24 Laura Oso Oso and Ribas-Mateos Natalia, “An Introduction to a Global and Development Perspective: A Focus on Gender, Migration and Transnationalism,” in The International Handbook of Gender, Migration and Transnationalism, ed. Laura Oso Oso and Ribas-Mateos Natalia (Edward Elgar, 2013), 1–44.
25 Hester Eisenstein, “A Dangerous Liaison? Feminism and Corporate Globalization,” Science & Society 69, no. 3 (2005): 487–518, https://doi.org/10.1521/siso.69.3.487.66520; Douglas Kellner, 11 complex, and contradictory process – “run by powerful and undefined sets of social relations and institutions as well as marked by flow of goods, services, ideas, technologies, cultural forms and people.”26 Globalization is not only imposed from above by capitalist corporate structures and capitalist states, but also contested and reconfigured from below by individuals and groups negatively affected by globalization.
My study, which unravels the relations between globalization and migration, the multifaceted and complex impacts of transnational migration on the lives of Vietnamese women in the U.S., as well as the transnational activities that those women engaged in provides further elaboration of the concept of “globalization from below”. In addition, my focus on how
Vietnamese women holding nonimmigrant dependent spouse visas negotiated and resisted the negative transnational migration experiences using the new technologies that globalization offers for the capital growth (such as the Internet and social media use) answers Kellner’s call for studies on globalization which reveal the “contradictions and ambiguities of globalization highlighting the conflicts, struggles and crises that globalization fosters by its push for dismantling the welfare state and promoting privatization of the public sphere.”27
“Theorizing Globalization,” Sociological Theory 20, no. 3 (2002): 285–305, https://doi.org/10.1111/0735-2751.00165; Ernestine M. Avila and Rhacel Salazar Parrenas, “Servants of Globalization: Women, Migration, and Domestic Work,” Contemporary Sociology 31, no. 4 (2002): 396, https://doi.org/10.2307/3089067; Mae Ngai, Impossible Subjects: Illegal ALiens and the Making of Modern America (New Jersy: Princeton, 2004); Saskia Sassen, “The State and the New Geography of Power,” in Losing Control? Sovereignty in the Age of Globalization (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), 1–32.
26 Kellner, “Theorizing Globalization” quoted in Balgamwalla, “A Woman’s Place: Dependent Spouse Visa Holders and the Legacy of Coverture,” 21.
27 Kellner, “Theorizing Globalization” quoted in Pallavi Banerjee, “Constructing Dependence: Visa Regimes and Gendered Migration in Families of Indian Professional Workers” (University of Illinois at Chicago, 2012), 21, 12
Visa Regimes and Gendered Migration
Besides globalization, the state has been proven to play a significant role in fostering gendered migration. Critical scholars, particularly feminists, have challenged the depiction of the state as gender-neutral, providing a thorough critique of the state as “systematically male in its interests and judicial process.”28 Research on international migration also reveals the role of the state in shoring up gender roles. Calavita, for example, argues that by setting up quota systems and giving about 50% of all annual quotas for immigrants to domestic workers, Spain and Italy are gendering the workforce, confining most migrant women who want to enter these countries legally to domestic work. Balgamwalla in a study on H-4 dependent visa program also insists that the United States is doing “gender work” through its visa regimes. According to
Balgamwalla, the present U.S. spousal visa program is influenced by the prevailing notion of gender roles and the doctrine of coverture, a mechanism by which a husband may establish power and control over a spouse. Prior to 1952, male U.S. citizens and permanent residents were given exclusive control over the legal status of their immigrant wives and children, whereas female U.S. citizens and permanent residents were denied the right to petition for their foreign- born husbands. Although the gender-specific language was removed from the statute in 1952, the coverture mechanism still exists in the current U.S. immigration law as the visa system established by the Immigration Act of 1965 vests “the unilateral power of petition” for
http://search.proquest.com/pqdthss/docview/1343688467/141ABD447EC103384A7/83?accounti d=11359.
28 Catharine A. MacKinnon, Toward a Feminist Theory of the State (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991) quoted in Calavia, “Gender, Migration, and Law: Crossing Borders and Bridging Disciplines,” 4. 13 citizenship to spouses who are U.S. citizens, permanent residents or principal visa holders.29
Since the petitioners are allowed to withdraw their petition for their foreign spouses any time before the dependent spouses naturalize, the dependent spouses face a constant threat of being removed from the U.S. if they do not get on well with their partners. In theory, both male and female immigrants are affected by the coverture provisions in U.S. immigration law. However, in reality, particularly in case of the H-4 visa program, women are affected the most since most of the dependent spouses are women. According to Balgamwalla, by passing a law which prohibits certain groups of non-immigrant dependent spouse visa holders from working, the
United States further sanctions the domination of husbands over wives and reinforces the traditional gender roles in which women mainly function as housewives, baby makers, and sex partners.”30 Pallavi Banerjee in another study on H-4 visa holders also argues that the visa regimes “govern more than just mobility of the transnational subject.” Visa policies “reconfigure identities and notions of the self for visa holders and impose constraints on relationship, families, belonging and migration.”31
The above-mentioned studies have critically discussed the role of the state, particularly the impacts of visa policies on the lives of immigrant women. However, they do not consider how visa regimes intersect with other factors such as race, ethnicity, and nationality to influence the experiences of female migrants in the U.S. By taking the intersections of visa regimes and
29 Balgamwalla, “A Woman’s Place: Dependent Spouse Visa Holders and the Legacy of Coverture,” 12.
30 Balgamwalla, “A Woman’s Place: Dependent Spouse Visa Holders and the Legacy of Coverture.”
31 Banerjee, “Constructing Dependence: Visa Regimes and Gendered Migration in Families of Indian Professional Workers,” xiv. 14 important aspects of identity into consideration, my dissertation expands the literature on the relations among the state, law and gendered migration.
Race, Class and Gendered Migration
Another area in the scholarship on gender and migration that significantly influences my study is the socioeconomic, gendered and racialized aspects of transnational migration and globalization. Transnational feminists and postcolonial theorists argue that the feminization of transnational migration in the last 50 years largely originates from the intervention of the Global
North in the Global South through international institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF whose policies requiring loan-taking countries to adopt structural adjustment programs weaken the economies of the Global South.32 As struggling nations have to rely on strategic emigration to sustain their economies, women from the Global South are encouraged to migrate, becoming
“cheap” migrant labor, taking low-paying jobs such as care work and domestic service work in more developed countries. Their work, despite being crucial to the functioning of the global neoliberal economy, is kept invisible so as to minimize production costs and to reduce the migrant women’s agency to organize.33 Transnational feminists and critical theorists highlight the plight of migrants who are economically disadvantaged women of color from the Global
32 Saskia Sassen, “Women’s Burden: Counter-Geographies of Globalization and the Feminization of Survival,” Nordic Journal of International Law 71, no. 2 (2002): 255–74, https://doi.org/10.1163/157181002761931378; Aihwa Ong, Neoliberalism as Exception: Mutations in Citizenship and Sovereignty (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006); Chandra Talpade Mohanty, “Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity,” Contributions to Indian Sociology 19 (2003): 312, https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.2004.106.3.627; Robyn Ryle, Questioning Gender: A Sociological Exploration, 3rd ed. (New York: SAGE Publications, 2017).
33 Sassen, “Women’s Burden: Counter-Geographies of Globalization and the Feminization of Survival.” 15
South. However, the effect of globalization and gendered migration on professional women and middle-class women from the Global South have been largely missing from this analysis. My study which examines how oppressive visa regimes together with other structural and cultural barriers contribute to the downward mobility of many Vietnamese professional and middle-class women, turning them from white-collar workers to blue-collar workers doing low-paying jobs in the U.S. fills in this gap in research on gendered migration.
Impacts of Gendered Migration on Transnational Migrants
Literature on gendered migration is not only interested in the main factors shaping transnational migration experiences such as globalization, immigration law and policy, race, class, and gender, it also explores the impacts of those factors on transnational migrants, their families, their home country, and the host country. The next subsection discusses some of the most important themes recurring in studies on the experiences of transnational migrants in general and women holding non-immigrant dependent spouse visas in particular.
Changes in Gender Relations
One of the issues that receives enormous attention from researchers is the influence of transnational migration on gender relations. Existing literature suggests that “gains for women or men may be uneven and contradictory” with some studies revealing that with wage-earning employment, migrant women experienced “gains in personal autonomy, independence, and greater gender parity, where men lose ground”34 while other studies describe the “intensification
34 Nazli Kibria, Family Tightrope, the Changing Lives of Vietnamese Americans (Princeton University Press, 1995); Charles Hirschman and Vu Manh Loi, “Family and Household Structure in Vietnam : Some Glimpses From a Recent Survey Family and Household Structure in Vietnam : Some Glimpses from a Recent Survey,” Pacific Affairs 69, no. 2 (1996): 229–49; Petra Dannecker, “Transnational Migration and the Transformation of Gender Relations: The Case of Bangladeshi Labour Migrants,” Current Sociology, 2005,
16 of men’s control over women as well as instances of emotional and physical abuse.”35 Despite various findings, research on gender and migration in general and works on migration and changes in gender relations in particular emphasizes the necessity of taking the intersectionality of identity such as race, class, region, religion, etc. into consideration when examining how migration shapes gender relations.36 Wei Wei Da also notes that “the impact of migration on gender relations is multifaceted, individualized, and cultural” which suggests “the importance of considering the social context, culture and social class of migrants in the home country when discussing the gender relations of migrants in the process of resettlement in the host country.”37
Based on the suggestions offered in previous research on the impacts of migration on gender relations in migrants’ families, I took the social-political context, culture, and social class of migrants in both the home country and the host country into consideration when evaluating the changes in gender relations in the families of Vietnamese women holding non-immigrant dependent spouse visa holders.
https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392105052720; Pessar and Mahler, “Transnational Migration: Bringing Gender In,” 5.
35 Hoan Bui and Merry Morash, “Immigration, Masculinity, and Intimate Partner Violence from the Standpoint of Domestic Violence Service Providers and Vietnamese-Origin Women,” Feminist Criminology 3, no. 3 (2008): 191–215, https://doi.org/10.1177/1557085108321500; Banerjee, “Constructing Dependence: Visa Regimes and Gendered Migration in Families of Indian Professional Workers”; Pessar and Mahler, “Transnational Migration: Bringing Gender In,” 5.
36 Morokvasic, “Birds of Passage Are Also Women ...”; Pessar and Mahler, “Transnational Migration: Bringing Gender In.”
37 Wei Wei Da, “Gender Relations in Recent Chinese Migration to Australia,” Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 12, no. 3 (2003): 469, https://doi.org/10.1177/011719680301200305.
17
Identity Negotiation among Dependent Spouse Visa Holders
As I have mentioned in the rationale, studies on nonimmigrant dependent spouse visa holders mostly focus on groups of women who are not allowed to work in the U.S. namely the
H-4 (dependents of skilled workers) or F-2 (dependents of international students) visa holders, and they all reveal the “identity crisis” that the women encounter in the U.S.38 Since most of the women holding dependent spouse visas are well-educated, some even leaving behind well- paying jobs in their home country, their inability to obtain or continue employment in the U.S. deprives them of their previously-hold identity and forces them to reconstruct their identity to suit the new roles that they assume in the new society. According to Kerri Weeks, the process of identity revision among women holding dependent spouse visas involves the negotiation of multiple issues including “language proficiency, financial and social dependence, social and cultural norms, cultural identity, other stereotypes, and the ability to continue employment.”39
Previous research has shown that H-4 and F-2 visa holders, being prohibited from working, often choose to become mother, to do volunteer work, or to pursue higher education to make their lives more meaningful in the new environment. To obtain social independence from their husbands, women with dependent visa status often socialize within the local community (especially local
38 Banerjee, “Constructing Dependence: Visa Regimes and Gendered Migration in Families of Indian Professional Workers”; Kerri A. Weeks, “The Berkeley Wives: Identity Revision and Development among Temporary Immigrant Women,” Asian Journal of Women’s Studies 6, no. 2 (2000): 78–105, https://doi.org/10.1080/12259276.2000.11665878; Yalem Teshome, “Social and Institutional Factors Affecting the Daily Experiences of the Spouses of International Students : Voices from the Midwest and Implications to Academic Institutions” (Iowa State University, 2010), http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/etd/11477/.
39 Weeks, “The Berkeley Wives: Identity Revision and Development among Temporary Immigrant Women,” 78.
18 churches), an existing co-ethnic community, or a network of women sharing the same visa status.40 Although previous studies effectively unravel women’s agency in their identity negotiation process, they overlook the impacts of other critical factors such as race, ethnicity, nationality, and technology on the women’s experiences. In the case of Vietnamese women holding nonimmigrant spouse visas in the U.S., the history of Vietnamese transnational migration to the U.S., which complicates the concept of (Vietnamese American) ethnicity, poses more challenges to the women’s identity negotiation process, and thus, makes their situation a special case study for research on gendered migration. In addition, given the advanced development of technology and its increasing influence on human life, my research examines the role that technology, especially internet, plays in the identity negotiation of Vietnamese migrant women. Furthermore, my study, which explores the experiences of not only dependent spouse visa holders who were prohibited from working but also those who took the jobs that they were overqualified for add more nuances to the topic of identity negotiation among transnational migrants. In the next section, I review literature that focuses on the Vietnamese transnational migration to the U.S.
Vietnamese Transnational Migration to the U.S.
Since migration happens mostly from south-to-north, and from south-to-south, migration from developing countries such as the Philippines, Mexico, India, Vietnam, China, Ecuador,
Guatemala, Bangladesh has received special attention from transnational migration scholars.
40 Banerjee, “Constructing Dependence: Visa Regimes and Gendered Migration in Families of Indian Professional Workers”; Weeks, “The Berkeley Wives: Identity Revision and Development among Temporary Immigrant Women”; Teshome, “Social and Institutional Factors Affecting the Daily Experiences of the Spouses of International Students : Voices from the Midwest and Implications to Academic Institutions.” 19
Despite a large number of Vietnamese people entering the U.S. every year, however, existing scholarship on Vietnamese migration to the U.S. mostly focuses on the exodus of Vietnamese flocking into the country after the fall of Saigon, explicating their torturous journeys to
America—the mythic country of freedom and opportunity—the process of ethnic identity formation and community construction, as well as the issues of conflicts, problems, and adaptation among Vietnamese youth.41 Very few studies pay attention to more recent groups of
Vietnamese migrants in the U.S. The works of An Tuan Nguyen and Hung Cam Thai are among the few that have profound influence on my research.
Nguyen challenges the popular representation of Vietnamese Americans as political refugees or descendants of political migrants and the projection of Vietnamese American communities as “sites of staunch anti-communism” rendering visible a newer generation of
Vietnamese professionals and entrepreneurs whose migratory trajectories have been made possible by the immigration policy and the U.S.-Vietnam political reconciliation that began in the early 1990s.42 According to Nguyen, there are several differences between Vietnamese refugees and Vietnamese professionals and entrepreneurs. First, Vietnamese refugees suffered
41 Hien Duc Do, The Vietnamese Americans (Greenwood, 1999); James Freeman, Hearts of Sorrow - Vietnamese American Lives (Stanford University Press, 1991); Paul Rutledge, The Vietnamese Experience in America (Indiana University Press, 1992); Marry Cargill and Jade Quang Huynh, Voices of Vietnamese Boat People: Nineteen Narratives of Escape and Survival (McFarland Publishing, 2001); Kibria, Family Tightrope, the Changing Lives of Vietnamese Americans; Nhi Lieu, The American Dream in Vietnamese (University Of Minnesota Press, 2011); P D P Long and L Ricard, “Dream Shattered: Vietnamese Gangs in America,” Dream Shattered: Vietnamese Gangs in America, 1996, http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=SM158843&site=ehost-live.
42 An Tuan Nguyen, “Luggage To America: Vietnamese Intellectual and Entrepreneurial Immigrants in the New Millenium” (Bowling Green State University, 2013), 88. 20 from “forced migration” caused by their fear for economic and political oppression and/or loss of livelihood, whereas current Vietnamese immigrants enjoy a “voluntary migration,” choosing to migrate for their personal socio-economic advancement. Secondly, Vietnamese refugees and current Vietnamese professionals come from distinctive ideological and political background, which may prevent them from socializing with each other. Nguyen’s observation complicates the concept of Vietnamese American ethnicity, suggesting potential disharmony between newer
Vietnamese migrants and the existing Vietnamese communities in the U.S., which may be a crucial factor influencing the experiences of Vietnamese women holding nonimmigrant dependent spouse visas, the focus of study.
Besides An Nguyen, Hung Cam Thai is another scholar working on more recent
Vietnamese transnational migration to the U.S. In For Better or Worse: Vietnamese International
Marriages in the New Global Economy, Thai investigated the relationships between intimacy, transnationality, and globalization within the context of the Vietnamese diaspora by studying the international marriages between well-educated, middle-class women in Vietnam and
Vietnamese-origin men in the U.S. The book reveals a clash in gender expectations built on a national construction of gender identity between those women and men with the former expecting to have more independence in the U.S. while the latter hoping to marry a “traditional woman” who will “respect their masculine power, restore their sense of self-esteem, and take care of the household.”43 For Better or Worse provides me with a better understanding of the gender dynamics in contemporary Vietnamese society, Vietnamese female migrants’ imagination
43 Hung Cam Thai, For Better or For Worse: Vietnamese International Marriages in the New Global Economy (Rutgers University Press, 2008) quoted in Fiona Ngô, “Reviewed Work ( s ): For Better or for Worse : Vietnamese International Marriages in the New Global Economy by Hung Cam Thai,” Journal of Vietnamese Studies 5, no. 1 (2010): 2. 21 about gender relations in the U.S., as well as the reconstruction of gender identities following
Vietnamese people’s movements across borders. Another article by Hung Cam Thai that is useful for my research is “The dual roles of transnational daughters and transnational wives: monetary intentions, expectations and dilemmas.” In this article, Thai uncovers a paradoxical situation that married Vietnamese women encounter after their migration to the U.S. for marriage. On the one hand, it is culturally accepted that Vietnamese women are not required to financially support their biological ageing parents after their marriage. On the other hand, because of their migration to such a developed country as the United States, Vietnamese female migrants are expected to earn a lot of money, and thus, to be able to provide monetary support to their parents in Vietnam. Their efforts to fulfil their parents’ expectation often meets with their husbands’ objection, putting more pressure on their marital relation. 44 The paradox that the author uncovered shows that economic responsibility towards parents is an important factor that needs to be taken into consideration when examining gender dynamics within Vietnamese transnational families.
The review of literature suggests that my study contributes to the existing literature on
Vietnamese transnational migration and gendered migration by: (1) taking into consideration various factors such as race, gender, class, ethnicity, nationality and visa regimes in the exploration of gendered transnational migration experience; (2) providing an interpretation and critique that comes from the voices of more recent Vietnamese migrants to the U.S. whose experiences are overlooked because of their dependent status.
44 Hung Cam Thai, “The Dual Roles of Transnational Daughters and Transnational Wives: Monetary Intentions, Expectations and Dilemmas,” Global Networks 12, no. 2 (2012): 216–32, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-0374.2012.00348.x. 22
Theoretical Framework
In the last five decades, when transnational migration has become the global trend, understanding of transnational migrants’ experiences is essential for the critical evaluation of globalization as well as immigration and emigration policies of receiving and sending countries.
My study focuses on the experiences of transnational migrants with female migrants being the focus of inquiry. The reason for me to put women at the center of my research is explained through standpoint theory, one of the most influential feminist theoretical perspectives emerging from the second-wave feminism during the 1970s.
Standpoint Theory
Standpoint theory is rooted in Marxist ideology which, through a comprehensive analysis of the struggle inherent in the master/slave relationship, emphasized that people from oppressed class such as slaves could offer a valuable insight into social oppression and injustice unavailable from the viewpoint of the privileged class such as the masters.45 Prominent feminist standpoint theorists including Dorothy Smith, Nancy Hartsock, Donna Haraway, Sandra Harding, Alison
Wylie, Lynette Hunter and Patricia Hill Collins then reframed the idea of standpoint of the proletariat to develop a feminist epistemology that focused on women’s social positions and their production of knowledge.
Rejecting the traditional "value-free" view of science demonstrated in the clear distinction between cognitive and social value, standpoint theorists insist that “knowledge [is]
45 Nadine Changfoot, “Feminist Standpoint Theory, Hegel and the Dialectical Self,” Philosophy & Social Criticism 30, no. 4 (2004): 477–502, https://doi.org/10.1177/0191453704044024. 23 situated in time, place, experience and relative power.”46 As a person’s perception is greatly influenced by his or her day-to-day experience, knowledge is always partial and may vary among people with different social statuses. Compared to men, however, women must take up many more struggles in their lifetimes owing to their subordinate position in the gender hierarchy.
Their lived experience, as a result, provides them with not only a fuller account of their lives but also more complete and diverse knowledge of the social and natural world.47 In addition, since oppressed groups such as women have more incentive to understand the viewpoints of the dominating class, the knowledge they produce may have a different perspective than that of the dominants, who may try to distort the reality of the marginalized to defend the status quo.48 With this theoretical basis, feminist standpoint theorists question the alleged objectivity of scientific methods and critiqued the reproduction of Eurocentrism and racism in scientific institutions.49
Adopting a method of knowledge-making that gives voice to the least powerful and counts their knowledge claims as the more comprehensive descriptions of social and natural phenomena, feminist standpoint theory promises an approach to knowledge that could redress inequalities and advance democracy.50 Patricia Hill Collins’ insight into African American women’s
46 Em Griffin, “A First Look at Communication Theory,” McGraw-Hill, 2008, 446, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13398-014-0173-7.2.
47 Sandra Harding, “The Feminist Standpoint Theory Reader: Intellectual and Political Controversies,” Hypatia 19, no. 1 (2004): 25–47, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1527- 2001.2004.tb01267.x.
48 Griffin, “A First Look at Communication Theory,” 447.
49 Sandra Harding, “Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? Thinking from Women’s Lives.,” Contemporary Sociology, 1991, 536, https://doi.org/10.2307/2075914.
50 Karen Houle, “Making Strange: Deconstruction and Feminist Standpoint Theory Making Strange Deconstruction and Feminist Standpoint Theory,” Frontiers: A Journal of Women
24 marginalized status offered in her book Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (1990) is one example. Throughout the book, Collins argued that African American women’s inferior position within the race, gender, and class hierarchies provided them with a distinctive viewpoint towards oppression. Collins’ revelation of the suffering that African American women endured such as labor exploitation, political denial of rights, and damaging stereotypical portrayals of black women in the media, therefore, called for
“inclusive scholarship that rejects knowledge that dehumanizes and objectifies people.”51
The subjects of my study share a similar marginalized status with African American women despite the difference in the types of oppression that the two groups suffer from. Being granted the dependent visa status which usually entails social and economic dependence, getting trapped in the domestic sphere because of gender roles and/or visa regulations, encountering enormous difficulties in socializing with local community because of racial discrimination or co- ethnic disharmony, the Vietnamese women holding non-immigrant dependent spouse visas offered a distinctive viewpoint towards transnational migration experience, the impacts of globalization, as well as multiple layers of oppression in the U.S. such as race, class, gender, nationality, among others that other groups of immigrants may not have.
Although I was aware of the criticism that standpoint theorists face such as their allegedly ungrounded assumption that the marginalized are less biased and more impartial than the privileged, I believed in the power of standpoint theory in “redressing inequalities and
Studies Methodology, and Science Studies 30, no. 1 (2009): 174, https://doi.org/10.1353/fro.0.0043.
51 Elizabeth Borland, “Standpoint Theory,” in Encyclopaedia Britannica (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2014), https://www.britannica.com/topic/standpoint-theory.
25 advancing democracy.” To remedy the short-coming of standpoint theory which is their possibility to fall in the trap of generalizing women’s experience and overlooking crucial differences among women of different social classes and cultures, I adopted another well-known feminist theory, the theory of intersectionality.
Theory of Intersectionality
Standpoint theorists emphasize the significance of a person’s standpoint in his/her knowledge production. However, since it is complicated to analyze the standpoint of a person,
Patricia Hill Collins and other feminists such as Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa, Angela
Davis, Audre Lorde, and Bell Hooks offer a valuable method which helps scholars understand the complexity of the social position a person takes up.52 According to Collins, in a matrix of domination, there are few pure victims or oppressors. Each individual experiences varying amounts of penalty and privilege from the multiple systems of oppression which frame everyone’s lives. Therefore, to understand the complexity of social identities and inequalities, instead of compartmentalizing and ordering the great axes of social differentiation through biological, social, and cultural categories such as age, gender, race, class, sexual orientation, religion, ability, scholars should investigate the inextricable interaction of those categories on multiple and often simultaneous levels. The intersectional approach, Collins asserts, “fosters a fundamental paradigmatic shift in how we think about oppression,” which is crucially important
52 Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa, This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (New York: Kitchen Table/Women of Color Press, 1983); Angela Davis, Women, Race, and Class (Vintage, 1983); Audre Lorde, “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches,” in Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches, vol. 11, 1984, 114–15, https://doi.org/10.1300/J155v11n03_01; Bell Hooks, Ain’t I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism, 2nd ed. (Routledge, 2014).
26 for cultural studies analysis.53 As Collins points out, additive models of oppression firmly rooted in either/or dichotomous thinking of Eurocentric, masculinist thought often starts with gender and then add in other variables such as age, sexual orientation, race, social class, and religion.
Since the focus of their analysis is merely on the description of the similarities and differences distinguishing these systems of oppression, these models fail to see the interconnection of various aspects of oppression, and thus, are less effective in analyzing phenomena associated with oppression. The theory of intersectionality helps cultural studies scholars reconceptualize race, gender, and class as interlocking system of oppression. Moreover, this approach makes it easier to analyze the situation of groups who are penalized by one or some aspects of identity
(such as gender, class) but privileged by other aspects of the identity (such as race, age, religion, and so on).
In the case of Vietnamese women holding nonimmigrant dependent spouse visas in the
U.S., their experience may be shaped by various factors from personal ones such as age, gender, class, race, ethnicity, religion, level of education, their intention to remain in the U.S. permanently, to structural factors such as visa restrictions and the Vietnam-U.S. relations.
However, as Alice Ludvig when evaluating the effectiveness of intersectionality theory points out that “[t]he axes of differences cannot be isolated and any project that strives to encompass a situated subject is necessarily incomplete,”54 I was aware of the impossibility of taking all
53 Patricia Collins, “Black Feminist Thought in the Matrix of Domination,” in Social Theory: The Multicultural and Classic Readings, ed. Charles Lemert, 4th ed. (Westview Press, 2009), 541.
54 Alice Ludvig, “Differences between Women?: Intersecting Voices in a Female Narrative,” in European Journal of Women’s Studies, vol. 13, 2006, 245–58, https://doi.org/10.1177/1350506806065755 cited in Ann Phoenix and Pamela Pattynama, “Intersectionality,” European Journal of Women’s Studies 13, no. 3 (2006): 190, https://doi.org/10.1177/1350506806065751.
27 significant differences into consideration. In addition, since critics of intersectionality theory also raise the question of ‘[w]ho defines when, where, which, and why particular differences are given recognition while others are not?’55 I avoided subjectively deciding the main axes of differences that affect the experiences of my participants but relied on the interviews with my informants to clarify the main aspects of intersection in my data analysis.
While standpoint theory and the theory of intersectionality play the role of the theoretical basis for my dissertation, I adopted Mahler and Pessar’s framework of “gendered geographies of power” in my data analysis to offer a nuanced examination of how gender articulates with migration.
Gendered Geographies of Power
According to Pessar and Mahler, “gendered geographies of power” is an appropriate framework which can be used for analyzing people’s gendered transnational migration experiences. This framework is composed of three fundamental elements: “geographic scales,”
“social locations” and “power geometries.” The first element, “geographic scales,” refers to the notion that “gender operates simultaneously on multiple spatial and social scales (e.g. the body, the family, the state) across transnational terrains,” and gender ideologies and relations are
“reaffirmed, reconfigured or both” within both the context of particular scales as well as between and among them.56 The second element, “social locations” refers to “persons’ positions within interconnected power hierarchies created through historical, political, economic, geographic,
55 Ludvig, “Differences between Women?: Intersecting Voices in a Female Narrative,” 247.
56 Pessar and Mahler, “Transnational Migration: Bringing Gender In,” 815.
28 kinship-based and other socially stratifying factors.”57 From Pessar and Mahler’s perspective, people, irrespective of their own efforts, are situated within power hierarchies (such as race, class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and nationality) that they have not constructed. The third element, “power geometries” denotes Pessar and Mahler’s idea that people’s access to resources and mobility across transnational spaces is impacted by not only people’s social locations but also their agency as “initiators, refiners, and transformers” of these locations.58
To analyze the transnational migration experiences of a given group, Pessar and Mahler argue, the researcher should take into consideration not only the impacts of people’s social locations, but also their social agency including both cognitive processes (such as the imagination) and subjective agency on their migration and settlement processes. In addition, people’s lived experiences should be analyzed on multiple levels to reveal the relations between gender and transnational migration on multiple spatial and social scales.
Adopting the “gendered geographies of power” framework, in my dissertation, I investigated how the social locations of Vietnamese women holding non-immigrant dependent spouse visas as well as their social agency affect their transnational migration and settlement experiences in the U.S. My analysis was carried out on three levels: (1) personal level with the focus on the identity negotiation of the women, (2) family level concentrating on the gender relations in families of the women, (3) community and/or state level focusing on the question of belonging among the women, or in other words, the connections between the women and their home country and between the women and the host communities/ country.
57 Pessar and Mahler, 816.
58 Pessar and Mahler, 816.
29
My in-depth discussion on the influences of race, gender, class, ethnicity, nationality and visa regimes on the transnational migration experiences of my subjects relied on Foucault’s theories of governmentality and power/ knowledge, critical gender and race theories, and post- colonial theories.
Michel Foucault’s Theories of Govermentality and Power/ Knowledge
The first theory developed by Foucault that is used in my study is the theory of governmentality. According to Foucault, governmentality is the “art of government,” meaning the tactic used by the government and its agencies that allows for the “continual definition and redefinition of what is within the competence of the state and what is not, the public versus the private.”59 A visa system is one of the control techniques that the government employs to control international mobility. By regulating the rights and access to resources of a “foreign national” or
“resident alien,” the visa system enables the government to organize an international population within a paradoxical framework, “one in which the mobile bodies understand themselves to be free and international and yet are controlled and constrained by the politics of surveillance, documentation, biometrics and confessional imperatives.60 Although visa policies and laws categorize part of the international mobile population as temporary bodies such as students, temporary workers, tourists, and their dependents whose rights and freedom are strictly regulated and substantially limited, the institutionalized ideology created by the visa system helps the
59 Michel Foucault, “Governmentality,” in The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality, ed. Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon, and Peter Miller (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991), 103.
60 Mark B. Salter, “Passports, Mobility, and Security: How Smart Can the Border Be?,” International Studies Perspectives 5, no. 1 (2004): 71–91, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1528- 3577.2004.00158.x quoted in Banerjee, “Constructing Dependence: Visa Regimes and Gendered Migration in Families of Indian Professional Workers,” 16.
30 government normalize its discriminatory structure and makes the oppressive nature of the state unquestionable.
Another theory proposed by Michel Foucault that is useful for my dissertation is the theory of power as knowledge. In the essay “Power as Knowledge”, Foucault countered the structuralist and classical Marxian idea that power is wielded by people or groups to establish and maintain domination or coercion. Power, Foucault believed, is dispersed and pervasive. It exhibited on the most basic levels of behavior, and human interaction may contribute to the larger trends or patterns of behavior, culture, or even regulations. Foucault’s use of the term
“power/ knowledge” signifies that power is constituted through forms of knowledge, which means that power is implicated in what is considered to be “true” or “false”. Foucault’s idea confirms the capability of ideological apparatuses in creating knowledge that sustains the benefits and position of dominant groups, but it denies the absolute power of the dominant groups to produce knowledge. Foucault asserted, “it is in discourse that power and knowledge are joined together.”61 Therefore, to fully understand a cultural phenomenon, Foucault reckoned, we have to understand its discourse. Discourse, according to Foucault, is the production of knowledge through language and practices. It is “a series of discontinuous segments whose tactical function is neither uniform nor stable … It is this distribution that we must reconstruct, with the things said and those concealed, the enunciations required and those forbidden, that it comprises; with the variants and different effects … and with the shifts and reutilizations of identical formulas for contrary objectives that it also includes.”62 For Foucault, discourse can be
61 Michel Foucault, “Power as Knowledge,” in Social Theory: The Multicultural and Classic Readings, 4th ed. (Colorado: Westview Press, 2009), 478.
62 Foucault, 478.
31
“both an instrument and an effect of power, but also … a point of resistance and a starting point of an opposing strategy.”63 Foucault emphasized that “discourse transmits and produces power; it reinforces it, but also undermines and exposes it, renders it fragile and makes it possible to thwart it”64 and “where there is power, there is resistance and yet, or rather consequently, this resistance is never in a position of exteriority in relation to power.”65
In this study, I was guided by Foucault’s theory of governmentality to explain how the state uses visa regimes to regulate mobile bodies of transnational migrants, to impose its patriarchal gender structure on the migrants’ families, and to create and reinforce racial hierarchy as well as racial stereotypes about people from the Global South. Simultaneously, I relied on
Foucault’s theory power/ knowledge to explicate how transnational migrant women negotiate and resist the negative effects of oppressive visa regimes, gender and race regimes, and other structural barriers.
Other Critical Theories
In addition, I was informed by the social construction of gender theory which emphasizes the role of society and culture in creating gender roles,66 the racial formation theory developed by Michael Omi and Howard Winant which highlights “the socio-historical process
63 Foucault, 478.
64 Foucault, 478.
65 Foucault, 475.
66 Candace West and Don. H Zimmerman, “Doing Gender,” Gender and Society 1, no. 2 (1987): 125–51, https://doi.org/10.1177/0090591701029005004; Judith Butler, “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution : An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory,” Theatre Journal 40, no. 4 (2018): 519–31.
32 by which racial categories are created, inhabited, transformed, and destroyed”67 and post-colonial theories which examine how economics, politics, religion, and culture work in relation to colonial hegemony68 to critically analyze the impacts of race, class, gender, ethnicity, and nationality on the transnational migration experiences of my participants.
Besides my contribution to the field of gendered migration and Vietnamese transnational migration, my study buttresses Lisa Lowe’s theory about the “heterogeneity, hybridity, multiplicity” in Asian American culture. By providing another example of how Asian American culture is “complicated by intergenerationality, by various degrees of identification and relation to ‘homeland,’ by different extents of assimilation and distinction from ‘majority culture’ in the
United States,” by different composition of different waves of immigrations in terms of gender, class, and region, and so on,69 my study strengthens the criticism of the dominant discursive construction and determination of Asian Americans as a homogeneous group. It dispels the
“model minority myth,” which puts Asian Americans in a series of disadvantageous positions.
Methodology and Procedures
In this study, I used two methods: discourse analysis and in-depth interviews. I conducted discourse analysis in attempting to understand why the U.S. immigration laws grant the working
67 Michael Omi and Howard Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 3rd ed. (London: Routledge, 2014), 7.
68 Edward W. Said, Orientalism, Orientalism, 1978, https://doi.org/10.2307/1354282; Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Donna Landry, and Gerald M MacLean, The Spivak Reader: Selected Works of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, New York, 1996, https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107415324.004.
69 Lisa Lowe, “Heterogeneity, Hybridity, Multiplicity: Marking Asian American Differences,” in A Companion to Asian American Studies, 2007, 273, https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470996928.ch16.
33 right to certain groups of nonimmigrants’ accompanying spouses but not others. Discourse analysis, as defined by Stephanie Taylor, is “the close study of language and language use as evidence of aspects of society and social life.”70 Discourse analysts usually interpret written or spoken texts based on both the details of the materials and on contextual knowledge. Carol
Bacchi and Jennifer Bonham when clarifying Foucault’s interpretation of “discourse” insist that careful analysis of discourse helps us understand social actors’ meanings of social reality and the motivations behind their actions (or inactions).71 Therefore, to understand the real motivation behind the U.S. immigration laws relating to Vietnamese highly skilled temporary migrants and their accompanying spouses, I collected and closely analyzed the laws as well as the reasonings that the U.S. Congress’ and Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) used to justify their decisions regarding employment authorization for nonimmigrant dependent spouses. I also read articles in which U.S. politicians either commented, supported, challenged existing laws or proposed for new laws to understand the reasons why some groups of accompanying were granted while the others were deprived of the right to work in the U.S.
However, my main data collection method was in-depth interviews with Vietnamese accompanying women. I obtained Institutional Review Board approval to conduct interviews during the two-year period between December 2017 and December 2019. In the next part, I will explain the procedures I followed to collect and analyze the data I obtained from the interviews.
Regarding participant selection, as I was aware that immigrants residing in different socio-geographic locations may have different settlement experiences in the host country, I
70 Stephanie Taylor, What Is Discourse Analysis? (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2013), 5.
71 Carol Bacchi and Jennifer Bonham, “Reclaiming Discursive Practices as an Analytic Focus : Political Implications,” Foucault Studies, no. 17 (2014): 173–92.
34 focused on the experiences of Vietnamese migrant women residing in California, the state which has more open policy towards immigrants, houses the biggest Vietnamese American communities, attracts the highest number of Vietnamese international students,72 and has the highest number of skilled workers holding H1-B visas.73 In addition, while there are eighty three nonimmigrant U.S. visas, I only recruited accompanying spouses of temporary skilled migrants in the U.S. My research participants included accompanying spouses of (1) international students, (2) individuals with extraordinary ability or achievement, (3) highly skilled workers,
(4) exchange visitors, and (5) intracompany transferees. My informants were selected based on the criterion that they were Vietnamese women who had got the experience of staying in the U.S with nonimmigrant spousal visas namely F-2, O-3, H-4, J-2 and L-2. The participants might have these U.S. visas either at the time of the interviews or before that.
Concerning participant recruitment method, I used snowball sampling in my research to recruit my research participants. Some of my informants were my friends. Some others were introduced to me by my friends who were international students, skilled workers, and postdoctoral researchers. My interviewees then helped me identify potential informants in their personal social networks.
To obtain rich data for my analysis, I conducted in-depth open-ended one-on-one interviews with twenty Vietnamese accompanying women holding nonimmigrant spousal visas.
Appendix A provides a general description of the participants. Although only three interviews
72 Mark Ashwill, “Vietnamese Student Numbers Growing in the US,” University World News, January 2016, http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=2016011313585113.
73 Hilary Pinkerton, “Which U.S. State Has the Highest Number of H1-B Visa Holders?,” Shorelight Education, 2017, https://shorelight.com/insights/u-s-state-highest-number-h1-b-visa- holders/.
35 were carried out in person and the rest were conducted via phone calls, video calls, and chats on
Facebook messengers, thanks to a research grant from Bowling Green State University which allowed me to take a ten-day research trip from Southern California to Northern California in summer 2018, I was able to meet and socialize with nine informants in real life to build trust and personal relationship with them. I became friends with most of my research participants on social networks, particularly on Facebook, for at least a few months before conducting my initial interviews with them. In addition, my experience living in Southern California and befriending with a group of Vietnamese professionals, four among whom were my informants, helped me understand more about the women’s experiences through our daily-life conversations and participant observation. Especially, the friendly relationship that I built with most of my research participants through my connection and frequent interactions with them on social media both before and after our interviews provided me with valuable information about the women’s lives.
As Denise Carter points out, cyberspace is an effective place to meet and socialize as other social spaces.74 In this study, thanks to the advancement of technology, especially the popularity of internet and social networks such as Facebook, I was able to recruit participants, establish friendship with them, understand their situations, and accordingly, thoroughly analyze their experiences through the data obtained from my interviews and participant observation even though I did not live in the same community with many of my informants.
All of my interviews were conducted in Vietnamese based on my respondents' preference. However, some of my informants were not comfortable with being recorded, so only
74 Denise Carter, “Living in Virtual Communities: An Ethnography of Human Relationships in Cyberspace,” Information Communication and Society 8, no. 2 (2005): 148–67, https://doi.org/10.1080/13691180500146235.
36 twelve interviews were recorded and transcribed into English. For the rest, I took extensive notes during our interviews and used my notes for data analysis. I also kept a notebook to record changes in my respondents’ lives after our interviews as well as important themes raised in our informal conversations.
My data was analyzed thematically. First, I used Google docs to transcribe my interview records onto the word document. To familiarize myself with the data and make sure that the transcription was reliable, I listened to the audio files and checked the accuracy of transcripts.
Then, I translated the interviews from Vietnamese into English before assigning preliminary codes to my data to describe the content. Next, I searched for patterns in my codes across different interviews to define and name themes. I used the themes to construct my main arguments which were presented in the next five chapters of the dissertation.
It should be noted that as a feminist, I embrace a feminist research methodology which is indicated in my goal to recount the lived experience of migrant women holding dependent visas.
By creating knowledge about their conditions, my study was expected to be empowering at an individual level through the process of naming what they perceive to be as their problems. In addition, findings from my study could be transformative because of their potential contribution to the literature on sojourners, as well as to policy debates regarding U.S. immigration law reform. By exposing the institutional and social forces that negatively influence their sojourn as well as by challenging negative racist/ sexist presumptions/ stereotypes about migrant women from the Global South, my study was also intended to advocate for, and to seek active ways to, change the current social and legal conditions for accompanying spouses of temporary migrants in the U.S.
37
Additionally, I practiced feminist ethics - the ethics of care - or in other words, relational ethics throughout my research. Relational ethics is an approach to ethics which emphasizes the significance of relationship in the making of ethical actions or decisions. It recognizes and highly values the mutual respect and connectedness between researchers and the researched, and between researchers and the communities that they work and live in.75 As a relational ethicist, I tried to make sure that my research actions did not leave any relating partners in a condition of permanent disadvantage. Instead of saying “this is what you should do now,” I always asked the question of “what should I do now?” and tried to find a suitable response basing on the complexity of the particular situation and my moral responsibility within it. My avoidance to ask the participant’s current immigration status was one example of my practice of relational ethic.
Moreover, since I was aware of the potential impacts of my positionality on my research findings, I paid great attention to the issue of reflexivity in my research practice. Having experienced the feeling of isolation and depression when I was a dependent spousal visa holder in the U.S. for several months between 2010 and 2012, I understand that my biases could shape the questions that I asked in the interviews with research participants and my interpretation of events. Therefore, before designing the interview questions, I read as much as possible relevant literature to see what kinds of questions that other researchers used, and whether my set of questions was adequate in exploring important aspects of the research topic. When doing interviews and participant observation, I also tried to use all of my senses and wrote a lot of details so that I did not come to a hasty or bias conclusion when analyzing the data. With my adoption of feminist research methodology, my study not only vividly recounts the lived
75 Carolyn Ellis, “Telling Secrets, Revealing Lives: Relational Ethics in Research with Intimate Others,” Qualitative Inquiry 13, no. 1 (2007): 4, https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800406294947.
38 experiences of Vietnamese women in the U.S. but also brings more social justice to my marginalized female transnational migrant subjects.
Overview of the Study
This dissertation is composed of six chapters. This chapter includes an introduction to the research’s objectives; a review of literature on globalization, gender and migration; a discussion on relevant theories that guided my research; a description of my research methods and procedure, and an overview of the research’s organization.
Chapter 2 provides the history of transnational migration from Vietnam to the U.S. with the focus on the masculinization of skilled migration from Vietnam to the U.S. since the 1990s.
Although post-1990s highly skilled migration is the concentration of my research, my review of post-Vietnam war large-scale immigration from Vietnam to the U.S. helped the readers understand the substantial differences in migratory experiences between war-related Vietnamese refugees and post-1990s highly skilled migrants which lead to ideological conflicts and social disintegration of the two groups in chapter 5.
Chapter 3 discusses cultural and social structural factors that contributed to the housewifization of Vietnamese women holding nonimmigrant spousal visas including the racial, gender and class biases in U.S. immigration laws towards accompanying spouses of nonimmigrants from the Global South, U.S. cumbersome bureaucracy, the formal and informal devaluation of credentials obtained from Vietnam, U.S. employer's racial discrimination, and
Vietnamese gender roles.
Chapter 4 focuses on the post-migration experiences of Vietnamese accompanying women in the domestic sphere. In this chapter, I explicate the negative effects of forced housewifization on the women’s mental health. I also clarify how Vietnamese accompanying
39 women negotiated changes in gender roles, spousal power relations and other familial relationships during their sojourns in the U.S.
Chapter 5 elucidates Vietnamese women's efforts to find support from local communities and their desperate search for a community of belonging in the U.S. This chapter reveals the negative effects of U.S. class-, gender-, and racially-biased laws, regulations, and practices on the integration process of temporary Vietnamese skilled migrants’ families. It, however, documents how “imagined communities” fostered by Vietnamese language and culture among
Vietnamese professional migrants helped them deal with the alienation from both mainstream
American society and preexisting Vietnamese American communities.
Chapter 6 illuminates Vietnamese accompanying women’s resistance to the negative effects of globalization indicated in both the women's efforts to escape the domestic sphere and their active participation in globalization processes “from below”. In this chapter, I also summarize the key findings of the research and discuss the significance of the research to various fields of critical studies.
40
CHAPTER II. GLOBALIZATION AND THE GENDERING OF THE POST-1990
VIETNAMESE SKILLED MIGRATION TO THE U.S.
“Both my husband and I applied for scholarships to study abroad. I got a full scholarship to
study in the Netherlands, and my husband got a fellowship to study in the U.S. At that time, my first child was just two years old, so we thought it would be very difficult if my family separated
for both of us to pursue our post-graduate education. After pondering the pros and cons of our
choices carefully, we decided that I would reject the scholarship, leave my job, and the whole
family moved to the U.S. with my husband.”
- Nhung, 42, MS, homemaker, former lecturer in Vietnam-
I met Nhung on a beautiful sunny day at a soccer match organized by the Vietnamese international student association in Southern California a couple of years prior to our interview.
My husband and hers were playing in opposing teams, but we were excited to meet and talk to each other because we were the only women with kids among a few Vietnamese spectators on the soccer field. When we first met, Nhung had been in the U.S. for eleven years, firstly with a J-
2 visa for spouses of exchange visitors and then with a O-3 visa for spouses of individuals with extraordinary ability or achievement. During our conversation, Nhung showed her sound knowledge of various fields, from Vietnamese and American education systems and societies to recent breakthroughs in science and technology. Therefore, I was not surprised when she uncovered later that she got a job as a lecturer at one of the best universities in Vietnam right after graduating from college. Her husband, a postdoctoral researcher at a prestigious research institution in California also worked for a university when in Vietnam. As university lecturers,
Nhung and her spouse were encouraged to find scholarships to get their post-graduate education in developed countries so that they could acquire new knowledge and technical skills to transfer
41 to their students and to conduct innovative research. Nhung and her spouse could find funding for their post-graduate education abroad thanks to various sources of scholarships offered by both Vietnamese and foreign governments for Vietnamese nationals. Nevertheless, as implied in
Nhung’s statement, her role as a wife and a mother prevented her from migrating as an international student. She, instead, migrated to the U.S. as an accompanying spouse and was stuck with the “dependent” immigration status for more than a decade because her husband, a
Vietnamese intellectual, was attracted to and retained in the U.S. by the host country’s quality education and ample opportunities for professional development.
Nhung’s story illustrates a common migration trajectory among well-educated and socially independent Vietnamese women who migrated to the U.S. as accompanying spouses of highly skilled temporary migrants. Monica Boyd and Elizabeth Grieco when discussing how to incorporate gender into theories of international migration argue that gender can affect migration trajectories in the pre-migration stage through both “systemic and macro factors such as the state of the national economy, and individual or micro factors, such as gender-specific stages in the life-cycle.” These factors, Boyd and Grieco suggest, are divided into three areas: “1) gender relations and hierarchies; 2) status and roles; and 3) structural characteristics of the country of origin.” 76 In addition, the gender-specific demand for labor in receiving countries can also impact men’s and women’s reasons to migrate. Therefore, this chapter focuses on explicating how Vietnam’s post-war development policies, the gendered demands for Vietnamese and the
U.S. skilled labor, and Vietnamese traditional gender roles contributed to the masculinization of
76 Monica Boyd and Elizabeth Grieco, “Women and Migration: Incorporating Gender into International Migration Theory,” Migration Policy Institute, March 1, 2003, https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/women-and-migration-incorporating-gender- international-migration-theory.
42 highly skilled migrants from Vietnam to the U.S. since the 1990s. However, as chapter 5 discusses the ideological differences between the post-1990 highly skilled migrants and post-
1975 Vietnamese refugees, I think it is important for the readers to understand the differences among the main groups of Vietnamese migrants/ immigrants/ refugees in the U.S. Thus, I offer a brief review of the history of Vietnamese migration to the U.S. before analyzing the gender- specific nature of the post-1990 highly skilled migration.
An Overview of Vietnamese Migration to the U.S. prior to the 1990s
Scholarship on Vietnamese migration to the U.S. mostly focuses on Vietnamese refugees who fled their home country for fear of political and religious persecution after the fall of Saigon on April 30th, 1975 and thus, overlooks the experiences of Vietnamese people coming to the U.S. for other purposes, particularly for educational and professional opportunities.
Records show that although Vietnamese Americans are considered a relatively-recent immigrant group, a few Vietnamese arrived and performed menial work in the U.S. during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.77 Between 1950 and 1974, according to the Immigration and
Naturalization Service, 650 Vietnamese arrived in the U.S. as immigrants. However, this figure excludes temporary migrants such as students, diplomats, and military trainees who made up a large proportion of Vietnamese people in the U.S. before 1975.78
As pointed out by An Nguyen, one of the few scholars who rewrite the history of
Vietnamese Americans beyond the shadow of the Vietnam War by providing a clear genealogy
77 “All Immigration and Emigration Results for Truong,” n.d., https://www.ancestry.com/search/categories/40/?name=_Truong&arrival=1880_usa_2&gender= m.
78 Christian P. Phan, Vietnamese Americans: Understanding Vietnamese People in the United States 1975-2010 (Maitland, Florida: Xulon Press, 2010), 21.
43 of Vietnamese students and intellectuals in the U.S., the allegedly first Vietnamese students came to the U.S. as early as in 1948 and “were not the beneficiaries of the American anticommunist doctrine.”79 Nevertheless, after the birth of the Republic of Vietnam in 1955, more South
Vietnamese students and scholars were funded for education and training in the United States by various American governmental and private organizations. According to The United States
Operations Mission (USOM), between 1954 and 1960, the USOM helped 729 South Vietnamese students and scholars get education and training in the U.S.80 However, by the beginning of the
1960s, the number of Vietnamese students and scholars in the U.S. was still modest in comparison to that in France. In 1963, for example, only 430 South Vietnamese came to the U.S. while 1,715 went to France for education and training.81
The number of Vietnamese students and intellectuals in America rose dramatically with the U.S. escalation of the conflict in Vietnam after Lyndon Johnson became the president of the
U.S. The USAID reported that from 1957 to 1972, this program provided funding for 3,703
Vietnamese students to be trained in the U.S. in agreement between the U.S. and successive
South Vietnamese Governments.82 It was also estimated that there were up to 15,000 Vietnamese students in America prior to 1975. Unsurprisingly, with the U.S. active involvement in the
79 Nguyen, “Luggage To America: Vietnamese Intellectual and Entrepreneurial Immigrants in the New Millenium,” 135.
80 “Annual Report for Fiscal Year 1960 of The United States Operations Mission to Vietnam - Vietnam Moves Ahead,” 1960, https://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/star/images/107/1070910002c.pdf.
81 Nguyen, “Luggage To America: Vietnamese Intellectual and Entrepreneurial Immigrants in the New Millenium,” 137.
82 Benjamin Welles, “7 South Vietnamese Students in U.S., Fearful, Refuse to Go Home,” The New York Times, June 23, 1972, https://www.nytimes.com/1972/06/23/archives/7-south- vietnamese-students-in-us-fearful-refuse-to-go-home.html.
44
Vietnam war, the training of Vietnamese southern military cadets and technicians in the U.S. was an important part of U.S. exchange education agenda with Vietnam.83
The end of the Vietnam War in April 1975 ruptured the flow of Vietnamese students and scholars to America through exchange programs. Nevertheless, it resulted in a dramatic escape of hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese people from the communist-ruled country. Because of the humanitarian obligation to rescue its former allies, the U.S became the country which received the largest number of Vietnamese refugees.84 On May 23rd, 1975 President Gerald
Ford signed the Indochina Migration and Refugee Act, admitting 130,000 Southeast Asian refugees into the U.S. among whom almost 120,000 were Vietnamese.85 This first wave of
Vietnamese refugees, which began in April 1975 and continued until 1977, included Vietnamese people who were more likely to have political connections with the U.S. government such as military officers, former South Vietnamese government officials, wealthy business owners, professionals and members of Catholic Church.86 Most of them decided to leave the country in fear of retaliation from Northern communists and poverty resulting from changes enforced by the new communist government.
83 Hao Phan, “The Disjunctive Politics of Vietnamese Immigrants in America from the Transnational Perspective,” Central and Eastern European Migration Review 4, no. 1 (2015): 81–95, http://cejsh.icm.edu.pl/cejsh/element/bwmeta1.element.desklight-3ca8b98e-d810-4b15- 9d8c-e2371a6f5f39.
84 Robert Marsh, “Socio-Economic Status of Indochinese Refugees in the US: Progress and Problem,” Social Security Bulletin 43, no. 10 (1980): 19.
85 “Vietnam and Vietnamese Americans after 1975,” n.d., http://www.wright.edu/sites/www.wright.edu/files/Vietnam and Vietnamese American After 1975.pdf.
86 Bankston Min, Zhou and Carl, Growing up American How Vietnamese Children Adapt to Life in the United State (New York: Russell Sage Foundation Press, 1998).: 25
45
Following the end of the Vietnam war, the new Vietnamese communist regime carried out radical social and economic policies which were considered “the political repression and indoctrination” as well as a “means of revenge” against those serving in the former American- backed administration in the South. In 1975, between 1 and 2.5 million people including former officers, religious leaders, intellectuals, merchants, and employees of the old regime were sent to
“re-education camps” in mountainous or forested areas to have ‘their brain cleansed’ of Western capitalist ideologies and to “learn about the ways of the new government” through education and socially constructive labor.87 The living conditions in those re-education camps were criticized to be “inhumane,” and prisoners had to do arduous and dangerous work while still suffering from hunger. Another program implemented by the communist government in the aftermath of the war was the “New Economic Zones” which forcibly relocated around 750,000 to over 1 million
Southerners who had connections with the South Vietnamese government to uninhabited forested areas to clear land for agricultural production.88 Poverty, the lack of economic freedom, and harsh political treatment under the new communist government triggered the second wave of
Vietnamese refugees who tried to flee their fatherland in overcrowded, under-equipped, and leaky boats. From 1977 to the mid-1980s, about 400,000 Vietnamese farmers, fishers, teachers, former army officers, and nuns who survived diseases, hunger, pirates and other hazards were admitted to the U.S.89 However, when the resources of the refugee-receiving countries were
87 Kubia, “Vietnamese Re-Education Camps,” 2014, https://thevietnamwar.info/vietnamese-re- education-camps/.
88 Nguyen, “Transnational Mobilities of Australia-Educated and Domiciled Professional Migrants from Vietnam.”
89 C.N. Le, Asian American Assimilation : Ethnicity, Immigration, and Socioeconomic Attainment (New York: LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC, 2007).
46 depleted because of the increasing number of refugees, new rules were implemented to discourage and lessen boat people at the end of the 1980s.
The period between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s witnessed the arrival of the third wave of Vietnamese refugees to the U.S. which consisted mainly of children fathered by
American military personnel and former reeducation camp detainees. By the mid-1990s, about
200,000 Vietnamese were resettled in the US after the enactment of the 1988 Amerasian
Homecoming Act and the operation of the 1989 Humanitarian Operation Program.90
In short, most of Vietnamese people migrating to the U.S. before the 1990s had some connections to the South Vietnam government. However, Vietnamese refugees who fled
Vietnam after the fall of Saigon in 1975 either in fear of retaliation or because of harsh political treatments often show their deep hatred towards the Vietnamese communist government and people associated with the communist party because of their traumatic experiences both in their home and the host countries and during their perilous journeys to the U.S. The characteristics of
Vietnamese migrants to the U.S. since the 1990s, nevertheless, has changed considerably as
Vietnam’s post-war development policies, especially the post-1995 education policies led to a significant increase in the highly skilled migration to the U.S.
Vietnam’s Post-war Development Policies
The mass fleeing of educated urban elite from the south of Vietnam after the war resulted in the severe lack of quality human resources needed for the development of the newly unified country. In addition, the mismanagement of the economy by the communist government led to a sharp economic deterioration in a postwar reconstruction period. According to Thang Bui, in the
90 Le., 51
47 first years after the war, “the government should have focused on economic recovery, the improvement of labor skills, and agricultural and consumer goods production, all of which were seriously deficient.” Nevertheless, the communist government prioritized heavy industry in economic policy and extended the model of the centrally planned mechanism in the north to the whole country. The nationalization and centralization of the entire economy eliminated the momentum of economic development.91 As a consequence, from 1975 to 1985, the quality of life in Vietnam remained poor and even got worse with serious shortages of daily necessities such as food, consumer goods, transport, medical care and educational facilities. Persistent outbreaks of famine, soaring inflation (reaching its peak of 774.7 per cent in 1986), high unemployment rates
(ranging between 20 and 30 per cent in the same year) and rising government debt signaled the entire collapse of the economy by the mid-1980s.92
“Đổi Mới” Policy
To escape from economic stagnation and crisis, the Vietnamese Government decided to implement the “Open Door” or “Đổi Mới” Policy which shifted the centrally planned model of socialism to an ‘open, market-oriented, and globally integrated model’ in 1986.93 The aims of these reforms were to “industrialize the country by developing a market economy with the participation of multi-economic sectors and economic ownership types, maintaining the
91 Thang Bui, “After the War: 25 Years of Economic Development in Vietnam,” NIRA Review, 2000, http://www.nira.or.jp/past/publ/review/2000spring/06thang.pdf.
92 Nguyen, “Transnational Mobilities of Australia-Educated and Domiciled Professional Migrants from Vietnam.”5
93 Nguyen., 5
48 substantial control of the state in economic operation towards social equality, and participating in the international market.”94
To accelerate the integration of Vietnam into the world and regional economies, the
Vietnamese government emphasized the significance of improving the quality of the workforce.
From 1975 to 1990, due to consistent budgetary shortfalls, Vietnam allocated most of the budget for education to primary and secondary schools instead of tertiary education. Therefore, although in 1990, Vietnam’s literacy rate reached 88%, which, according to UNDP, was one of the highest rates in the world, only 1 to 10 per cent of Vietnamese college applicants could enroll in higher education. To meet the demand for technocrats in the period of drastic economic reform,
Vietnam relied solely on the Soviet Union and Eastern European states for higher education resources. Zachary Abuza points out that between 1951 and 1990, “more than 6,783
[Vietnamese] doctors, 34,000 [Vietnamese] university students, and 72,000 [Vietnamese] technical cadres were trained in the former Socialist bloc.” Only a small number of students were sent to the West, primarily to France and Great Britain for language training. However, the conflict between Vietnam and Western countries caused by Vietnam's invasion of Cambodia in
1978 ceased these exchanges until the late 1980s. Thus, only 200 students travelled to noncommunist countries such as France and Great Britain for language training during the
1980s.95
94 Nguyen., 5
95 Zachary Abuza, “The Politics of Educational Diplomacy in Vietnam : Educational Exchanges under Doi Moi,” Asian Survey 36, no. 6 (1996): 618–31, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2645795?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents.
49
The collapse of communism in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and
Eastern Europe in 1989, which abruptly halted these countries’ financial and technical support for Vietnam, urged the country to adopt a “multidirectional foreign policy,” focusing more on economic development and creating “more friends and less enemies” through the “diversification and multilateralization of Vietnam’s relations with countries and international organizations alike.”96 Accordingly, Vietnam no longer saw Western capitalist countries as “enemies” but as
“friends.” Between 1985 and 1995, Vietnam significantly increased the number of countries that it has diplomatic relations with from 23 to 163 countries. By 2005, Vietnam had established commercial relations with 221 countries and territories.97 The Vietnamese communist government also withdrew army troops from Cambodia in 1989, normalized the foreign relations with China in 1991, established normal diplomatic relations with the U.S. in 1995, and joined various international organizations namely the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and the World Trade Organization
(WTO) in 1995, 1998 and 2007, respectively.
The adoption of “Đổi Mới” economic reforms and the foreign policy of “diversification, multilateralization of international relations” brought about the rapid growth of Vietnamese economy and the substantial improvement in the living standard in Vietnam.98 Between 1989 and
96 Nicholas Chapman, “Mechanisms of Vietnam ’ s Multidirectional Foreign Policy,” Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs 36, no. 2 (2017): 31–69, https://journals.sub.uni- hamburg.de/giga/jsaa/article/view/1061.
97 “Vietnam Economy Overview,” accessed November 10, 2018, http://www.chinhphu.vn/portal/page/portal/English/TheSocialistRepublicOfVietnam/AboutVietn am/AboutVietnamDetail?categoryId=10000103&articleId=10000554.
98 “Vietnam Press Conference on Foreign Policy and International Economic Integration,” accessed November 1, 2018,
50
2005, Vietnam’s annual GDP growth rate averaged 7.2%, making Vietnam one of the fastest growing countries in the world (GSO, 2006).99 From being one of the poorest countries in the world, Vietnam also achieved its middle-income country status in 2008.100
In addition, the “Open Door” policy created opportunities for the country to have direct educational exchanges with Western institutions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as well as to attract foreign funding to improve the Vietnamese higher education system. As reported by Abuza, by 1995 Vietnam had secured US$40 million from the Official Development
Assistance (ODA), US$20.5 million from the United Nations, and US$110 million from both
World Bank and the Asian Development Bank for the development of tertiary education.101 With the assistance from NGOs and Western countries, Vietnam was also able to send Vietnamese students, scholars, and officials abroad to obtain training in “economic planning, finance, monetary and fiscal policy, macro- and micro-economics, and management skills.” Nevertheless, according to Abuza, since Western governments were “more concerned with reforming
Vietnam's economy than improving its science and technology base,” by 1995, there was “very little external assistance in science education and technical training.”102 The next section explains
http://www.chinhphu.vn/portal/page/portal/English/strategies/strategiesdetails?categoryId=29&a rticleId=3033.
99 Kien Tran, “Doi Moi Policy and Socio-Economic Development in Vietnam, 1986-2005,” International Area Review 11, no. 1 (2008): 205–32, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/223386590801100112?journalCode=iasa.
100 “Looking Back on 30 Years of Doi Moi,” Vietnam Investment Review, February 17, 2016, https://www.vir.com.vn/looking-back-on-30-years-of-doi-moi-40164.html.
101 Abuza, “The Politics of Educational Diplomacy in Vietnam : Educational Exchanges under Doi Moi.”
102 Abuza., 620
51 how Vietnam’s post-1995 education policies led to a substantial increase in highly skilled migration to developed countries, especially the U.S.
Vietnam’s Post-1995 Education Policies
Realizing the compelling need to improve science education and technical training to meet the target set by the Congress in the 8th National Congress of the Communist Party in 1996 that by 2020, Vietnam would have become “ an industrial nation with a modern technical foundation, a proper economic structure, a progressive production relation compatible with the development level of the production force, a decent spiritual and material life, a firm national defense and security, wealthy people, a powerful country, and an equal and civilized society," the Vietnamese government put education “the first priority of the national policy.”103 Since
1996, Vietnam maintained around 20% state budget spending for education.104 As sending more
Vietnamese people to overseas training was one of the important aspects of the Vietnam's education and training development strategy until 2020, the Vietnamese government spent billion U.S. dollars on training technocrats and public officials abroad. For example, the Project
322 on "Training scientific and technical cadres at foreign establishments with the State budget" implemented from 2000 to 2010 cost the Vietnamese government about 152 million U.S. dollars to send 4,500 Vietnamese students to 34 countries for undergraduate and graduate education.105
103 “Vietnam’s Education and Training Development Strategy till 2010,” November 7, 2006, http://www.chinhphu.vn/portal/page/portal/English/strategies/strategiesdetails?categoryId=29&a rticleId=3064.
104 “Vietnam’s Education and Training Development Strategy till 2010.”
105 “Những Vấn Đề Đặt Ra Từ Đề Án 322,” [Issues with Project Number 322], Thời Báo Kinh Tế Sài Gòn, December 25, 2011, https://www.thesaigontimes.vn/68260/Nhung-van-de-dat-ra-tu- De-an-322.html.
52
The Vietnamese government also allocated more than 600 million U.S. dollars for the 911 project on “Doctoral training for university and college lecturers during 2010-2020” which aimed at producing 20,000 PhDs (with 10,000 PhD trained abroad) for Vietnamese universities and colleges in the 2010-2020 period.106 Project 165 which provides overseas training for
Vietnamese government officials also received considerable amount of money from the state budget to attain the goal of sending at least 30 government officials abroad for PhD programs,
300 officials for Master programs, 200 officials for internship programs, 400 officials for language training programs, and 400 officials for short courses a year between 2009 and 2015.
Although these governmental projects fell short of initial targets, together with other provincial human-resource-training projects such as Mekong 1000, Ho Chi Minh City Project
500, Da Nang 100, Hai Phong 100, and hundreds of fellowship programs offered by foreign governments, foreign educational institutions, and non-governmental organizations for
Vietnamese students and scholars to study abroad, these projects created a big wave of
Vietnamese intellectuals’ temporary migration from Vietnam to developed countries since 2000.
In addition, Vietnam’s “miraculous” economic rise after the economic reforms in 1986 has produced the “fastest-growing middle class in Southeast Asia” and provided opportunities for thousands of Vietnamese students to study abroad with private funds every year.107
106 Thủ tướng Chính phủ, “Quyết Định Phê Duyệt Đề Án Đào Tạo Giảng Viên Có Trình Độ Tiến Sĩ Cho Các Trường Đại Học, Cao Đẳng Giai Đoạn 2010 -2020 [Prime Minister’s Decision: Approving the Scheme on Doctoral Training for University and College Lecturers during 2010- 2020]” (2010), https://thuvienphapluat.vn/van-ban/Giao-duc/Quyet-dinh-911-QD-TTg-De-an- Dao-tao-giang-vien-co-trinh-do-tien-si-107568.aspx.
107 Peter Vanham, “The Story of Viet Nam’s Economic Miracle,” World Economic Forum on ASEAN, September 11, 2018, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/09/how-vietnam-became- an-economic-miracle/.
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According to Vietnamese Government reports on education, in 2015, there were about 130.000
Vietnamese citizens studying in 47 countries around the world, spending an estimated $3 billion a year.108
As a country which has a special diplomatic relation with Vietnam, houses top-ranked universities in the world and offers ample future professional opportunities for international students, the U.S. is among the most popular Vietnamese students’ overseas study destinations.
According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Vietnam ranked sixth among all sending countries with 29,788 Vietnamese students studying at US institutions in August
2018.109 Moreover, the post-1952 U.S. immigration policy which placed employment-based preferences for aliens with economic potential, skills, and education has turned the U.S. into “the global magnet for the world’s most talented and hardest-working.”110 The U.S. government’s creation of various nonimmigrant U.S. visa programs such as the J-1, L-1, H-1B, O-1 visas enabled many Vietnamese intellectuals who were proficient in English and trained in STEM
(science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields to migrate to the U.S. after studying or working in other developed countries. The following graph shows the trends of Vietnamese skill- based migration to the U.S. from 1997 to 2017 basing on some of the skilled-based nonimmigrant visas.
108 “Vietnamese Spend $3 Billion a Year to Study Abroad: Report,” Thanh Nien News, December 3, 2015, http://www.thanhniennews.com/education-youth/vietnamese-spend-3-billion- a-year-to-study-abroad-report-54463.html.
109 The Department of Homeland Security, “Study in the States: Mapping SEVIS by the Numbers,” accessed August 4, 2018, https://studyinthestates.dhs.gov/sevis-by-the-numbers.
110 “NOT COMING TO AMERICA: Why the US Is Falling Behind in the Global Race for Talent,” 2012, http://www.newamericaneconomy.org/sites/all/themes/pnae/not-coming-to- america.pdf.
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Vietnamese skill-based migration to the U.S. (1997-2017) 2000 1,794 1800
1600 1,367 1400 1,264
1200 immigrants - 1000 854
800
600 493 447 457 Numberof Non 400 302 305 112 203 127 184 200 11 61 112 26 4 38 2 20 0 0 0 2 1997 2000 2005 2010 2015 2017 Year H1-B visa L-1 visa O-1 visa J-1 visa
Figure 1: Vietnamese highly skilled migration to the U.S. (1997-2017)
As can be seen from the chart, there were few Vietnamese nationals applying for U.S. temporary workers visas such as H1-B, O-1, and L-1 from Vietnam in 1997. However, the significant increase in the number of Vietnamese nationals holding exchange visitor U.S. visas
(J-1 visas) and international student visas (F-1 visas) between 1997 and 2017 has resulted in a steady rise in the number of Vietnamese people who were admitted to the U.S. with H1-B, O-1 and L-1 visas during this twenty-year period. In 2017, 734 Vietnamese migrants entered the U.S. with H1-B, O-1, and L-1 visas. This number excluded the number of Vietnamese nationals changing visas statuses from students or exchange visitor visas to skilled workers visas in the
U.S.
In general, the presence of a significant number of Vietnamese intellectuals in the U.S. in the first decades of the 21st century marked an important demographic turning point in the
55 history of Vietnamese migration to the U.S. However, many scholars argue that migration is a
“gendered process” because it is “shaped by gender ideologies and practices in countries of departure and countries of destination or, more specifically, by gendered demands for labor or changes in family reunification laws, to mention a few examples.”111 In the next section, I will elucidate the gender-specific nature of the post-1990 highly skilled migration from Vietnam to the U.S. by clarifying the gendered demands for highly skilled labor in both Vietnam and the
U.S., gender relations and gender roles in Vietnamese society and families, and Vietnamese gender norms relating to transnational migration.
Vietnam’s Gendered Demand for Overseas-trained Highly Skilled Labor
There is not significant gender inequality in Vietnamese education. Nevertheless, it is noticeable that non-immigrant spousal visa holders who accompanied Vietnamese intellectuals to the U.S. since 1990 are more likely to be female. One of the reasons for this phenomenon lies in
Vietnam’s gendered demand for overseas-trained highly skilled labor during the country’s industrialization and modernization process.
As pointed out in data from the 2002-2003 University Survey carried out by the
Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Technology, Vietnamese female students dominated in the social disciplines, accounting for approximately 65 and 66 percent of the total enrollment in education and the social sciences, respectively. Meanwhile, male students concentrated primarily
111 Alice Szczepaniková, “Migration as Gendered and Gendering Process: A Brief Overview of the State of Art and a Suggestion for Future Directions in Migration Resear,” 2006, https://aa.ecn.cz/img_upload/f76c21488a048c95bc0a5f12deece153/Migration_as_gendered_and _gendering_process.pdf.
56 in technical disciplines such as technology, constituting about 70 percent of enrollment.112
Another report by Japan International Cooperation Agency confirms that disparity between the subjects studied by Vietnamese men and women persisted in 2011 with 55 percent of
Vietnamese women majoring in education and business studies, whereas nearly 40% of men majoring in technical and engineering studies.113 As Vietnam prioritized and made full use of both national and foreign resources for the training of scientific and technical cadres in developed countries, it was likely that more male students received funding from Vietnamese governmental and local budgets as well as from international organizations and foreign governments for their post-graduate study abroad during the period between 1990 and 2020. In fact, according to the Vietnam Ministry of Education and Training, the percentages of female students at different education levels among students going overseas to study with state budget- funded scholarships and scholarships under bilateral agreements in 2015 was 46.5 (for undergraduate), 39.7 (for Master’s), 38.4 (for PhD), and 16.7 for trainee programs. These percentages remained below 50% in 2016 despite the State’s efforts to close the gender disparity in the state budget-funded scholarship recipients.114 Another report by the Vietnamese Education
Foundation (VEF), an organization which was established by the U.S. Congress under the
Vietnam Education Foundation Act (2000) to “strengthen the bilateral relationship between the
112 The World Bank, “Vietnam : Higher Education and Skills for Growth,” 2008, http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTEASTASIAPACIFIC/Resources/Vietnam- HEandSkillsforGrowth.pdf.
113 Japan International Cooperation Agency, “Country Gender Profile : Viet Nam Final Report,” 2011, https://www.jica.go.jp/english/our_work/thematic_issues/gender/background/pdf/e10viet.pdf.
114 International Organization for Migration, “Viet Nam Migration Profile 2016,” 2016, https://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/mp_vietnam.pdf.
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United States and Vietnam through educational exchange activities” also revealed that from 2003 to 2015, the VEF exchange programs aiming at supporting the Vietnamese government’s efforts of advancing science and technology in Vietnam funded more than 500 Vietnamese graduate students to study in the U.S. Among the awards, 33% went to women, with “an all-time high of
48 percent in 2013.”115 The fact that there were more male Vietnamese students receiving funding from governmental and local budgets as well as from international organizations, foreign governments, and educational agencies for their graduate studies abroad indicated the impact of the Vietnamese government’s prioritization of science and technology development in the 21st century on the masculinization of the post-1990 highly skilled migration from Vietnam to developed countries. Besides, the U.S. gendered demand for highly skilled migrant labor contributed to this phenomenon.
The U.S. Gendered Demand for Highly Skilled Migrant Labor
Although the United States has been admitting skill-based temporary workers since 1952 with the creation of the H-1 temporary visa program for foreign workers of "distinguished merit and ability," President George H.W. Bush's signing of the "Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1990" marked another effort of the U.S. government to satisfy the burgeoning demand of U.S. employers for “high-skilled labor forces with strong capabilities in science, technology,
115 Peggy Petrochenkov, “Bridges between Vietnam and the United States,” NAFSA 12, no. 1 (2015), https://www.nafsa.org/Professional_Resources/Browse_by_Interest/International_Students_and_ Scholars/Network_Resources/International_Enrollment_Management/Bridges_between_Vietna m_and_the_United_States/.
58 engineering, and mathematics (STEM), a key input for innovation and economic growth.” 116
The Immigration Act of 1990 split the H-1 program into H-1B "specialty occupations" visas and
H-1A visas for registered nurses, simultaneously created four additional nonimmigrant categories including “Aliens of extraordinary ability” (O visa holders), “Athletes and entertainers” (P visa holders), Cultural exchange visitors who engage in “practical training, employment, and the sharing of the history, culture, and traditions of the country of the alien's nationality…”(Q visa holders), and Religious workers (R visa holders). Among these newly- created visa categories, H-1B has always been the program that admitted the highest number of temporary highly skilled migrants to the U.S.117 While the Immigration Act of 1990 set the original H-1B cap at 65,000 per year, the cap was lifted temporarily to 115,000 visas in 1999 and
2000 and to 195,000 visas for 2001, 2002, and 2003. The annual H-1B cap reverted to 65,000 in
2004 and has remained at that level until now.118 Although "specialty occupation" is defined generally in the 1990 law as an occupation that requires "first, a theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge, and, second, an attainment of a bachelor's or higher degree in the specific specialty (or its equivalent) as a minimum for entry into the occupation in the United States." In practice, H-1B visas are granted mostly for computer
116 Neil Ruiz, “The Search for Skills: Demand for H-1B Immigrant Workers in U.S. Metropolitan Areas,” 2012, https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/18-h1b- visas-labor-immigration.pdf.
117 U.S. Department of State – Bureau of Consular Affairs, “Non-Immigrant Visa Issuances by Visa Class and by Nationality FY1997-2006 NIV Detail Table,” n.d., https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/legal/visa-law0/visa-statistics/nonimmigrant-visa- statistics.html.
118 Immigration Policy Institute, “H-1B Temporary Skilled Worker Program,” 2010, https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/h-1b-temporary-skilled-worker-program#1.
59 professionals, engineers, scientists, financial analysts, management consultants, university professors, and researchers. As these occupations are traditionally male-dominated, it is not surprising that there has been a massive gender disparity in H-1B petitions. According to the
USCIS, in 2018, “only one out of every four H-1B visa holders is female.”119 The gendered demands for labor in the U.S. created more opportunities for Vietnamese male intellectuals to migrate to the U.S. as “principal aliens” and accordingly, more Vietnamese women to enter the
U.S. with nonimmigrant dependent visa status. Besides the gendered demands for highly skilled labor in both Vietnam and the U.S., the gendering of the post-1990 migration of Vietnamese intellectuals to the U.S. was also shaped by the gender ideologies and practices in Vietnam. The next section clarifies how Vietnam’s gender ideologies and practices contributed to the masculinization of the post-1990 highly skilled migration from Vietnam to the U.S.
Gender Ideologies and Practices in Vietnam
In theory, Vietnamese society was dominated by Confucian ideology which emphasized male dominance and female subordination. Nevertheless, in practice, Confucian-based gender roles in Vietnam are somewhat different from those in China, a neighboring country which has significant cultural influence on Vietnam. According to Van Do and Marie Brennan, the literature on Vietnamese folklore shows traces of a matriarchal system, and “the interplay between Vietnamese historical matriarchy and Confucianism” constructed “distinctive
119 “Three-Fourths of H-1B Visa Holders in 2018 Are Indians: US Report,” The Economic Times, October 20, 2018, https://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/people/three-fourths- of-h1b-visa-holders-in-2018-are-indians-us-report/66290031.
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Vietnamese femininities.”120 An indication of a historical Vietnamese matriarchal society could be found in the Vietnamese ancient legend of Lạc Long Quân & Âu Cơ who were considered the
Father and Mother of the Vietnamese people’s ancestors. In the legend, the mythical couple, a dragon king of the sea and a god of the mountain, after getting married and giving birth to a sack of one hundred eggs, from which hatched one hundred humans, had to part because of
“astrological incompatibilities—one belonging to the water element and the other to the fire element.”121 While Lạc Long Quân brought half of the children back to the sea, Âu Cơ led the other half to dwell with her in the highlands. The presentation of Âu Cơ, a heroine who taught
Vietnamese ancestors to build houses for shelter, breed animals, and cultivate the soil for food in the legend is an evidence of “the ‘uniquely high status of Vietnamese women’ which is believed to be ‘an emblem of national distinctiveness.’”122 Later documentation of female figures who were well-known warriors and defenders such as the Trưng sisters, the first Vietnamese persons leading insurrections against the Chinese around 40 CE, Do and Brennan argue, affirms the remarkable role and social status of Vietnamese women.
The existence of Vietnamese culture which “combined matrilineal and patrilineal patterns of family structure and assigned equal importance to both lines” continued until the eleventh
120 Van Hanh Thi Do and Marie Brennan, “Complexities of Vietnamese Femininities: A Resource for Rethinking Women’s University Leadership Practices,” Gender and Education 27, no. 3 (2015): 275 https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2015.1024619.
121 Van Ky Nguyen, “Rethinking the Status of Vietnamese Women in Folklore and Oral History,” in Viet Nam Expose: French Scholarship on Twentieth-Century Vietnamese Society, ed. Gisele Bousquet and Pierre Brocheux, 1st ed. (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002), 90.
122 Do and Brennan, 275.
61 century (Lý Dynasty) when Confucianism officially became the state philosophical ideology. 123
Confucianism promoted a social hierarchy based on the leading principle “Nam tôn, nữ ti” (man respectable, women despicable) which resulted in women’s “threefold subordination to their fathers, husbands, and sons” and women’s lack of public authority. Although under the strong influence of Confucianism, “Vietnamese public life and the kinship and household system was strongly male-centered,” Vietnamese women retained considerable power within the domestic sphere.124 Their special role is reflected in their title as “Nội tướng,” “the general of the interior, who ‘lock[s] the key and open[s] the drawer of treasury’ and/or who has the highest responsibility to control and manage internal affairs including finance.”125 During the French and
American wars when most Vietnamese men were mobilized for the front, Vietnamese women, with the role of household heads, made significant contributions to the national economy by joining industrial and agricultural workforces as well as running small businesses. This practice continued after the colonial wars as “thousands of men never returned and many men returned injured.”126 Despite women’s major roles in the economy, male domination permeated all aspects of society including public and domestic domains.
As the basic tenet of Communism is equality, since 1975, under the leadership of the
Communist party, the Vietnamese state has made enormous efforts to repudiate Confucian-based
123 Do and Brennan, 275.
124 Hy Luong, “Gender Relations in Vietnam: Ideologies, Kinship Practices, and Political Economy,” in Weaving Women’s Spheres in Vietnam : The Agency of Women in FaCily, Religion and Community, ed. Kato Atsufumi (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers, 2015), 27.
125 Do and Brennan, 277.
126 Do and Brennan, 278.
62 gender ideology and promote gender equality. According to Sidney Schuler et al., “Vietnam is one of relatively few countries that has tried, via legislative changes and social programmes, to institutionalize gender equity at the macro, meso and micro levels.”127 A variety of legal and political programs have been initiated by the Vietnamese state aiming at “(1) legislating gender equality, (2) promoting women’s participation in production, (3) attempts to reduce women’s domestic responsibilities, (4) introducing new ideologies of equality, and (5) organizing women to advance their interests.” Besides state efforts, foreign government and nongovernment organizations such as the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), the United
Nations Development Fund and the United Nations Fund also have strong agendas to empower women in Vietnam. The tremendous efforts made by both state and non-state actors have brought about many advances in women’s rights in this country. Girls and women have gained equal access to education. In addition, Vietnam is reported to be one of the countries with the highest female labor-force participation rates in the world. The country also ranked the second among Asian countries with the highest proportion of women in senior managing positions in
2019.128 Some of the most influential women in contemporary Vietnam include former vice presidents Nguyen Thi Binh and Truong My Hoa, the incumbent chairwoman of the National
127 Sidney Ruth Schuler et al., “Constructions of Gender in Vietnam: In Pursuit of the ‘Three Criteria,’” Culture, Health and Sexuality 8, no. 5 (2006): 383, https://doi.org/10.1080/13691050600858924.
128 Raman Preet, “Vietnam Records High Female Employment But Challenges Remain,” Vietnam Briefing, October 31, 2019, https://www.vietnam-briefing.com/news/vietnam-records- high-female-employment-challenges-remain.html/.
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Assembly of Vietnam Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, and successful entrepreneurs such as Nguyen Thi
Phuong Thao who “made history by starting and running her own airline.”129
Despite the state’s considerable success in empowering women in the public sphere, gender inequality persists in the domestic sphere. According to Sidney Schuler et al., the state’s strong emphasis on the three female virtues including responsibilities “for the family, for production and work, and for the national defense” together with the state’s failure to “involve men and to address their roles” created multiple demands that Vietnamese women needed to satisfy.130 Moreover, as Jayne Werner points out, Vietnam’s transition to the market economy which promoted Vietnamese women’s fuller participation in production activities either in the state sector or the household sector (kinh tế hộ gia đình) while reducing state budget for social welfare such as subsidized daycare services put greater burden on women’s shoulders.131 John
Knodel et al. also argue that after the economic reform (Đổi Mới) in the late 1980s, “the relaxation of political influence over social practices appears to be a reverting-back to earlier
[Confucian-based] customs and traditions.”132 Therefore, regardless of their employment status,
Vietnamese women continued to perform the traditional gender roles at home in the post-Đổi
129 Lan Anh Nguyen, “Asia’s Power Businesswomen 2019: How Vietjet’s Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao Made History By Starting And Running Her Own Airline,” Forbes, September 23, 2019, https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesasia/2019/09/23/asias-power-businesswomen-2019-how- vietjets-nguyen-thi-phuong-thao-made-history-by-starting-and-running-her-own- airline/#183444623e00.
130 Schuler et al., “Constructions of Gender in Vietnam: In Pursuit of the ‘Three Criteria,’” 391.
131 Jayne Werner, “Gender, Household, and State: Renovation (Đối Mới) as Social Process in Việt Nam,” in Gender, Household, State: Doi Moi in Vietnam, ed. Werner Jayne and Danièle Bélanger (Ithaca, New York, 2002), 29–48, https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501719455-003.
132 John Knodel et al., “Gender Roles in the Family: Change and Stability in Vietnam,” Asian Population Studies 1, no. 1 (2005): 88, https://doi.org/10.1080/17441730500125888.
64
Mới period. They had to do the majority of housework including household chores, childrearing and household budget management.133 In addition, they were required to take responsibility “not only for their own behaviour but also for things that may be outside of their control, such as their children's grades in school and their husbands' sometimes violent behavior,” which, Schuler insists, reproduced structures of gender inequality within the family.134
The empowerment of Vietnamese women in the public sphere together with the reinforcement of Vietnamese traditional gender roles in the domestic sphere led to a paradox about Vietnamese women’s education. While both Vietnamese men and women were encouraged to participate in tertiary level education to get a good career and, accordingly, a comfortable life, Vietnamese women were usually advised to dedicate themselves to the care- taking of family rather than spending time and efforts on pursuing post-graduate education after marriage. As a result, while there was no gender gap in male and female enrollment in tertiary level education at the beginning of the 21st century in Vietnam, gender disparity existed at post- graduate level education with only 30.5 percent of Masters’ degrees and 17.1 percent of PhDs were awarded to women in 2007.135 The social discouragement that Vietnamese married women encountered when planning to go abroad for post-graduate education led to the fact that many
Vietnamese women did not take the opportunity for overseas education and training if their spouses did not have similar opportunities. In the English department that I worked for prior to
133 Knodel et al., “Gender Roles in the Family: Change and Stability in Vietnam.”
134 Schuler et al., “Constructions of Gender in Vietnam: In Pursuit of the ‘Three Criteria,’” 391.
135 Daniele Belanger, Lan T. N. Nguyen, and Oanh T. T. Nguyen, “Closing the Gender Gap in Vietnam : An Analysis Based on the Vietnam Censuses 1989, 1999, 2009” (Quebec City, 2012), https://www.odsef.fss.ulaval.ca/sites/odsef.fss.ulaval.ca/files/odsef_english_version.pdf.
65 my migration to the U.S., for example, there were only four married women pursuing doctoral degrees overseas. Spouses of all the four women, including me, were either studying or were able to obtain skilled jobs in the countries where the women had their education. Many of my other colleges, despite their ability to find funding for their post-graduate education abroad, eventually decided to stay because their husbands could not migrate independently either as international students or skilled workers. Especially, the visa restriction in countries like the U.S. which prohibits spouses of international students and specialty workers from working strongly discouraged Vietnamese men to migrate as “dependents”.
In addition, although Confucianism became powerless and faded in Vietnamese culture by the late 19th century when the country was invaded by the French colonialists, there are still some remnants of Confucianism in contemporary Vietnamese customs and rituals. One of the
Confucian remnants in Vietnamese culture is the common belief that women should not be more successful than their spouses to maintain happiness in the family. Therefore, it is also a social norm for Vietnamese women to sacrifice their career plans for their spouse’s career prospects. In
Nhung’s case, both Nhung and her husband were university lecturers, but it was Nhung who left the job to accompany her husband but not vice versa. Nga, another informant who worked for an intergovernmental organization in Vietnam also confided that she loved her job so much that she refused to accompany her spouse when he moved to Japan to participate in a doctoral program for four years. Nevertheless, she was “forced” to migrate to the U.S. a year after her spouse got a postdoctoral position at a university in California because she felt that her five-year long- distance marital relationship was leading to a breakup.
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Conclusion
In short, this chapter clarifies how Vietnam’s “open-door” market-oriented policies which encouraged the Vietnamese government to improve the quality of their workforce for economic growth led to a significant increase in the post-1990 highly skilled migration from
Vietnam to the U.S. It also explains why Vietnam’s and the U.S.’ gendered demands for highly skilled labor, and gender ideologies and practices in Vietnam contributed to the masculinization of highly skilled migrants from Vietnam to “the country of freedom and opportunities” since the
1990s. The chapter confirms the gender-specific nature of migration as it points out that gender influences reasons for migrating. Many well-educated Vietnamese women who had good jobs in
Vietnam, because of their gender roles as dedicated wives and mothers, had to sacrifice their careers for their spouses’ professional prospects. As existing literature on gender and migration suggests that either opportunities or risks and vulnerabilities are largely shaped by one’s gender, in the next chapter, I will examine the why most Vietnamese highly skilled temporary migrants’ accompanying spouses were relegated to the domestic sphere in the U.S. despite their high level of education and good English language skills.
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CHAPTER III. CONSTRUCTING DEPENDENCE: STRUCTURAL AND CULTURAL
BARRIERS TO VIETNAMESE ACCOMPANYING WOMEN’S PARTICIPATION IN
THE U.S. LABOR FORCE
“In Vietnam, many people believe that the U.S. is a paradise on earth. However, since I came to
this country, I have been stuck inside these four walls. Life in the U.S. for me is not like life in
paradise. It’s, instead, like life in a prison. I am like an inmate. Though I am not locked up, I
have no place to go…”
- Lan, 28, MA, homemaker, former businesswoman in Vietnam -
Lan almost cried when she shared with me her feeling about her current life in the U.S.
Like most of my research participants, Lan was relegated to the domestic sphere because of various structural and cultural barriers to employment in the host country. While accompanying women with H-4, O-3, F-2 visas were prohibited from working because of their visa restrictions, many J-2 and L-2 visa holders like Lan changed from being highly independent women with well-paid jobs and broad social relationships in Vietnam to housewives with limited social interactions in the U.S. because of factors such as the U.S. cumbersome bureaucracy, the formal and informal devaluation of credentials obtained from Vietnam, and U.S. employers’ racial discrimination. According to Monica Boyd and Elizabeth Grieco, opportunities or risks and vulnerabilities facing migrants are largely shaped by one’s gender.136 This chapter advances
Boyd and Grieco’s argument by exploring how gender interacted with race, class, nationality, and immigration status to construct Vietnamese accompanying women’s “dependence” in the
U.S. The chapter is divided into two main parts. In the first part, I explicate how the U.S., as a
136 Boyd and Grieco, “Women and Migration: Incorporating Gender into International Migration Theory.”
68 gendered and racialized regime, used its visa structure to restrict rights and freedom of
“undesirable” foreign bodies entering the country. In the second part, I uncover other structural and cultural barriers that hindered Vietnamese accompanying women’s integration into the U.S. labor force.
The U.S. Visa Regime and the Housewifization of Vietnamese Accompanying Women in the
U.S.
Chien-Juh Gu defines the term “housewifilization” as “the phenomenon that international migration ties women closer to the domestic sphere and intensifies the work-family division.”137
Among my twenty informants, twelve of them were forced to become housewives because their visas did not allow them to work in the U.S. As I wanted to know why the U.S. immigration laws grant the working right to certain groups of nonimmigrants’ accompanying spouses but not others, I did a close analysis of U.S. immigration laws relating to highly skilled temporary migrants and the reasonings that the U.S. Congress’ and Department of Homeland Security’s
(DHS) used to justify their decisions regarding employment authorization for nonimmigrant dependent spouses. I also read articles commenting, supporting or challenging those laws and decisions. My study revealed the racial, class, and gender biases in contemporary U.S. immigration policies on highly skilled temporary migrants and their accompanying spouses.
137 Gu, The Resilient Self: Gender, Immigration, and Taiwanese Americans, 40. In this study, I use a shorter and more frequently used term “housewifization” to refer to the same process defined by Gu as “housewifilization”.
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The Racial, Class, and Gender Biases in the U.S. Immigration Policies toward Highly Skilled
Temporary Migrants
As uncovered in my study, temporary migrants possessing similar skill sets and/or expertise could enter the U.S. on a few visas depending on how the U.S. government views the purposes of their entry, the “level” of their skills, their race/ nationality, as well as their social class. For example, the H-1B, E-3, TN, and L-1 visas are all high-skilled guest worker programs, but they are used for/by different groups of nationals and social classes. E-3 visa program was designed for the use of Australian nationals and could potentially be given to Irish nationals if
Rep. Richie Neal's bill to grant Irish nationals access to unused E-3 working visas in the US was approved.138 H-1B visas can theoretically be used by specialty workers of all nationalities but were granted mostly to Asian migrants (predominantly Chinese and South Asians who made up more than eighty percent of the H-1B visa holders in 2018).139 TN visa program was designed for highly skilled workers from Canada and Mexico, but statistics released by the U.S.
Department of State showed that TN visa holders were mostly Mexican.140 L-1 visas were granted to intracompany transferees, most of whom were executives of multinational companies, and recently there was a pilot program that allowed Canadian citizens to enter the U.S. with L-1 visas.
138 Kerry O’Shea, “New E3 Bill Passes House, Could Grant Irish Access to Thousands of US Working Visas,” Irish Central, March 11, 2020, https://www.irishcentral.com/news/irish-access- e3-visa.
139 “Three-Fourths of H-1B Visa Holders in 2018 Are Indians: US Report.”
140 U.S. Department of State – Bureau of Consular Affairs, “Non-Immigrant Visa Issuances by Visa Class and by Nationality FY1997-2006 NIV Detail Table.”
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Although each visa category has its own term and regulations, it is clear from my research that some highly skilled nonimmigrant visa programs offer more benefits to the visa holders than the others. For instance, E-3 visa holders enjoy a few benefits that H-1B visa program does not offer. Firstly, with a population of approximately 0.3% of the world’s non-US population, professionals from Australia are allotted 10,500 visas each year (about 15% of the combined annual total of US visas for persons in specialty occupations) compared to the 65,000
H-1B work visas that are issued yearly to theoretically all other non-U.S. nationals. Secondly, the application fee for E-3 visa (which is $460 in 2021) is significantly less than the filling fees for
H-1B visa which may range from $1,250 to $6,000 depending on the size of the sponsoring company.141 Thirdly, unlike the H-1B, which allows skilled workers to work in the U.S. for up to a total of six years, the E-3 visa is renewable indefinitely. More importantly, accompanying spouses of E-3 visa holders can work in the U.S. while spouses of H-1B visa holders cannot.
Gary Endelman argues that, “The E-3 was not an act of American largesse, but the product of strong and sustained lobbying by a determined ally whose continued military participation in Iraq and Afghanistan was devoutly wished by the Bush Administration.” 142
Nevertheless, it is undeniable that race was an important factor influencing the decision of the
Congress to create privileged E-3 visa category for Australian nationals. In fact, at a Canberra press conference held at Parliament House on May 31st, 2005 to celebrate the E-3 visa's birthday,
U.S. Congressman James Sensenbrenner remarked, "I am concerned that when we are dealing
141 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, “H and L Filing Fees for Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker,” accessed March 1, 2021, https://www.uscis.gov/forms/all-forms/h- and-l-filing-fees-for-form-i-129-petition-for-a-nonimmigrant-worker.
142 Gary Endelman, “The Real Story Behind The New E-3 Visa,” n.d.
71 with free trade agreements with Third World countries like Central America and Caribbean
Islands...that is an entirely different mix of immigration questions than dealing with a developed country like Australia."143 Sensenbrenner’s statement unraveled the U.S. Congress’ intention of not extending the E-3 concept to trade negotiations with “economically underdeveloped” and
“racially other” third world countries. The proposal of a similar legislation for the country of
Ireland (also called an E-3 visa) which would allow up to 10,000 Irish professionals to come and work in the United States on a yearly basis put forward by Senator Chuck Schumer in 2012 and a proposal for a very similar visa to citizens of European Union member states included in the
House of Representatives’ Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill in 2013, despite not yet materialized, clearly reflected the “racial preference” in contemporary U.S. immigration policy, particularly policy relating to highly skilled temporary migrants and their dependent spouses.144
The racial and class biases in the U.S. immigration policy could be more clearly seen when immigration laws relating to accompanying spouses of highly skilled migrants were examined. My research shows that whether the working right of highly skilled temporary migrants’ accompanying spouses is respected or forfeited by the U.S. government depends on the race and social class of the highly skilled migrants. For instance, accompanying spouses of
H-1B and TN visa holders who are mostly Asians and Mexicans are prohibited from working while accompanying spouses of E-3 and L-1 visa holders who are white and/or the upper class are allowed to work in the U.S.
143 Endelman.
144 Endelman.
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My study also reckons that contemporary U.S. immigration laws on the employment authorization of highly skilled temporary migrants’ accompanying spouses are not only racially- and class- biased but also discriminatory against women. It is possible that the creation of the
“dependent visa” category originated from the U.S. government’s assumption that men were principal migrants while women were followers, which was clearly indicated in the wording of
U.S. immigration acts passed before 1950.145 Therefore, when imposing restrictions on accompanying spouses of highly skilled temporary migrants from the global south, the U.S. state possibly aimed at “third world women” who, according to Chandra Mohanty, was constructed as
“a monolithic universal dependent category”146 in Western political and academic discourse. In addition, Bandana Purkayastha argues that in many Euro-American countries, immigration laws which define skills in “medicine, upper-level management, engineering, information technology, and physical science research” as “highly skilled” for immigration purposes are gender-biased because they neglect the continuing gender disparities in education as well as woman's skills, training, and inclination.147 The fact that more women migrating to the U.S. with nonimmigrant
145 The terms “his wife,” and “his children” were used to refer to an immigrant’s immediate family members in Section 37 of the Immigration Act of 1907 and the Immigration Act of 1924.
146 Mohanty, “Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity”; Banerjee, “Constructing Dependence: Visa Regimes and Gendered Migration in Families of Indian Professional Workers,” 28.
147 Bandana Purkayastha, “Skilled Migration and Cumulative Disadvantage: The Case of Highly Qualified Asian Indian Immigrant Women in the US,” Geoforum 36, no. 2 (2005): 181–96, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2003.11.006.
73 spousal visas, particularly H-4 visas, Balgamwalla insists, illustrates that United States is doing
“gender work” through its visa regime.148
The racial, class, and gender biases in contemporary U.S. immigration policy on highly skilled temporary migrants unraveled in my study exemplify how the American state power uses its visa regime to “create conditions for differential treatment and mechanism for control of an internationally mobile population.”149 Evelyn Glenn when discussing how U.S. immigration laws and citizenship criteria have historically been determined by race and gender of the migrants points out that, “being male (gender), white (race), and being productive in the paid labor force defines full U.S. citizenship and has excluded those who did not meet those criteria, at different historical moments.” 150 My analysis of U.S. immigration laws concerning highly skilled migrants and their spouses suggests that although highly-skilled migrants from the global south were wanted for their substantial contribution to the growth of the U.S. economy, they were not welcomed as full U.S. citizens because they did not fit the “white race” criterion. Their accompanying spouses – the “undesirable” non-male, non-white subjects – were, therefore, relegated to “a second-class citizenship,” being deprived of one of the most important rights for human beings: the right to work.
148 Balgamwalla, “A Woman’s Place: Dependent Spouse Visa Holders and the Legacy of Coverture.”
149 Banerjee, “Constructing Dependence: Visa Regimes and Gendered Migration in Families of Indian Professional Workers,” 18.
150 Evelyn Nakano Glenn, Unequal Freedom: How Race and Gender Shaped American Citizenship and Labor (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004); quoted in Banerjee, “Constructing Dependence: Visa Regimes and Gendered Migration in Families of Indian Professional Workers,” 27.
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The U.S. immigration laws which prohibit certain groups of highly skilled temporary migrants’ accompanying spouses (H-4, O-3, and F-2 visa holders) from working, therefore, forced many accompanying spouses of Vietnamese highly skilled migrants to the domestic sphere. In the next section, I further elaborate how the U.S. state used the visa regime to restrict rights and freedom, and accordingly, imposed “dependence” on Vietnamese accompanying spouses.
Governmentality, State Power, and the U.S. Visa Regime
As mentioned above, the U.S. government differentiates their treatments of highly skilled migrants by categorizing them based on not only their purposes of their entry into the U.S. but also on their race, class, and arguably gender. This practice of the state to govern “foreign bodies” is elucidated by Foucault’s concept of governmentality which is defined as:
… the ensemble formed by institutions, procedures, analyses and reflections, the
calculations and tactics that allow the exercise of this very specific albeit complex form
of power, which has as its target population as its principal form of knowledge political
economy and, as it’s essential technical means apparatus of security.151
Foucault argued that a nation state governs its people not only through the coercive and repressive sovereign power but also through its ability to make the governed willingly adopt dominant political and economic ideologies to discipline the self and others according to the mentality of the state. Governmentality is, thus, “the way in which the state justifies and hence enforces its apparatus of disciplinary power through an institutionalized ideology that is directed
151 Foucault, “Governmentality,” 219.
75 at citizens or subjects of the state.”152 To encourage the willing participation of the governed, the nation state uses a range of techniques including “mechanisms of management and administration (work processes, procedures, rules) and ways of classifying individuals or groups
(by income, race, professional and personnel categories), which allow for their identification, classification, ordering, and control.”153
In the context of globalization, according to Mark Salter, a visa system is one of the control techniques that a nation state employs to control international mobility.154 By categorizing the internationally mobile population as temporary bodies such as students, workers
(high-skilled or low-skilled), dependents, refugees, and tourists; the nation state can differentiate its treatment of foreign bodies, justify its restriction on the rights and mobility of the “temporal subjects,”155 and make the oppressive nature of the state unquestionable.
The ability of the state to normalize its discriminatory structure was indicated in my informants’ unquestioning acceptance of their forced housewifization caused by their immigration status. Most of my H-4 and F-2 visa holders said that they were unhappy when knowing that their immigration status prohibited them from working in the host country, but it was “one of the terms” in their “migration contract”, so they never thought of “breaking the
152 Foucault, “Governmentality” quoted in Banerjee, “Constructing Dependence: Visa Regimes and Gendered Migration in Families of Indian Professional Workers,” 16.
153 Richard Huff, “Governmentality,” in Encyclopaedia Britannica (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2013), https://www.britannica.com/topic/governmentality.
154 Salter, “Passports, Mobility, and Security: How Smart Can the Border Be?”
155 Banerjee, “Constructing Dependence: Visa Regimes and Gendered Migration in Families of Indian Professional Workers,” 19.
76 contract”. Hai, a spouse of an international student, when being asked what kinds of support that she would like to get from Vietnamese and the U.S. governments, also answered,
It might be too much to ask, but I hope the U.S. government would allow spouses of
international students to work, of course, not full time, but maybe from ten to twenty
hours a week so that I can make more friends, get to know more about American culture,
and earn some money for my family. Some friends of mine are studying in Canada, New
Zealand, and Japan, and their spouses can work. It would be great if the U.S. laws allow
that, too.
As implied in Hai’s answer, she believed that the U.S. government had a valid reason to restrict the right to work of international students’ accompanying spouses. Therefore, instead of calling the U.S. government to outlaw its discriminatory practice, Hai just hoped that the U.S. would be more benevolent to provide accompanying spouses with the opportunities to work in the host country. Hai’s statement clearly illustrated the success of the U.S. government in using the visa regime to justify its discriminatory immigration laws, simultaneously get the active consent and willingness of “foreign nationals” to participate in their own governance following the guidance of the state.
Chapters 4 and 5 of this dissertation discuss in more detail how the temporality of the visa status regulates the subjectivities and behaviors of Vietnamese temporary migrants.
However, it was indicated through my interviews with Vietnamese accompanying women that the temporariness that the U.S. government imposed on Vietnamese highly skilled migrants and their accompanying spouses negatively affected my informants’ integration into the American labor force. The next section explicates other structural barriers that my respondents encountered
77 when searching for employment in the U.S. including the ones caused by my informants’ temporariness.
Other Structural Barriers to Vietnamese Accompanying Women’s Employment
Complicated, Lengthy, and Costly Immigration Processes
Among my twenty research participants, eight women had visa statuses that allowed them to generate income in the U.S. However, as temporary migrants, they were not automatically granted the right to work. Instead, they had to go through a complicated, lengthy, and costly immigration process to obtain their employment authorization document (EAD) before they could apply for jobs and start working. Huong, a spouse of a postdoctoral researcher, explained why she could only obtain her EAD after about nine months in the U.S. with a J-2 visa:
My husband worked for this research institute as a postdoc with an Exchange Visitor
visa. His supervisors said that they intended to hire him for at least three years. However,
because of funding issues, they could only let him sign one-year contract at a time. We
did not know that the length of the contract would put me at a disadvantage. Since I came
to the U.S. six months later than my husband did, when I was about to file an application
for my EAD, we realized that my husband’s immigration document, the DS-2019, was
expiring in six months. My EAD’s expiration date is the same as the expiration date of
my husband’s DS-2019. In addition, my friends told me that it usually takes three months
for an applicant to receive his EAD card from the time of application. Therefore, I
decided to wait for my husband’s contract renewal before applying for my EAD. I only
got my EAD after almost nine months staying in the U.S. At that time, I was in the first
trimester of my pregnancy, suffering from serious morning sickness, thus, I could not
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take any paid jobs. After my daughter was born, I have been too busy with her to find any
jobs until now.
As indicated in Huong’s statement, visas have a term and expiration. For highly skilled workers, their visas are sponsored by their U.S. employers and can be extended to a certain amount of time if the U.S. employers agree to extend their visa sponsorship. The dependence of the highly skilled migrants and their families on the U.S. employers for their visas and immigration status had substantial impacts on these temporary migrants, which will be clarified in the next chapters.
However, in Huong’s case, the term of her visa, which did not accurately indicate the intended length of her stay in the U.S., together with the U.S. cumbersome bureaucracy illustrated in the lengthy process of Huong’s EAD application impeded her opportunities to work outside the home.
Thoa, another J-2 visa holder who had been in the U.S. for almost five years, also underwent a frustration when the lengthy and costly process of EAD application broke the continuity of her employment. She explained,
I felt so frustrated that I had to renew my EAD so often [for her, it was annually]. It made
me feel that I was not welcomed here. Every time, it cost me $410, which was a large
amount of money for a part-time worker like me. One time, I was so busy that I forgot to
apply for the renewal of my EAD card in advance. Therefore, when my old EAD expired,
I hadn’t got my new EAD yet. I had to take a leave from work, and I lost my job later
because the owner of the nail salon where I worked for hired another person to do my
work.
Like Huong, Thoa had to renew her EAD yearly because her husband, a postdoctoral researcher, could only sign a one-year contract at a time although he had been working at the same place with the same position for almost five years. Besides the long time that the EAD renewal process
79 took, Thoa was unhappy because the renewal fee was high, which made her feel that she, as a foreigner, had to pay for her right to work.
The complexity of the U.S. immigration law and the lengthy immigration process also deprived Loan, the spouse of a PhD student, of an opportunity to do her dream job. Loan was in the U.S. as a J-2 visa holder for seven years. During the first three years, she gave birth to a baby and stayed at home to take care of her daughter. Later, with support from her parents who came to the U.S. to help her with the childcare, she managed to study and obtain a master’s degree from a university in California. She then found a dream job at a big financial corporation. However, to her disappointment, she could not take the job because of a problem with her work permit. Her husband, at that time was in the sixth year of his five-year doctoral program, so he had to extend his immigration document every semester. Since the duration of her work permit depended on the duration of her spouse’s immigration document, when she got the work permit after waiting for approximately three months for it to be processed, the permit was about to expire. Therefore, even when she was eligible for work authorization, she could not do a paid job in her last two years in the U.S.
Stories of my three informants, Thoa, Huong, and Loan, clearly demonstrated that by using the visa regime to construct highly skilled migrants and their spouses as temporary subjects regardless of their length of time in the host country, the U.S. government was able to restrict the migrants’ freedom and increase their dependence on both the U.S. employers and the U.S. authorities who dealt with their immigration paperwork. This dependence, in many cases, resulted in accompanying spouses’ inability to take up their hard-to-find opportunities for employment.
Nhung whose family had to hire an immigration lawyer when changing their nonimmigrant status from J visas (for exchange visitors) to O visas (for individuals with extraordinary ability or
80 achievement) even reckoned that, “I think the U.S. government intentionally makes the immigration laws extremely complicated so that immigrants have to pay money for American lawyers. I am sure immigration lawyers and the U.S. government have made a lot of money from this immigrant horde.” My research interviews, thus, illustrated Mark Salter’s argument that the visa system enables the government to regulate the rights and access to resources of a “resident alien,” and accordingly, to organize an international population within a paradoxical framework,
“one in which the mobile bodies understand themselves to be free and international and yet are controlled and constrained by the politics of surveillance, documentation, biometrics and confessional imperatives.”156
U.S. Bureaucracy and their Ignorance of Vietnamese Culture
Adding to the complexity of the immigration process was a structural barrier created by
U.S. cumbersome bureaucracy when cultural differences between U.S. and Vietnam arose. Half of my research participants complained about the troubles they had with various American institutions at the beginning of their resettlement due to the mismatch of their names in different immigration documents caused by the differences between Vietnamese and American naming practices. Chi, spouse of a graduate student, vividly described her problem:
In my passport issued by Vietnam Immigration Bureau, my full name was written in the
order of a typical Vietnamese full name which is last name, middle name(s), and first
name. In my immigration document (the form DS-2019) issued by my husband’s
university, my name was written in the order of an American full name, which is first
156 Mark B. Salter, “Passports, Mobility, and Security: How Smart Can the Border Be?,” International Studies Perspectives 5, no. 1 (2004): 71–91, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1528- 3577.2004.00158.x quoted in Banerjee, “Constructing Dependence: Visa Regimes and Gendered Migration in Families of Indian Professional Workers,” 16.
81 name, middle name, and then last name. However, in my U.S. visa issued by the U.S. embassy in Vietnam, my given name was written in the order of middle name and first name, which was different from the American way of writing my given name. When I entered the U.S., my name was written in the Form I-94 [the Arrival – Departure Record card] as middle name and last name because the U.S. customs and border protection officer looked at my U.S. visa and assumed that my middle name, which appeared first in my given name, was my first name. The mismatch of names in my identity and immigration documents created so many troubles for me. It took the Social Security
Office more than a month to verify my documents and issue me a Social Security Card.
Nevertheless, in the card, my name was, again, written as middle name and last name. I was, then, unable to apply for a driver license at the DMV, and thus, could not travel to work in a Vietnamese commercial center which was about fifteen miles from my apartment. I talked to people working at the local DMV, trying to explain the reason for my name mismatch with the hope that they would let me take the driving test. However, they all advised me to go back to Vietnam to change the order of my given name in my
U.S. visa so that it conformed to the U.S. rule. You know, it’s just too expensive to do that, so I called the U.S. embassy in Vietnam, asking for suggested solution to my naming problem. The staff in the U.S. embassy told me that they used to write
Vietnamese given names in U.S. visas following the U.S. rule as first name followed by middle name. Nevertheless, they had recently decided to adhere to the way Vietnamese given names were written in Vietnamese passports. Thus, even if I went back to Vietnam and applied for a new U.S. visa, they would not make any changes in the way my given name was written in my U.S. visa. I was very frustrated as nobody took responsibility for
82
my name mismatch and was willing to help me solve my problem. I could not apply for a
driver license until a year later when one of my friends advised me to change my given
names in all documents to match the name in my U.S. visa. It was extremely complicated
to fix my names in all immigration documents, but I finally did it. However, when I had
my driver license and were ready to work, I gave birth to a baby and had to stay at home
to take care of my child. The worst thing is that now people start to call me by my middle
name when they see my name in my immigration and identity documents. It seems like I
have lost my real first name just because of the difference in the Vietnamese and
American naming practices.
As revealed by Chi and my other research participants, the U.S. embassy in Vietnam used their discretion in deciding which name order they wanted to write in U.S. visas for Vietnamese visa applicants. Although the name order that the U.S. embassy currently chose reflected their understanding of and respect for Vietnamese culture, it created a name mismatch, and subsequently, numerous paperwork problems for Vietnamese migrants in the U.S. since U.S. domestic institutions refused to recognize the difference between Vietnamese and American name orders. The name mismatch problem that many Vietnamese nationals encountered in the
U.S. can be explained by post-colonial theory – a theory which offers a critical analysis of the cultural legacy of colonialism and imperialism. According to postcolonial critics, during the colonial era, the world was divided into the “West and the Rest” with the West became “the gold standard against which the rest of the world was positioned.”157 In our contemporary world,
157 Fran Martin and Helen Griffiths, “Power and Representation : A Postcolonial Reading of Global Partnerships and Teacher Development through North – South Study Visits,” British Educational Research Journal 38, no. 6 (2012): 910.
83 postcolonial critics insist, “the Rest” is still compared (unfavorably) with the Western standard, so “alternative cultures, histories and knowledge systems continue to be relegated to the margins and devalued.”158 In this case, the American full name format was considered the “gold standard,” and Vietnamese naming practice was not valued and accordingly, not taken into consideration by officials working in many domestic U.S. institutions when they dealt with
Vietnamese nationals’ immigration documents. U.S. bureaucracy and their ignorance of
Vietnamese culture were, thus, a major structural barrier to adaptation in general and employment in particular for Vietnamese dependent spouses in the U.S.
The Devaluation of Migrants’ Foreign Credentials
Other structural barriers that hampered the accessibility to professional occupations of
Vietnamese nonimmigrants’ dependent spouses were issues relating to foreign professionals’ credential evaluation in the U.S. As educational systems and academic documents vary greatly by country, immigrants in the U.S. are usually required to have their credentials evaluated to join the workforce as skilled immigrants. However, there is no federal government agency that oversees credential evaluations, so foreign qualifications are usually evaluated by credential evaluators who are supposed to meet certain criteria established by professional associations such as Association of International Credential Evaluators, Inc. (AICE) and National Association of Credential Evaluation Services (NACES). Studies on credential recognition in the U.S. and
Canada for foreign professionals show that the lack of consistency and inadequate evaluation mechanisms in the foreign professional credential accreditation process creates a barrier
158 Martin and Griffiths, 910.
84 hindering the integration of skilled immigrants from the Global South into American and
Canadian workforces.159
My interviews with Vietnamese dependent spouses corroborated previous studies when they uncovered various difficulties that my respondents and their acquaintances encountered during their credential evaluation process. Minh, a former lecturer in Vietnam, for example, explained how her unfamiliarity with the complicated process of credential evaluation in the U.S. discouraged her from applying for a suitable job:
In order to apply for a job as a part-time instructor of Vietnamese language in a nearby
community college, I need to have my Vietnamese qualifications evaluated by a
transcript review agency. I contacted the World Education Service (WES), and they
required me to send them my academic transcripts in original envelopes sealed and
stamped by the issuing institutions. However, my university in Vietnam does not offer
the service of sending former students’ transcripts directly to foreign agencies. I must go
to the university to get a copy of my transcripts by myself. If I could not, the person who
159 Emmanuel Dean Osaze, “The Non-Recognition or Devaluation of Foreign Professional Immigrants’ Credentials in Canada: The Impact on the Receiving Country (Canada) and the Immigrants” (n.d.), https://yorkspace.library.yorku.ca/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10315/34314/Osaze_Emmanuel_Dean _2017_MA.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y; Shibao Guo, “Difference, Deficiency, and Devaluation: Tracing the Roots of Non-Recognition of Foreign Credentials for Immigrant Professionals in Canada,” Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education 22, no. 1 (2009): 37–52, https://cjsae.library.dal.ca/index.php/cjsae/article/view/1002; Linda Rabben, Credential Recognition in the United States for Foreign Professionals (Washington DC: Migration Policy Institute, 2013), https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.polisci.6.121901.085546.
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helps me would have to bring a notarized power of attorney to the university to pick up
my transcripts. This is a big challenge for me because I would need to drive seven hours
to the Vietnamese consulate in San Francisco to get my power of attorney notarized
before sending it back to Vietnam. In addition, while WES requires academic transcripts
in English, my university only issues transcripts in Vietnamese. Therefore, it would be
useless if my transcripts were sent directly to WES in original envelopes sealed and
stamped by my university without translation. As the credential evaluation process was
too complicated as well as time and money consuming, I eventually decided not to apply
for that job. However, later, when I shared my problem with qualification evaluation in a
Facebook group, other Vietnamese immigrants told me that Educational Credential
Evaluators (ECE) would accept my own translated version of my academic transcripts
provided that the original version in Vietnamese was sent directly to them by my
university. If I had known this information earlier, I would have tried using ECE service.
As Minh pointed out, the practice of credential evaluation did not exist in Vietnam, so it was challenging for her to obtain documents required by the evaluation agency that she contacted.
Minh’s explanation also disclosed the lack of consistency in evaluation mechanisms among evaluation agencies. The following detailed description of Chi, a former accountant in Vietnam, about how some evaluation agencies worked further illustrated how the lack of a clear evaluation set of criteria might result in the unfairness in the evaluation of immigrants’ qualifications:
I was an accountant in Vietnam. After my family moved to Illinois for my husband to
pursue his PhD, I wanted to take the CPA exam to become a certified public accountant
there. Illinois state board of accountancy required me to have my bachelor’s degree from
Vietnam evaluated by NASBA [the National Association of State Boards of
86
Accountancy] to decide whether I was eligible to sit for the CPA exam. Therefore, I
talked to a few Vietnamese friends who had got their degrees evaluated by NASBA to get
some advice about what to prepare. Do you know what my friends said about the
credential evaluation by NASBA? They all said that the evaluation process was absurd
They had to prepare letters explaining the syllabus of every subject that they had studied
in Vietnam. Yet, regardless of what and how much a person studied in Vietnam, NASBA
only gave him/her a credential evaluation equal to at most 120 college credits hours in the
U.S. As most state boards of accountancy require a person to complete 150 college
credits hours to become a certified public accountant or even just to sit for the CPA
exam, my friends had to take college courses to get 30 more credits hours to meet the
requirement. For credential evaluation, thus, one of my friends advised me to use the
World Education Service (WES) as WES seems to have less complicated and fairer
evaluation. Then I could request WES to send my credential evaluation to NASBA. As
my friend suggested, although NASBA would do the evaluation again by themselves,
sending my documents together with WES evaluation might be better than just sending
the documents from Vietnam alone. Nevertheless, when my husband completed his PhD
and moved to California to work with a H-1B visa, I was not allowed to work, so I
postponed my plan of taking CPA exam.
Chi’s statement suggests that some evaluation agencies might devaluate the credentials of
Vietnamese migrants because of their assumption that the education standards in Vietnam, a developing country, are lower than they are in the U.S. Chi’s suggestion was reconfirmed in
Mai’s recount of her friend’s experience:
87
I haven’t done credential evaluation yet, but I have a friend who needed to evaluate her
degrees before starting her study at a community college. The college introduced her a
company in Chicago which offered credential evaluation services, and she paid the
company $500 to get her high school diploma and two bachelor’s degrees from Vietnam
evaluated. However, when my friend received the evaluation, she was unhappy because
about 20 percent of the grades in the transcripts were converted into lower grades. For
example, grade A in Vietnam was converted into grade B, and grade B into grade C. She
felt that the evaluation was unfair, so she made phone calls and sent emails to the
company but received no responses. Then, she had to look for another company to do the
credential evaluation again. What a frustrating process!
The stories told by Minh, Chi and Mai uncovered that U.S. credential evaluators’ lack of consistency in credential evaluation mechanisms, Vietnamese higher education institutions’ unfamiliarity with Western document-authenticity-verification practices, and the devaluation of
Vietnamese qualifications were some of the major obstacles for Vietnamese nationals in the U.S. to gain recognition for study completed outside the country. For people who, when in Vietnam, used to work in U.S. government-regulated occupations such as those in healthcare, engineering, law, finance, and education, the issue of credential evaluation was even more complex. As jobs in these fields usually require licensure or certification in the U.S., foreign-trained professionals who wanted to continue to practice in the U.S. must go through a complicated process of recertification. However, there is no single structure governing professional certification in regulated occupations. Therefore, according to Linda Rabben, “a profusion of overlapping, sometimes contradictory local, state, or national rules, procedures, and examinations makes it complicated, time-consuming, and expensive for immigrants and refugees to become recertified
88 in the U.S.”160 Cuc, the spouse of a Vietnamese doctoral student in California, is a former high school teacher in Vietnam who was considering working toward a teacher certification in
California. She explicated the demanding process that she would have to go through in order to continue her teaching career in the U.S.:
I love teaching, and I want to be a K-12 teacher in the U.S. Although I have got a
teaching certificate from Vietnam, the certificate is not recognized here, maybe because
of the difference between Vietnamese and American teaching methodologies. Therefore,
I must acquire teaching credential in the U.S. to work as a K-12 teacher. I am now
thinking about getting teaching credential in California, but it is a very long, demanding
and costly process. I would have to take several tests such as CBEST (California Basic
Educational Skills Test), CSET (California Subject Examinations for Teachers) and
complete a teacher preparation program before applying for teaching credential. Actually,
I took the CBEST a couple of months ago, but I failed, so I may retake the test next year.
I think if I am really determined to pursue a teaching career, I will have to study hard in
the next few years to get the teaching credential. You know, the tests are difficult. My
family also needs to save money to pay for my teacher preparation program, which is
expensive, about $20,000. I am also worried that if my family moves to another state, I
would have to transfer my teaching credential from California to another state, which
involves a series of bureaucratic challenges, and of course, takes a lot of time and money.
As Cuc revealed in our conversation in Facebook Messenger, she got a teaching certificate and two-year teaching experience in Vietnam, but her qualifications and experiences gained prior to
160 Linda Rabben, “Credential Recognition in the United States for Foreign Professionals” (Washington DC, 2013), https://www.migrationpolicy.org/pubs/UScredentialrecognition.pdf.
89 migration were devaluated or even not recognized in the U.S. The complicated and costly process of recertification and the inconsistency in rules and regulations among states also present a great challenge for her. Yet, her goal of becoming a teacher in the U.S. was realistic as she was fluent in English and had obtained a master’s degree from a prestigious university in California before changing her immigration status from an international student with a F-1 visa to a dependent spouse of an exchange visitor with a J-2 visa.
For immigrants who were not trained in the U.S., particularly the ones working in the healthcare sector, recertification was much more challenging. The story of Nhi, another respondent who used to work as a dentist in Vietnam, can be cited as an example. Although she was authorized to work in the U.S. with an L-2 visa, her dental education program in Vietnam was not accredited by the American Dental Association Commission on Dental Accreditation
(CODA). Thus, she had to work as an unlicensed dental assistant in a Vietnamese dental clinic for a very low wage to earn extra income for her family. Nhi told me that she felt being exploited when working as an unlicensed dental assistant, so she had considered getting recertification to become a licensed dentist in the U.S. After hours of frustrating research, Nhi learnt that she would have to attend a two-to-three-year advanced standing program, which would cost between
$300,000 and $400,000, to obtain a Doctor of Dental Science (D.D.S.) or a Doctor of Medical
Dentistry (D.M.D.) from a CODA-accredited program. Then, she would have to take several written and clinical exams before receiving dental licenses. While she was debating about whether she should spend an enormous amount of time and money to get permission to practice dentistry in the U.S., a Vietnamese acquaintance advised her to switch to another field because of the demanding requirement for professional English in the recertification process. “A
Vietnamese who is a friend of my relative told me that although she was trained in the U.S., she
90 failed the written exams for dental license several times, and finally gave up because of the language difficulty. In addition, I am not sure whether my family will stay in the U.S. permanently,” Nhi confided “so finally, I decided not to invest in a dental license, which is too demanding and expensive for me to obtain.” Since working as an unlicensed dental assistant was exhausting and low-paid, Nhi quit that job and, at the time of the interview, stayed at home to take care of her family.
The non-recognition and devaluation of the credentials, training, and job experience that
Vietnamese dependent spouses acquired in Vietnam together with the complexity of the recertification process, as my study suggests, were noticeable systemic obstacles that led to the housewifization of many of my research participants who were all well-educated and economically independent before they migrated to the U.S. as spouses of nonimmigrants.
Shibao Guo, in a study on the devaluation of foreign credentials for immigrant professionals in Canada, argues that because of Canada’s immigration policies, the term immigrant has become “a codified word for people of colour who come from different racial and cultural backgrounds,” and “who do not speak fluent English.” The existing Canadian accreditation process, according to Guo, is a result of institutional racism as it is “structured in a way which preserves the privileges of dominant social groups while obstructing new members from minority racial or ethnic groups.”161 By using a theory of “deficit model of difference” which suggests that “difference is equal to deficiency,” and that “the knowledge of others— particularly those from developing countries—is incompatible, inferior, and hence invalid,” Guo
161 Guo, “Difference, Deficiency, and Devaluation: Tracing the Roots of Non-Recognition of Foreign Credentials for Immigrant Professionals in Canada,”: 71
91 insists, Canadian professional organizations are able to “devalue the education and training” of immigrants from the Global South, “render their skills and their previous work experience in their home countries obsolete,” and subsequently, keep out the undesirable.162 Due to the similarity between the U.S. and Canadian accreditation systems, the two countries’ changing demographics of immigrants, immigration policies, and histories of immigration, race and racism, Guo’s argument can be used to elucidate the issue of devaluation of foreign immigrant credentials in the U.S. In the case of Vietnamese dependent spouses, the devaluation of foreign credentials together with the complicated and costly process of recertification amounted to the systematic exclusion of Vietnamese women from the upper segments of the labor market in the
U.S.
In short, the U.S.’ long tradition of rejecting “the difference” manifested in its ignorance of Vietnamese culture as well as its establishment of complicated, lengthy, and costly processes for immigrants such as the EAD application, credential evaluation, and recertification processes were significant structural barriers for Vietnamese accompanying spouses to integrate into
American workforce.
Cultural Barriers
Besides structural barriers created by laws, policies, and regulations relating to immigrants and nonimmigrants, cultural barriers such as U.S. employers’ discrimination against immigrants and nonimmigrants from the Global South substantially contributed to the housewifization of accompanying spouses of Vietnamese nonimmigrants in the U.S.
162 Guo, 71. 92
U.S. Employers’ Implicit Biases in Hiring process
It is not surprising that institutional biases against foreign education, particularly education offered by countries in the Global South, led to widespread implicit bias in hiring and recruitment in the U.S. The case of Ha, the spouse of a doctoral student at a university in
California, is an example. Ha received a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Foreign Trade
University, one of the top universities for economics and business in Vietnam. She then obtained a master’s degree in International Business Economics from a well-known university in the
United Kingdom. She also had an excellent command of English, which was indicated in her very high IELTS score. Nevertheless, after nearly a year of intensive job search in the U.S., she did not get picked for any job interviews even by small local companies that she applied to. The frustrating result of her job search, from Ha’ viewpoint, might be explained by the “U.S. employers’ undervaluation of foreign qualifications,” especially when one of her qualifications was awarded by a university in Vietnam.
Similarly, many of my other respondents failed to secure professional jobs even when they had recognized qualifications from Vietnam in various fields such as banking and finance, water resources, applied mathematics, architecture, and so on. In addition to the devaluation of foreign credentials, U.S. employers’ non-recognition of foreign work experience further restricted employment opportunities for Vietnamese nonimmigrants’ dependent spouses in the
U.S. The experience of Nhung, a former university lecturer in Vietnam, elucidated this observation. Nhung received a bachelor’s and then a master’s degree with distinction in biotechnology from one of the top universities in Vietnam before becoming a lecturer at the same university. Seven years of working in a Vietnamese higher education institution provided her with valuable teaching, research, and laboratory experiences which helped her win a
93 scholarship to participate in a doctoral program in the Netherlands. Nevertheless, when her husband decided to go to the U.S. to pursue a doctoral degree, she had to turn down her scholarship in order to accompany her husband to the U.S. After a few months there, Nhung applied for a job as a technician in a laboratory at her husband’s university, but she was rejected because of her lack of work experience in the host country. U.S. employers’ devaluation or non- recognition of foreign qualifications and experiences, in the cases of Ha, Nhung, and many respondents in my study, was one of the main reasons that prevented many Vietnamese women holding derivative nonimmigrant visas from pursuing the path to professional practice in the U.S.
Wage Discrimination and Other Discriminatory Practices
Limited employment opportunities in professional careers then forced many Vietnamese dependent spouses to low-wage labor market. Nevertheless, for people who accepted blue-collar jobs, various factors such as uncomfortable working environment and overt racism continued to discourage them from staying in the U.S. workforce. Nhung, the former lecturer mentioned above, after failing to get the job as a technician in a university laboratory, landed a job as a sales associate at a department store where she experienced racism firsthand. Nhung recounted her working experience:
I felt that I had to work much harder than other people there. If any of my coworkers
needed to find something, they just called me. I had to run from this corner to another
corner [of the store] all the time during my shift, so I was always exhausted after work.
My husband and my kids, after visiting me a few times during my working hours,
advised me to quit the job. However, I continued working there until I realized that racial
discrimination was rampant at my workplace. One time, I got a pay raise after working
there for a year. I shared information about my pay rise with a co-worker, an African
94
immigrant, who started working at the store at the same time as me. To our surprise, our
pay rise was very different even though we held the same position. I earned 30 cents
more each hour while my co-worker earned only 15 cents more. We were even more
shocked when we accidently got to know that a white male co-worker, who started
working at the store at the same time and held the same position as us, got higher salary
and much higher pay raise than us. My African wo-worker and I were so frustrated and
angry that we both quit our jobs later.
In our conversation, Nhung also expressed her belief that her co-workers used to assign her more work because of a popular stereotype about passive and obedient Asian women. She showed her regret for seemingly conforming to that stereotype when she worked very hard without complaints at the department store. Nonetheless, Nhung had not got any other opportunity to challenge negative stereotypes about Asian women because after her husband completed his doctoral program, she changed her visa to O-3 category, and was not allowed to work since then.
Nhung’s experience revealed the fact that for some Vietnamese accompanying women who could overcome various barriers to get employment in the U.S., the “double discrimination” they encountered at their workplace illustrated in their employers’ gender-based and race-based discriminatory practices eventually discouraged them from working outside the home.
Conclusion
Transnational migration brought about dramatic changes in many Vietnamese accompanying women’s lives, turning them from financially and socially independent women to housewives in the U.S. As clearly explicated in this chapter, opportunities or risks facing migrants are not only shaped by one’s gender but also their race, class, and immigration status.
In the case of Vietnamese highly skilled temporary migrants’ accompanying spouses, their 95 housewifization mostly resulted from their position as the former colonial subjects who were
“triply undesirable” because of their race, gender, and “dependent” status.
Besides revealing the fact that most Vietnamese accompanying women, both the ones who were prohibited from working and the ones who were allowed to work by U.S. immigration laws, ended up being housewives at the beginning of their stay in the U.S., this chapter refutes
William Bernard’s suggestion that the U.S. immigration policy has “gradually evolved from narrow and prejudiced restrictions to a system that shows growing tolerance for ethnic diversity, liberalism and generosity.”163 In the past, many Asian women, owing to their allegedly immorality, were prohibited from entering the U.S. by the Page Act of 1875. Nowadays, many
Asian women, owing to their forced dependent status, are excluded from American public sphere because of both the U.S. gendered and racialized visa regime and the permeation of colonialist attitude in American society. The language of laws and discriminatory practices might be different, but discrimination against Asian women persists. In the next chapter, I will discuss the impacts of Vietnamese accompanying women’s housewifization on their psyches, spousal relations, and other familial relationships.
163 Bernard, “Immigration: History of U.S. Policy.” 96
CHAPTER IV. FOR A HEALTHY MARRIAGE: VIETNAMESE ACCOMPANYING
WOMEN’S NEGOTIATION OF GENDER ROLES AND FAMILIAL EXPECTATIONS
IN THE U.S.
“My wife cries a lot. She does not want to move to the U.S. to live with me as a
dependent, but we are a married couple. Our marriage can be destroyed by long distance.”
- Hung, 32, PhD, Post-doctoral researcher -
Hung sighed while sharing with me his family dilemma when we were on a picnic by a river with some other Vietnamese friends. Hung was, at that time, a postdoctoral researcher with a two-year contract at a renowned university in California. He completed a doctoral degree program in France and worked for a research institute in Europe for two years before moving to the U.S. His wife, Lan, who came to Europe to live with Hung after their marriage, gave birth to their first baby right before Hung received his U.S. visa. To avoid resettlement-related difficulties, Hung traveled with his family back to Vietnam and asked his parents-in-law to help him take care of his wife and the new-born baby. He then departed to the U.S. alone, hoping to welcome his wife and his daughter after he had settled in the U.S. Nine months later, Hung attempted to persuade his wife to come to the U.S. with him, but she refused. Lan had just started a small business in her hometown, so she did not want to temporarily migrate to the U.S. where it was challenging for her to make a career. Hung asked me to help him convince his wife that life was better in the U.S. and that there were opportunities for them to settle down here.
However, before I talked to Lan, in our follow-up conversation a few days later, Hung cheerfully informed me that under the pressure from both his and his in-law families, Lan had agreed to come to the U.S. to reunite the family.
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Lan’s reluctance to move to the U.S. with a nonimmigrant derivative visa was not uncommon. As mentioned in chapter 2, although some of my research participants were excited to migrate to the U.S. – the country of “freedom and opportunity,” many others hesitated in the face of transnational migration as they could anticipate the enormous challenges of becoming
“dependent” on their spouses in the host country. For women who had experienced the life of a trailing spouse in a Western country, as Lan did, migration to the U.S. was not a voluntary but a forced decision that was made mostly for the sake of a “healthy marriage.” Nevertheless, the question remains whether Lan and other Vietnamese women could attain their goal of maintaining a happy marriage upon their arrival in the U.S. with dependent spousal visas.
Sabrina Balgamwalla, when explicating the systematic subordination of nonimmigrant spousal visa holders within the U.S. immigration system, points out that the limitation placed on the rights of H-4 visa holders that prevents them from either taking up employment and/or petitioning for their own immigration status increases their vulnerability to domestic violence.
Domestic violence against H-4 visa holders, according to Balgamwalla, may involve physical abuse but more frequently involves psychological abuse such as threats of divorce, “refusals to file paperwork pertaining to the spouse’s immigration status,” and denial of access to family resources like the family car or family savings. In addition, there is “a strong correlation between economic dependence and the severity of abuse.” Therefore, awareness has been raised in previous studies about the high incidence of abuse among H-4 visa holders who are prohibited from working because of their visa restriction. As noted in Balgamwalla’s article, “a survey of organizations in the United States that serve the South Asian community reveals that across these organizations, H-4 visa holders make up anywhere from twenty-five to seventy-five percent of
98 their domestic violence clients.”164 Since most of the Vietnamese women holding nonimmigrant spousal visas, as discussed in chapter 3, were relegated to the domestic sphere because of various structural and cultural barriers, their economic, social, and emotional dependence on their spouses may reduce their bargaining power in their families, which negatively affects their marriage.
However, Hsing-Fang Chang, in a study involving four Taiwanese international student couples, observes a positive impact of transnational migration on their marital relationship.
According to Chang, the Taiwanese couples in the study experienced different types of social and family obligations when staying in the U.S. They adopted simpler lifestyles and got more independence from their natal families, which resulted in an increase in the marital satisfaction of the couples.165
The findings of the aforementioned studies indicate contradictory impacts of transnational migration on nonimmigrants’ families, particularly on the family relationships as well as on the marital satisfaction of the couples. However, while research on gender and migration emphasizes the necessity of taking the intersectionality of identity such as race, class, region, religion into consideration when analyzing (non)immigrants’ experiences, research on the experiences of nonimmigrant spousal visa holders in general and Balgamwalla’s and Chang’s studies in particular overlook the impacts of factors such as race and social class on nonimmigrants’ post-migration family dynamics. This chapter, thus, examines how the complex
164 Balgamwalla, “A Woman’s Place: Dependent Spouse Visa Holders and the Legacy of Coverture.”
165 Hsing-Fang Chang, “Marital Relationships in Taiwanese International Students: A Qualitative Approach” (University of Southern California, 2003).
99 interplay of various structural and cultural factors influenced Vietnamese accompanying women’s well-being, their familial relationships and accordingly, their marital satisfaction. It also explicates the women’s attempts to maintain a healthy marriage by negotiating changing gender roles and familial expectations in the post-migration period. The chapter is, accordingly, divided into four sections: negotiating gender roles and spousal power relations, handling in-law conflicts, dealing with monetary expectations from natal families, and assessing marital satisfaction and family well-being.
Negotiating Gender Roles and Spousal Power Relations
The term “spousal power relations” refers to the power dynamics between a married couple. It either implies the domination of a spouse over the other in a marital relationship or indicates the extent of equality existing in the spousal power relationship.166 According to Hsin-
Chieh Chang, spousal power relations “significantly determine the duration and quality of the marriage as well as the well-being of the couple and other family members. Imbalanced power distribution in a marriage creates tension and stress, disproportionately affecting the physical and mental well-being of the spouse with less power.”167 My examination of spousal power relations among nonimmigrant Vietnamese married couples during their ostensibly temporary stay in the
U.S. provides us with a more in-depth understanding about post-migration experiences of
Vietnamese nonimmigrants holding spousal visas in general and the well-being of Vietnamese nonimmigrants’ families in particular.
166 Liat Kulik, “Developments in Spousal Power Relations: Are We Moving Toward Equality?,” Marriage and Family Review 47, no. 7 (2011): 424, https://doi.org/10.1080/01494929.2011.619297.
167 Hsin-Chieh Chang, “Marital Power Dynamics and Well-Being of Marriage Migrants,” Journal of Family Issues 37, no. 14 (2016): 1996, https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X15570317.
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Studies on spousal power relations usually employ the well-known resource theory, which “describes the interrelationship between spouses in terms of ‘costs’ and ‘benefits.’”
According to resource theory, in the marital relationship, the spouse with more socioeconomic resources is the dominant partner who has more decision-making power and performs fewer household chores.168 However, dramatic changes in gender roles in the U.S. since the 1970s have encouraged scholars in the field to add gender role ideology into the classic paradigms for analyzing power dynamics between a married couple.169 Liat Kulik, for example, reveals that among couples with traditional gender role ideologies, economic resources were major factors determining their spousal relations; in contrast, among the spouses with liberal gender role norms, emotional and psychological resources were dominant variables that explained the couples’ power dynamics. My study expands such theories on spousal power relations, noting that besides socio-economic resources, race, social class, and gender role ideologies in both the home and host countries were also important factors influencing the power dynamics in
Vietnamese nonimmigrants’ families during their sojourn in the U.S. On the one hand, many
Vietnamese women with nonimmigrant spousal visas, owing to their housewifization, internalized the traditional gender roles that they tried to repudiate when in Vietnam. On the other hand, they adopted more egalitarian household-decision-making practices and noticeably increased their intra-household bargaining power after their migration to the U.S. because of a
168 Kulik, 420.
169 Robert Blood and Donald Wolfe, Husbands and Wives: The Dynamics of Married Living (New York: Free Press, 1965); Hyman Rodman, “Marital Power and the Theory of Resources in Cultural Context,” Journal of Comparative Family Studies 3, no. 1 (1972): 50–69; Liat Kulik, “Marital Power Relations, Resources and Gender Role Ideology: A Multivariate Model of Assessing Effects,” Journal of Comparative Family Studies 30, no. 2 (1999): 189–206.
101 variety of factors, such as their time availability, quick adaptation to the host society, and their exposure to the U.S. racial stereotypes which view Asian women as more “desirable” sexual partners than their male counterparts.
Gender Roles in Middle-class Families in Vietnam
As discussed in chapter 2, Vietnamese state’s enormous efforts to repudiate Confucian- based gender ideology and to promote gender equality resulted in increased gender equality in the public sphere. Girls and women gained equal access to education, and accordingly, hold more powerful positions in the economy, government, and society. However, as pointed out by many scholars, regardless of their employment status, Vietnamese women continued to perform the traditional gender roles at home in the post-Đổi Mới period. 170 They had to do the majority of housework including household chores, childrearing and household budget management.171
Existing literature on gender roles in contemporary Vietnam revealed the persistence of gender inequality within the household, but few studies took into consideration variations among social classes. According to Victor King et al., the “Đổi Mới” (Open Door) policies which brought about “miracle” economic growth also widened the wealth gap between rich and poor, urban and rural communities, and subsequently increased social inequality in Vietnamese society. While the state’s abolishment of the subsidy system (bao cấp) “which used to provide everything from education and employment to healthcare, holidays and many other social benefits” led to many people’s unemployment and poverty, other individuals “who possess
170 Schuler et al., “Constructions of Gender in Vietnam: In Pursuit of the ‘Three Criteria’”; Werner, “Gender, Household, and State: Renovation (Đối Mới) as Social Process in Việt Nam”; Knodel et al., “Gender Roles in the Family: Change and Stability in Vietnam.”
171 Knodel et al., “Gender Roles in the Family: Change and Stability in Vietnam.”
102 knowledge, skills, experience, and social connections and who have seized opportunities offered by economic development” became more affluent.172 The widening wealth gap and socio- economic inequality resulted in social class divisions – a phenomenon usually referred to as
“social stratification” (phân tầng xã hội) in Vietnamese discourse. Profound differences could be seen among social groups not only in income, wealth, and consumption, but also in social, cultural, and political capital. Bent Jorgensen insists that amidst Vietnam’s economic growth, an urban middle class has emerged “with a lifestyle closer to the global urban middle class than to their fellow citizens in the countryside.”173
While few scholars pay attention to the impact of social class on gender roles and gender relations, Binh Nguyen’s research fills in this gap as the author uncovers that “among different family groups, the group of educated and intellectual families where the wife mainly does the housework makes up the smallest share, 42% compared to 87% in farming families [in 2000].”174
Nguyen provided three main reasons for this observation, including a higher rate of modern household facility possession in urban families, an increase in the number of men who were aware of sharing housework with their wives, and a growing rate of urban families hiring
172 Victor T. King, Phuong An Nguyen, and Nguyen Huu Minh, “Professional Middle Class Youth in Post-Reform Vietnam: Identity, Continuity and Change,” Modern Asian Studies 42, no. 4 (2008): 792,793, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X06002551.
173 Bent Jorgensen, “Democracy among the Grassroots: Local Responses to Democratic Reforms in Vietnam,” in Southeast Asian Responses to Globalization: Restructuring Governance and Deepening Democracy, ed. Francis Loh Kok Wah and Joakim Ojendal (Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, 2005), 318.
174 Thanh Binh Nguyen, “The Division of Household Labor in Vietnamese Families at Present Time,” International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences 2, no. 5 (2012): 65, https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/bd17/f2fe76d87c2e8baf9e39e6ef5f83cd3d1a79.pdf.
103 housekeepers or other people to help with housework. Nguyen’s finding was supported by a report produced by the Institute for Social Development Studies, a non-government organization in Vietnam, which asserts that “tendency towards more gender equality in division of labor and decision making in the family is getting clearer, especially among men and women of younger age groups, with higher educational levels.”175 As my research participants belonged to the newly emerged middle-class who, according to Victor King, obtained their class status through education, experience, and employable skills, my research interviews also pointed out the reduction of housework that married women enjoyed prior to their transnational migration. Minh, a former lecturer in Vietnam explained how her husband’s awareness of gender equality led to more egalitarian gender roles in her family:
My husband and I got married in Europe when we were studying abroad. At that time, he
usually helped me with housework such as going grocery shopping, washing dishes, and
so on. However, when we came back to Vietnam, we lived with his mother, and he did
not have to do much housework because my mother-in-law and I were responsible for all
the shopping, cooking, and cleaning in the house. One time, I asked my husband to help
me clean the dishes after dinner because I had just caught a cold and wanted to avoid
immersing my hands in freezing water. My husband was willing to help but my mother-
in-law angrily told me that “in this house, no men were allowed to clean the dishes.”
While I was about to do the work in disappointment, my husband looked at his mother,
threatening to break all the unclean dishes if anyone except him touched them. My
175 Institute for Soial Development Studies, “Social Determinants of Gender Inequality in Vietnam,” 2015, 12 http://vietnam.embassy.gov.au/files/hnoi/ISDS_Report_Binh dang gioi_EN_PDF-2.pdf.
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mother-in-law had to concede. Since then, I felt more comfortable asking my husband to
share the housework with me, especially after we moved out of his mother’s house to live
in our own apartment. Before we moved to the U.S., my husband used to clean the house
while I was preparing for dinner. He also helped me clean dishes when I was busy
washing clothes or putting our baby to bed.
As revealed in Minh’s narrative, Vietnamese women of older generations were usually the ones who upheld Confucian-based gender ideologies and traditions. Therefore, when a married couple lived with their natal parents, men were usually discouraged from sharing housework with their spouses. However, Minh’s husband, a young, well-educated man who was exposed to liberal gender ideologies both in Vietnam and abroad, was willing to challenge rigid gender roles and practice gender equality in his daily life. Minh’s husband’s “modern” gender role attitude was not an exception. In fact, as indicated in a press release by the United Nations in 2001, although
“a segment of the [Vietnamese] population continued to follow gender-biased traditions and customs,” public awareness of gender equality had improved thanks to “an intensive advocacy programme and propaganda by the National Commission and the Women’s Union of
Vietnam.”176 Additionally, among different population groups, the young and highly educated
Vietnamese were the ones who tended to hold fewer gender prejudices than other groups.
Nevertheless, not all young Vietnamese men with high educational levels shared housework equally with their professional wives. Some of my research participants’ spouses were even absent from their families for a few years during the time they pursued higher
176 The United Nations, “Progress in Gender Equality, Advancement of Women in Vietnam is Reported to Anti-Discrimination Committee,” 2001, https://www.un.org/press/en/2001/wom1291.doc.htm.
105 education abroad, leaving my female respondents struggling with raising their kids while maintaining paid employment. Intense work hours, parenting demands, and heavy household responsibilities forced many Vietnamese women to seek help from other people. Some followed the tradition of getting support from their in-law families when living under the same roof.
Others, however, broke the social norms by moving away from the in-laws in order to make their own decisions on seeking help. Nga’s story was an example of the latter. Nga and her husband were high school classmates, and their families lived in a big city in Vietnam. After marriage,
Nga relocated from her natal home to her husband’s house, but the relationship between Nga and her mother-in-law was uneasy. Three years later, when Nga’s husband traveled to Japan for his doctoral study, Nga decided to move away from her in-laws and buy an apartment next-door to her own parents. Nga recalled her decision:
I am a straightforward person, so my mother-in-law does not like me much. I anticipated
that if I continued to live with her when my husband was away from home, tension
between me and my mother-in-law would increase. Therefore, after my husband left
Vietnam to Japan for his study, I used our savings to buy an apartment next to my
parents’ apartment. I was very busy with my work, so I badly needed my mother to help
me take care of my one-year-old son. As you know, our mothers are always the most
trusted and the most dedicated helpers (laugh). Every day when I came home from work,
my son was full, clean and happy, and dinner was also ready for me.
As Nga mentioned in the interview, her husband worked as a research assistant at a university in Vietnam for several years before going to Japan, while Nga worked for an international corporation before landing a job as a staff of an intergovernmental organization.
The fact that her family savings came mostly from her income gave her the decision-making
106 power, and thus, independence from her in-law family. Nga was able to manage her own life thanks to her financial and social independence. Ironically, the “freedom” that she enjoyed also led to her dependence on her mother without whom she could not fulfill the household responsibilities that she was burdened with.
The career success of Vietnamese women, as illustrated in Nga’s story, enabled them to make important decisions in their families, including the selection of people who helped them with the housework. Therefore, not only people whose in-law and natal parents offered limited help either because of geographical distance or because of the parents’ embracement of a middle- class lifestyle “that prioritises self-care and personal pursuits such as sports, religion, or tourism,”177 many young, urban Vietnamese women whose parents were willing to help opted for female-paid assistance to avoid inter-generational conflicts. Nhung, another former university lecturer clarified her situation:
My teaching job required me to leave my house early when I had a morning teaching
shifts and to come back home late when I had afternoon or evening shifts. In addition, I
was busy with both teaching and research work while my husband wanted to spend his
time after work playing sports. So to make everyone happy, I hired live-in nannies after I
gave birth to my first child. By the time I moved to the U.S., I had hired four live-in
nannies in total. The nannies helped me with most of my childcare and housework such
as cleaning the house and washing clothes. I can cook, but if the nanny was good at
cooking, she would take that responsibility as well.
177 Minh T.N. Nguyen, Vietnam’s Socialist Servants: Domesticity, Class, Gender, and Identity (Asia’s Transformations) (Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2014), 43.
107
Nhung’s explanation further explicated how middle-class women in contemporary Vietnam juggled multiple roles to fulfill the state’s expectations of a “good socialist woman” embodied in a national campaign which called upon women to “Study Actively, Work Creatively, Raise
Children Well, and Build Happy Families” (Phụ nữ tích cực học tập & lao động sáng tạo, Nuôi con giỏi và Xây dựng gia đình ấm no hạnh phúc).178 As more Vietnamese women had become successful in both private and public sectors, occupying various important positions in the society such as entrepreneurs, educators, researchers, managers, and staff in various government and international organizations as well as private enterprises, they were “increasingly confronted with the conflict between the feminine ideal of being good mothers and wives and the greater pressures of the world of employment.” Although “the intensity of work, performance pressure, and longer work time in the state socialist time are the norm for women as for men,” according to Minh T.N. Nguyen, middle-class Vietnamese women were usually advised to find domestic workers (Ôsin) rather than having conjugal conflict over their domestic workload.179 Some middle-class women, particularly the ones with young children like Nhung, hired live-in helpers, most of whom were rural and working-class women, to reduce their domestic burdens and maintain family’s happiness while still being able to advance their careers. Others preferred part- time helpers to avoid the loss of space and privacy usually associated with having live-in helpers.
The reliance of Vietnamese middle-class women on domestic workers, as revealed by Minh T.N.
Nguyen, perpetuates gender and class hierarchy. However, it enabled middle-class women like
Nhung to “seek fulfillment in the workforce without the burden of challenging traditional
178 Schuler et al., “Constructions of Gender in Vietnam: In Pursuit of the ‘Three Criteria,’” 385.
179 Nguyen, Vietnam’s Socialist Servants: Domesticity, Class, Gender, and Identity (Asia’s Transformations), 43.
108 patriarchal notions of family and gender roles.” 180 The benefits that Vietnamese middle-class women obtained from their employment of domestic workers were similar to what White
American women enjoyed when relying on the labor of Black and immigrant women to liberate themselves from housework and “elevate their status within the confines of heteropatriarchy.”181
In short, post-war Vietnamese state policies which promoted gender equality through social campaigns, education, and employment created new generations of Vietnamese well- educated men who held more egalitarian gender role ideologies and new generations of
Vietnamese women who, thanks to their educational and professional achievements, enjoyed some freedom from housework and childcare although their “liberation,” in many cases, resulted from the sacrifice and submissiveness of other women. The socially independent and arguably housework-free women, when being forced to the domestic sphere in the U.S., unsurprisingly struggle badly with their new roles.
Gender Roles and Spousal Relations among Vietnamese Nonimmigrant Married Couples in the U.S.
As transnational migration brings about significant changes to the migrants’ families, gender roles and relations often shift in this process. In the cases of Vietnamese women holding nonimmigrant spousal visas, their drastic change from professional women in Vietnam to
“dependent” housewives in the U.S. usually led to the reinforcement of traditional gender roles in their families. Nhung, the university lecturer who used to get help with housework from domestic workers when in Vietnam described the change:
180 Terri Nilliasca, “Some Women’s Work: Domestic Work, Class, Race, Heteropatriarchy, and the Limits of Legal Reform,” Michigan Journal of Race and Law 16 (2011): 383.
181 Nilliasca, 383.
109
When we arrived in the U.S. thirteen years ago, my husband was a doctoral student. He
was so busy with his study and lab work that he used to come home at 1 or 2 a.m. Many
times, he was too exhausted to go to our bedroom, so he just fell asleep on the couch with
his shoes and working clothes on. That’s why my old couch had mold on it (laugh). I
was, therefore, responsible for managing our household, from shopping, cooking to
taking care of my two kids. My husband did not have time for any other things except for
his study.
Chien-Ju Gu, in her book entitled Gender, Migration, and Taiwanese Americans, points out that the division of domestic labor in Taiwanese immigrant families was performed based on
“culture-based” gender norms and practical reasons including “spouses’ employment status and housework skills.”182 Unlike Taiwanese respondents in Gu’s study, none of my research participants explicitly described their housework as a “natural gender division of labor” despite the historically strong influence of Confucianism on both Vietnamese and Taiwanese cultures.
Instead, the housework arrangements in my interviewees’ families were established mostly based on practical reasons; as Nhung recalled in the interview, her husband devoted all his time to his study because he hoped to get a job in the U.S. after his graduation. Nhung, thus, had to take on all housework and childrearing responsibilities. Even when Nhung’s husband graduated with an impressive publication record and found a job as a post-doctoral researcher at a renowned research institute, his nonimmigrant status forced him to work very hard to maintain the job while simultaneously looking for a more permanent job. Nhung was, accordingly, still the one
182 Gu, The Resilient Self: Gender, Immigration, and Taiwanese Americans, 73.
110 who dealt with most of the family-related issues after thirteen years in the U.S. with a nonimmigrant spousal visa.
The unequal division of domestic labor in Nhung’s family was common among my respondents’ households because the husbands – the primary holders of nonimmigrant visas – usually faced enormous pressure either at school or at work owing to their “temporary” immigration status. Nga’s following explanation of her spouse’s lack of time for family denoted a common challenge that Vietnamese professionals and skilled workers encountered when working in the U.S. with nonimmigrant visas. Nga’s husband, Manh, left the family for his graduate study in Japan when their son was one year old. After graduation, Manh got a job as a postdoctoral researcher at a university in California. He persuaded Nga to leave her well-paying job in Vietnam to accompany him to the U.S. so that the family could reunite after four years of separation. Nga, after an intense internal debate about whether she should sacrifice her promising career for her family’s reunion, decided to leave her home country to face an uncertain future in the U.S. with a nonimmigrant visa, with the hope that her son would receive more loving care from his long-absent dad. To Nga’s disappointment, however, her husband was too busy to spend quality time with the family. As Nga clarified, Manh was doing a theoretically 40-hour- per-week job, but he was expected by his supervisor to demonstrate an outstanding record of productivity so that his one-year contract could be renewed annually. Manh, thus, worked about twelve hours a day during weekdays and one day on the weekend. Since he stayed at work from
8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. while his son usually went to bed at 7:00 p.m. and woke up at 6:45 a.m., the only time that the family could sit down and talk to each other on weekdays was during their
30-minute breakfast. Manh, subsequently, had only a vague idea of what his son studied at school and offered the son little help with homework. Manh’s lack of involvement in his child’s
111 upbringing and education worried Nga as she feared it might negatively affect the child’s development. Sharing a similar concern with Nga, Thao, spouse of a skilled worker employed by a big information technology (IT) company, told me that her husband usually brought work home, so his time playing with her daughter was limited. Minh, a former lecturer, whose husband worked for a biotech company on an H-1B visa also confided that her spouse had to conform to the stereotype of “quiet, uncomplaining and hardworking Asians”183 to please his boss because the family would face deportation upon Minh’s husband’s job loss.
Seiko Ishikawa, in a study entitled, “Racialization and Exploitation of Foreign Workers by the Law” examines how “facially-neutral”184 skilled immigration policies that confer foreign workers’ rights to remain in the U.S. to their visa-sponsoring employers make nonimmigrant skilled workers vulnerable to abuses and exploitation.185 My respondents’ narratives supported
Ishikawa’s argument as they pointed out that Vietnamese nonimmigrant workers, under enormous pressure caused by their race and immigration status, usually worked long hours and thus, could not share the household burden with their partners. Like Taiwanese immigrant
183 Gilbert Park, “Toward the Model Minority: Asian Americanization of Burmese Immigrants as a Model Minority in a High School,” in Killing the Model Minority Stereotype: Asian American Counterstories and Complicity, ed. Nicholas Hartlep and Brad Porfilio (Charlotte, North Carolina: Information Age Publishing, 2015), 15.
184 Antje Ellermann and Agustín Goenaga, “Discrimination and Policies of Immigrant Selection in Liberal States,” Politics and Society 47, no. 1 (2019): 89. According to Ellermann and Goenaga, facially neutral immigration policies are policies which “discriminate either by protecting the rights of some citizens but not others or by reproducing stigmas associated with ascriptive features such as ethnicity, gender, nationality, religion, class, or ability status that are shared by a subset of citizens” even though they are not based on “the intentional and explicit exclusion of certain social groups.”
185 Seiko Ishikawa, “The Racialization and Exploitation of Foreign Workers by the Law” (The City University of New York, 2017).
112 women who believed that gender inequality in their family was “less severe than the racial inequalities and racism in the larger society,” my research participants accepted an unequal division of domestic work, hoping that a stable family would serve as “the foundation for resisting racial oppression in the outside world.”186
However, the conflict between the gender expectations that young Vietnamese women were raised with (i.e. to “succeed” in both domestic sphere and public sphere) and the realities that the women faced in the U.S. created various psychological issues for my research participants. Hai, spouse of a doctoral student, uncovered her identity crisis at the beginning of her stay in the U.S.: “During my first year here, I was really bored… My husband was so busy with his Ph.D. program that most of the time, I was at home alone, spending my time meaninglessly wondering who I was in this country and what my future would be after this long period of waiting time.” Hai’s confusion over her role in the host society and her feeling of uncertainty about the future were common among my research participants as many Vietnamese women who had made enormous efforts to gain educational and professional achievements used to consider their career an important part of their identity. In addition, the fact that their partners, who were struggling with demanding jobs and academic programs, were not able to spend a lot of time with them exacerbated their feelings of isolation and depression. Mai, an English teacher in Vietnam, who accompanied her spouse first to Europe for his graduate study and then to the
U.S. for his profession, described how dramatic changes from the situation where she held a promising professional position and had extensive support networks to an isolated life with onerous domestic burden led to her post-partum depression:
186 Gu, The Resilient Self: Gender, Immigration, and Taiwanese Americans, 80–81.
113
I had always wished to be able to realize my own American dream. That’s why when my
husband got a post-doctoral position in the U.S., I was filled with excitement, thinking
that my opportunity had arrived. However, because of visa restrictions and difficult
economic circumstance, I could neither work nor study as planned. Instead, I got
pregnant. After a difficult delivery, I could not walk by myself for a couple of months
owing to excruciating episiotomy pain. Every time I wanted to move around my cramped
apartment, I had to crawl. I also suffered badly from itchy hives every night I woke up to
breastfeed, but my husband was too tired after work to offer real help. Without relatives
and friends by my side, I was exhausted and depressed. Sometimes when my baby got
fussy, I put him in a crib and ran to the balcony. I just wanted to throw myself out of the
balcony and end it all! The only thing that helped me survive was the moments I hugged
my son. When his tiny hand clutched my finger, and he was smiling, I looked into his
innocent eyes, realizing that I needed to be strong, for the baby!
The quote illustrated Mai’s intense suffering caused not only by her physical pain but also her social isolation and, importantly, her frustration over her shattered ‘American Dream.” Contrary to what she expected in the country where “gender revolution” occurred, Mai realized that nonimmigrant women like her had limited opportunities for professional development and personal growth in the U.S. In addition to visa restrictions, Mai’s husband’s lack of time for the family and the couple’s inability to afford a part-time baby-sitter forced her to become a full- time caregiver who felt desperately trapped inside her home.
Besides sadness, loneliness, anxiety, and depression, my research participants reported other psychological distresses such as low self-esteem, self-blame, and oversensitivity during
114 their initial post-migration period. Loan, spouse of a doctoral student, described her negative feelings:
At the beginning of my stay in the U.S., my husband was really carefree. Although he
often took me to the gatherings of his friends or colleagues, he was always busy talking
to other people. My English was not very good, so I could neither talk to anyone at length
nor fully understand other people’s conversations. In addition, I have nothing in common
with my husband’s friends: I do not work with them, I do not study like some of them,
and I haven’t got any children like some others. Thus, I just sat down to eat, but my
loneliness killed my appetite. I understood that I could not blame anyone for my
difficulty in socializing with other people. However, I was unhappy with my husband’s
lack of care for me. At that time, I was more emotional than normal because of my
pregnancy, so I cried a lot. However, I just kept my feelings inside myself until one time,
after leaving a party, I burst into tears because of sadness. My husband, when knowing
the reason why I cried, apologized to me and promised me that he would change his
behaviors. Since then, whenever we go to his friends’ gatherings, he sits and interacts
with me more.
Loan’s story illustrates how the visa regulations which limited opportunities for Vietnamese accompanying spouses to have their own social interactions negatively affected their social skills and their self-confidence. Besides self-blaming for feeling inadequate, during our conversation,
Loan also mentioned her past lingering doubt over her husband’s love for her as she used to equate her husband’s neglect for her feelings with his loss of interest in her. At that time, Loan’s expectation of her husband’s “mind-reading” ability prevented her from sharing her negative feelings with him, which created an invisible barrier between Loan and her husband and could
115 have weakened their marital bond if her husband hadn’t “accidentally” discovered her feelings later.
The adoption of new social roles and family practices not only resulted in a period of poor mental health among my research participants but also led to noticeable changes in their gender role attitudes. While my respondents, when in Vietnam, were motivated to have their own career and thus, were willing to share their household responsibilities with other people such as their spouses, extended family members, and domestic workers, after becoming housewives in the U.S., many of them gradually internalized traditional gender role stereotypes that they repudiated during their pre-migration period. The story of Hao, spouse of a skilled worker, illustrated the internalization of traditional gender roles among many Vietnamese “dependent” women. Hao graduated from a renowned university in Vietnam, and shortly after her graduation, she got married and migrated to the U.S. with a H-4 visa. Since her immigration status prohibited her from doing paid work, Hao left her dream of becoming an engineer behind and started her new role as a housewife. Without friends of her own, Hao suffered from loneliness and sadness because her husband was always busy working. Her new role also put her under her in-law’s pressure to have a baby as soon as possible. Hao got pregnant several months after her arrival in the U.S., and after giving birth to a baby girl, the young, inexperienced woman struggled with taking care of the new-born baby by herself. Although she was burned out with her new childrearing responsibilities, she refused the offer of help with childcare from her husband. Hao explained: “I stayed with my daughter all day, so I loved her so much that I was not comfortable letting my husband take care of her. I was afraid that he would not do things properly.” Hao’s doubt over her spouse’s ability to handle a baby indicated her internalization of traditional gender role stereotypes which both liberal Western feminists and the Vietnamese government
116 had been making enormous efforts to reject. Like Hao, many of my other respondents, after a few years being housewives, got used to their new social role. Thao, who worked as a bank official in Singapore for seven years before leaving her job to accompany her husband to Europe and then to the U.S., revealed her satisfaction as a stay-at-home mom after a period grieving the loss of her work identity. At the time of our interview, Thao usually spent her day doing housework, volunteering at her child’s school, helping her daughter with homework and taking her child to extra-curricular classes. Her happy marriage, together with her daughter’s encouraging achievements both at school and in other extra-curricular activities such as piano contests, made her feel her sacrifice was worth it. That was why she no longer regretted giving up her successful career to become a housewife even though she had beaten out hundreds of outstanding Vietnamese students to receive a scholarship to study in one of the best universities in Asia. Similarly, Ha, a thirty-year-old woman who worked as a financial advisor for a non- governmental organization in Vietnam, expressed her reluctance to apply for jobs after becoming a U.S. permanent resident. As Ha explained, her five years being a homemaker in the U.S. had familiarized her with a “slower-paced life” and decreased her career aspirations. Not only getting used to the new role, some of my research participants even started to consider their household chores their new hobbies. Loan, a former banker, for example, confided that prior to her transnational migration, her cooking skills were poor because she was too busy to cook.
However, after arriving in the U.S., she joined some online cooking groups and learned to cook to occupy her time. She then fell in love with cooking, and at the time of the interview, her new- found happiness was to cook delicious foods and wait for her husband to come back home and enjoy the foods with her.
117
In their essay “Doing Gender,” Candace West and Don Zimmerman argue that gender is
“created and maintained while actors assume and play out roles in society.” 187 Robyn Ryle also suggests that gender socialization – the process by which individuals are taught to “do gender” through interaction with other individuals, groups, and social institutions – never ends as “the range of agents of socialization that help us learn gender are varied and extensive.” The experiences of immigrants, according to Ryle, can serve as a good example of how “socialization extends beyond childhood and how institutions as large as nations themselves can serve as agents of gender socialization.” 188 My study confirms the theory of “gender socialization” in pointing out that unlike Filipina immigrants who struggled with conflicting gender norms between
Filipino culture which requires women to prioritize family and community and American culture which sets goals for women to be independent and successful,189 Vietnamese women holding
U.S. nonimmigrant spousal visas had to deal with the conflict between their forced legal dependency in the host country and the social expectations to be economically and socially independent in their home country. Although most of the women suffered from identity crisis, loneliness, sadness, depression and other mental health issues as a result of this conflict, many of them gradually accepted this “new normal.”
The conformity of many Vietnamese women to traditional gender roles also led to the reinterpretation of gender roles among Vietnamese nonimmigrant men. Although some of my
187 Candace West and Don Zimmerman, “Doing Gender,” Gender and Society 1, no. 2 (1987): 125–51; Michael J Carter, “Gender Socialization and Identity Theory,” Social Sciences 3 (2014): 246, https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci3020242.
188 Ryle, Questioning Gender: A Sociological Exploration, 153.
189 Espiritu, “Americans Have a Different Attitude: Family, Sexuality, and Gender in Filipina American Lives.”
118 research participants reported their spouses’ willingness to take a modest share of housework, others expressed their discontent when their husbands considered housework the sole responsibility of the wife. Lan, spouse of a postdoctoral researcher, complained:
My husband does not help me with any housework. He usually comes home when dinner
is ready, and after finishing the meal, he either surfs the internet with his phone or
continues working until midnight. Sometimes he puts my [1-year-old] daughter to bed
when I do the cleaning, but he usually falls asleep even before my daughter does…. If I
ask him to clean the dishes, he either delays it or pretends to fall asleep to avoid doing it.
… I am very upset with the unequal division of housework in my home. Sometimes, I
wonder why I got married to be an Ôsin [a domestic helper] for my husband.
Lan’s statement implied that housework was for only lower-class women, the Ôsin, but not for well-educated women like her. As discussed above, the rising living standard of middle-class families in big cities in Vietnam led to “a rocketing in demand for domestic helpers” in the first two decades of the 21th century. A report by the Vietnamese Ministry of Labour, Invalids and
Social Affairs in 2012 showed that by 2020, Vietnam was projected to have about 350,000 people employed as domestic workers. More than 90 percent of them were women and about
84,6 percent had lower secondary education or less.190 According to Minh Nguyen, since many well-educated, middle-class men and women shared the same space with their live-in domestic workers, “middle-class people continually seek to carve out distinctive lifestyles and consumption practices as markers of their class status.” Their efforts were also indicated in the
190 “Domestic Workers Still Lack Labour Contracts,” Viet Nam News, December 7, 2017, https://vietnamnews.vn/society/employment/418968/domestic-workers-still-lack-labour- contracts.html; Ngoc T.M. Dao, “Lao Động Giúp Việc Gia Đình Tại Việt Nam (Domestic Workers in Vietnam),” Vietnam Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities 6, no. 103 (2016).
119 creation of social discourses that “underlines their superior cultural and moral standards over those of their domestic workers, constructed as a class and rural female Other.”191
In this case, Lan was upset because her husband let her take the role of the lower-class and rule female “Other” by not sharing housework with her in the post-migration period. The adoption of traditional gender roles and practices in most of my research participants’ families illustrates the power of social structures and institutions in enforcing gender roles. It confirms the
“Doing gender” perspective that gender is “an emergent feature of social situations: both as an outcome of and a rationale for various social arrangements and as a means of legitimating one of the most fundamental divisions of society.”192 In addition, the fading of egalitarian gender role ideologies among Vietnamese nonimmigrants in the U.S. advances Edward Said’s theory of
Orientalism, which proposes that by creating the us-and-them binary social relation between people living in the Middle or Far East (the Orient) and those living in the West (the Occident), the West is able to dominate, restructure, and have authority over the Orient.193 As Said points out, the idea of orientalism embedded in Western cultural products usually reinforces the image of non-Western countries as irrational, underdeveloped, depraved, and different, which is in a stark contrast to the alleged Western traits of rationality, morality, and normality. Therefore,
Orientalism promotes an imperialist spirit and disrespect for non-Western people in the minds of people in colonizing countries. Although Said ties images, ideas, and texts to actual practices of
191 Nguyen, Vietnam’s Socialist Servants: Domesticity, Class, Gender, and Identity (Asia’s Transformations), 181.
192 Sarah Fenstermaker and Candace West, Doing Gender, Doing Difference: Inequality, Power, and Institutional Change (New York: Routledge, 2002), 4.
193 Edward Said, Orientalism (New York: Vintage, 1979). 120
Western governments and norms adopted to control people in the non-white world, my study uncovers the actual practices (based on stereotypes) that Western governments create and perpetuate regarding “backward” Asian people. More specifically, restrictive American immigration laws together with other structural and cultural barriers pushed many Vietnamese women who used to be successful professionals back to the domestic sphere, which resulted in the reinforcement of the stereotypical images of “docile and subservient” Asian women and
“traditional, abusive, and domineering” Asian men. Moreover, as S. Uma Devi suggests, since
“the industry assumes the ideal worker is young, has no family and is willing to work a frantic schedule,”194 the housewifization of Vietnamese women holding nonimmigrant derivative visas also allowed U.S. companies to exploit the allegedly free-from-family-obligation primary visa holders. Research points out that many highly skilled temporary workers, because of their fear for losing their jobs, had to work longer hours, were “underpaid, vulnerable to abuse, and frequently placed in poor working conditions.”195
Nevertheless, it should be noted that the women’s financial dependence on their spouses did not lead to an inequality in power and decision-making among the couples, as assumed by
194 S. Uma Devi, “Globalization, Information Technology and Asian Indian Women in the US,” Economic and Political Weekly 37, no. 43 (2002): 4421–28; Ievgeniia Zasoba, “Migration , Individualism and Dependency : Experiences of Skilled Women from the Former Soviet Union in Silicon Valley” (San Jose State University, 2018), 11.
195 “Current H-1B System Underpays and Exploits Foreign Talent – Report,” Study International, January 24, 2019, https://www.studyinternational.com/news/h-1b-salary-working- condition/; The Editors, “Protect Postdocs: A Survey of Young Scientists in the United States Highlights the Exploitation of Visa Holders,” Nature 563 (2018): 444; Ishikawa, “The Racialization and Exploitation of Foreign Workers by the Law.”
121 the resource theory of family power. Le, spouse of a skilled worker with an O-1 visa, described how her family managed household finances:
I did not open my own bank account because I do not earn any income. Instead, my
husband added me as an authorized user to his credit card account, and I use that credit
card to pay for our household expenses. My husband often checked the bank statement at
the end of the month. If I spent too much money buying unnecessary things, my husband
would complain about it. However, he knows that I like buying small things like clothes
and cosmetics. In addition, I am not afraid of being scolded by him, so everything is still
okay (laugh). In general, I am an economical but not a wasteful person.
Although Le mentioned the fact that her husband usually checked her household and personal expenses when paying their credit card bills, the relaxed attitude she adopted when discussing her family’s financial management suggested that she did not feel being emotionally abused by her husband. Similar to Le, most of my research participants showed their satisfaction with the way their household finances were managed. As revealed in the interviews, the “dependent” wives often had access to crucial financial information such as the family’s savings, investments, and assets. It was also common for Vietnamese nonimmigrant couples to discuss and reach consensus on important decisions. In some cases, the women even took full control of the household financial management when their husbands were too busy, and thus, not interested in managing the household finances. Nga and Thao, for example, told me that they managed all their spouses’ bank accounts and had a final say when their families needed to move to a new apartment or to make holiday arrangements, short-term investments, and big purchases such as furniture and cars. Contrary to the image of “submissive” Asian housewives, my respondents, like many Taiwanese immigrant women in Chien-Juh Gu’s research, “solely or jointly control
122 the family economy.”196 While findings from previous studies about Vietnamese, Korean,
Mexican, and Filipino immigrants reveal that employed women gain greater bargaining power for domestic labor and family budget responsibilities because of their greater contributions to the household in the post-migration period, my study provides a contrast to the literature when uncovering that Vietnamese nonimmigrant “dependent” women, despite their limited financial contribution to their families, either maintained or increased their decision-making power when staying in the U.S. The egalitarian decision-making practices in Vietnamese nonimmigrant families resulted from the Vietnamese tradition which gives women a special role of “the general of the interior.” In addition, practical reasons such as time availability, good English language skills, and knowledge about financial management that many of my respondents gained when working in economics, banking and finance sectors in Vietnam enabled them to perform both domestic labor and financial management in the U.S.
However, the women’s retainment of their household decision-making power did not necessarily help them banish the uneasy feeling caused by their loss of financial, and in some cases, personal independence. During our interview, Minh expressed her discomfort when sharing a bank account with her spouse. She explained:
One time, my husband and I discovered that someone had made an unauthorized charge
on our credit card account. My husband contacted our credit card issuer, and then signed
up for mobile credit card alerts on his cellphone. This method helps us detect
unauthorized charges quickly. Yet, it seems to restrict my personal freedom because
whenever I use the credit card to make any payments, my husband is aware of where I am
196 Gu, The Resilient Self: Gender, Immigration, and Taiwanese Americans, 73.
123
and what I am doing. Although my husband never pays attention to that information, I
dislike the feeling of being monitored.
Like Le, Minh found it unnecessary to open her own bank account because of her lack of income in the U.S. Despite the discussed nuisance, Minh had no intention to confide her uncomfortable feeling to her spouse because she wanted to avoid making her “petty” problem his dilemma.
Minh’s story illustrates one of the distresses that Vietnamese nonimmigrant “dependent” women had to deal with in the host country. The women’s forced financial dependence, in a few cases, even led to significant deterioration in their conjugal relationship since it created tensions between the women and other members of their extended family, particularly the in-law family.
Handling In-law Tensions
As mentioned above, in the past, under the influence of Confucianism, the traditional
Vietnamese family was “patrilineal, patrilocal, and patriarchal.”197 Married couples used to live with the husband’s father’s household, and while women held the lowest position in the family, the daughter-in-law took the bottom rank, having to obey their husband and his family members.
In addition, despite shared experience of gender oppression, the relationship between the two women in the family: the daughter and mother-in-law positions were always challenging because the husband’s mother played both roles of “a carrier and a maintainer of Confucianism” who suffered from onerous responsibilities as a “self-sacrificing mother, devoted daughter-in-law and dedicated wife,” but still used Confucian teachings to establish her domination over the daughter-in-law and strictly supervise her daughter-in-law’s fulfilment of traditional
197 Hirschman and Loi, “Family and Household Structure in Vietnam : Some Glimpses From a Recent Survey Family and Household Structure in Vietnam : Some Glimpses from a Recent Survey,” 230.
124 expectations.198 Although this form of emphasized femininity199 continues in Vietnam today, it is widely assumed that the modern relationship between mothers and their daughters-in-law has
“changed from power to family sentiment.” 200 Pressure for change came from the government’s efforts to improve the situation of women, one of which was the prohibition of the abuse of daughters-in-law in the Law on Marriage and Family passed by the National Assembly in
1959.201 Moreover, the models of feminine behavior circulated through the media, which shaped
Vietnamese women’s understanding of how modern womanhood should be performed, encouraged women to be more open-minded in the in-law relationship. Better education also provides young middle-class Vietnamese women with greater financial and social independence, and accordingly, a higher daughter-in-law status. Nevertheless, since “cultural norms such as filial piety and respect for elders are still in place,” the daughter-in-law is expected to follow these norms and respect her mother-in-law. Remaining power differences among family members together with generational conflicts originating from differing values, expectations and interests continue to create tensions in contemporary Vietnamese in-law relations.
198 Do and Brennan, “Complexities of Vietnamese Femininities: A Resource for Rethinking Women’s University Leadership Practices,” 278.
199 Raewyn Connell, Gender and Power: Society, the Person, and Sexual Politics, 1st ed. (Redwood City: Stanford University Press, 1987), 24. Emphasized femininity is defined by Connell as “the pattern of femininity which is given most cultural and ideological support … patterns such as sociability … compliance … [and] sexual receptivity [to men]”
200 Thu Giang, “Mother-in-Laws, Wives Clash over Pecking Order,” Việt Nam News, February 22, 2009, https://vietnamnews.vn/talk-around-town/185483/mother-in-laws-wives-clash-over- pecking-order.html.
201 Lisa Drummond and Helle Rydstrom, Gender Practices in Contemporary Vietnam (Singapore University Press, 2004), 3.
125
While previous studies offer conflicting findings about the relationship between living proximity and the in-law relationship,202 my research shows that many Vietnamese nonimmigrant visa holders were happy with the autonomy they gained from the in-law family after their transnational migration. Thi, a former H-4 visa holder, recalled the stress she experienced when living with her parents-in-law in Vietnam: “At that time, my husband and I had just graduated from universities, so we did not earn much from our first jobs. Every month, I gave a large proportion of our income to my mother-in-law as our contribution to the family daily expenses. However, she always complained about cost escalation, implicating that our contribution was not enough. It was very stressful for me. I just wished I could manage the family finance by myself.” Thi’s narrative supports John Knodel et al.’s finding that at an early stage of marriage, Vietnamese couples often live with the husband’s parents, so it is common for someone other than the couple to be responsible for managing the household budget.203
However, as Thi explained in the interview, differences in lifestyle habits and unequal household authority between Thi and her parents in-law caused her untold suffering which was significantly reduced after her transnational migration. Other research participants such as Le and Ha who left
Vietnam shortly after their weddings also appreciated their post-migration “freedom” from the obligations to their in-laws since they usually had to limit socializing to stay at home and help their in-laws around the house during their occasional home visits. Especially, for Loan,
202 H. Kung, “Intergenerational Interaction between Mothers-and Daughters-in-Law: A Qualitative Study,” Research in Applied Psychology 4 (1999): 57–96; Li-Ching Sun and Yi-Fang Lin, “Homogenous Mothers-in-Law, Different Daughters-in-Law: In-Law Relationship Comparison between Vietnamese and Taiwanese Daughters-in-Law,” Asian Social Science 11, no. 4 (January 14, 2015): 252–58, https://doi.org/10.5539/ass.v11n4p252.
203 Knodel et al., “Gender Roles in the Family: Change and Stability in Vietnam,” 74.
126 transnational migration even saved her romantic relationship. According to Loan, her then- boyfriend’s parents, who had high-prestige occupations in Vietnam, used to strongly disapprove of her romantic relationship owing to her working-class origins. As Loan recalled, the first meeting with the boyfriend’s mother was so uncomfortable that Loan even promised herself that she would never become their family member. However, her boyfriend insisted on getting married to her, and after getting a scholarship to pursue a doctoral degree in the U.S., he pressured the family to organize their wedding, threatening that if his wish was not realized, the couple would still sign the marriage certificate and move to the U.S. together. Loan reckoned that she would not have had enough courage to marry her boyfriend if she were to live with her in-laws. Nevertheless, at the time of our interview, Loan had got a child, and her relationship with the parents-in-law had been considerably improved by long distance.
Thi’s, Thanh’s, Le’s and Loan’s stories indicate that transnational migration offered valuable opportunities for Vietnamese women to get their desired independence from their in- law families. However, the women’s inability to generate income in the host country added another layer of complexity to their in-law relationship. Ha, for instance, was not allowed to work during her five years holding F-2 and then H-4 visas, but in weekly video chats with her in- law family, she was often advised by her mother-in-law to find an informal job to make some financial contribution to the family. Though she had explained that engaging in unauthorized employment could lead to severe penalties, her mother-in-law seemed to underestimate the strictness of U.S. immigration law. The mother-in-law’s repetitive discussions on the benefits of working outside the home upset Ha. In Ha’s opinion, they implied the in-law’s unfair dissatisfaction with her inability to share financial responsibilities with her husband.
127
Unlike Ha, Lan tried to maintain her online business in Vietnam while taking care of her young child during her second pregnancy, but her parents-in-law still complained about her alleged financial dependence, which made her deeply frustrated. She stated:
My parents-in-law often call us and complain about my financial dependence though the
money that I earn from my online business is sometimes almost as high as my husband’s
salary. You know, I must work harder than Hung because my customers live in Vietnam,
and due to the time difference, I have to stay up late past the mid-night or even until early
morning to communicate with my customers. There were times when I just turned off my
phone and laid down, my daughter woke up and needed to be taken care of. However, no
one understands my hardship. My parents-in-law even compared me with my husband’s
cousin who had a white-collar job in Vietnam and earned four million Vietnam dongs
[about 170 US dollars] per month. They thought that she was more respectable than me
because she had an office job while I was just a housewife. Their comparison was
nonsensical! Now I believe that even if I do some menial jobs such as nail technician or
waitress to increase our household income, my efforts will still not be recognized. I will
still be looked down on.
Ha’s and Lan’s clarifications of their situations further illustrate a clash between contemporary
Vietnamese social expectations for professional, middle-class women and the housewifization of
Vietnamese women holding nonimmigrant spousal visas in the U.S. As suggested by Jayne
Werner, in the post- Đổi Mới Vietnam, “A good [ngoan] daughter-in-law is evaluated by how well she treats her husband’s family [doi xu voi gia dinh chong], her ability to contribute
128 economically to the household, and her fertility.”204 Although Vietnamese women were generally liberated from daily obligations towards their in-law families after their migration to the U.S., their forced financial dependence in the host country made it difficult for them to fulfill the financial expectations for a “good daughter-in-law,” which negatively impacted their inherently complicated in-law relations. In Lan’s case, despite her efforts to ease the financial burden on her husband, her failure to maintain the image of a “modern” Vietnamese woman – a well-educated, urban, and professionally-employed woman resulted in her in-law’s disappointment, and subsequently, her perceived tension with the in-law family.
Yet, Lan was still lucky as her parents-in-law lived in Vietnam, and her spouse was quite good in mitigating the in-law tensions. For Mai, a former English teacher, her husband’s withdrawal from her bitter mother-in-law conflict led her marriage to the brink of divorce.
During our meeting, Mai emotionally recalled dark moments in her marriage which, from Mai’s point of view, originated from her post-migration financial dependence. With an employment authorization granted to L-2 visa holders, Mai worked as a part-time TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) teacher for a nearby community college. Nevertheless, the money that she earned was just enough to pay for childcare, so she decided to quit the job to have more time for her son. When her father was sick in Vietnam, she wanted to give her parents some financial support, but because they lived in the countryside, she had to send the money to her mother-in- law’s bank account and asked the in-law to bring the money to her parents. Since that incident, her mother-in-law occasionally mocked her for her act of taking the husband’s money to give to her parents. Her in-law relationship worsened after the mother-in-law visited her family in the
204 Jayne Werner, “State Subject-Making and Womanhoods in the Red River Delta of Vietnam,” Asian Studies Review 28, no. 2 (2004): 118, https://doi.org/10.1080/1035782042000226675.
129
U.S. for a few months. Mai remembered frequent criticism from her mother-in-law when they lived together. “Even when I spent time cooking delicious foods for my family, I was blamed for making my husband overweight,” Mai exclaimed. Although Mai’s husband was aware of the two women’s conflict, he neither explicitly challenged his mother’s behaviors nor showed his sympathy toward Mai. His (in)actions represented the typical ambiguous status of the son/ husband in Vietnamese mother-/daughter-in-law conflict as many Vietnamese men refrained from taking a side when facing the dilemma of “‘Bên tình bên hiếu bên nào nặng hơn?’
[Between the love for my mate and the filial piety to my parents, which one outweighs the other?].”205 Nevertheless, Mai was so distressed at her husband’s lack of communication and support that she came back to Vietnam with her child to distance herself from the husband for a few months. Her marriage could have ended in divorce if her husband had not travelled back to the home country to apologize to her later. Although Mai eventually agreed to give her marriage a second chance by returning to the U.S. with her husband, her heart was filled with sorrow and her conjugal relationship was uneasy until she broke out of the dependent-visa trap to become a student in the U.S.
Dealing with Monetary Expectations from Natal Families
Hung Cam Thai, in the article entitled “The dual roles of transnational daughters and transnational wives: monetary intentions, expectations and dilemmas,” uncovers a paradoxical situation that Vietnamese women encounter after their migration to the U.S. for transnational marriage. According to Thai, “one of the most important features of Vietnamese society is that
205 Van Bich Pham, The Vietnamese Family in Change: The Case of the Red River Delta (Routledge, 1998), 169.
130 money holds families together and maintains bonds of intimacy and care across generations.”206
Even in the post-war socialist-oriented Vietnam, a modest percentage of elders receive pensions or social welfare from the state; thus, Vietnamese elders continue to rely on adult children for financial support and care in their later years of life. Although it is culturally accepted that
Vietnamese women are not required to financially support their aging parents after their marriage, due to the disparities in earning power between Vietnam and the West, immigrants in developed countries, regardless of gender, are expected to provide monetary support to their parents in their home country. For Vietnamese people, remittance is, thus, “not simply a gift. It is a currency of care.”207 Nevertheless, as Thai points out, Vietnamese female immigrants’ efforts to contribute financially to their natal families often meets with their husbands’ objection because transnationally married Vietnamese women view remittances as “an important substitute for the regular care she would be denying her parents because of her absence from the country” while overseas Vietnamese men who return to Vietnam to marry by arrangement consider monetary support to aging parents the responsibility of married sons only. These contrasting viewpoints, Thai maintains, are a source of potential conflict among transnational couples in the
Vietnamese diaspora.
Thai’s argument is valid in the cases of international marriages between Vietnamese women and foreign men because it is common for Vietnamese women to wed foreigners
206 Thai, “The Dual Roles of Transnational Daughters and Transnational Wives: Monetary Intentions, Expectations and Dilemmas,” 222.
207 Thai, 224.
131
(including overseas Vietnamese men) to escape from poverty and to aid family.208 However, the situations of Vietnamese nonimmigrants in the U.S. were a little different as the primary purpose of their marriages was not for personal financial benefit. In addition, as revealed in the interviews, many of my research participants’ parents received pensions, so they did not put pressure on their transnational daughters for regular financial support. Nevertheless, born in the culture where “the exchange of money in the forms of gifts, loans, and favours” reflects “a larger system of kinship practices based on obligations and reciprocity,” most of my interviewees expressed their wish to have their own income so that they could help their natal parents and relatives when necessary. Minh, for example, shared:
My married brother once asked me if he could borrow from us ten thousand dollars to
buy a new house. I know we had enough money in our savings account to lend him that
amount of money. However, I was hesitant to talk to my husband because our savings
come from my husband’s income, and I am not sure when my brother could repay the
loan. After pondering over it, I decided to tell my husband that my brother wanted to
borrow us half the amount of money that he actually asked for. My husband agreed
without much thought. However, when he complained about the complicated money
transferring process, I doubted his willingness to lend my brother the money. I secretly
resented him as I thought he would had been more eager to do the task if the person
borrowing the money was his family member instead of mine.
208 Associated Press, “Vietnamese Women Wed Foreigners to Aid Family,” NBC News, August 10, 2008, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/26124698/ns/world_news-asia_pacific/t/vietnamese- women-wed-foreigners-aid-family/#.Xw-fdShKiUk.
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Minh’s narrative shows a common dilemma confronting Vietnamese women holding nonimmigrant spousal visas. Though many women jointly managed their household finances with their spouses, they usually felt embarrassed when having to use the “husband’s money” to help their natal parents or relatives. Nevertheless, failure to fulfill the natal family’s financial expectations, which, in Minh’s case, was to give her brother a loan, may hamper her relationship with her own natal family. That was why Minh had to reduce her brother’s loan to a half to avoid potential conflicts with either her spouse or her brother.
Assessing Marital Satisfaction and Family Well-being
The above discussion uncovers complicated impacts that transnational migration had on the well-being of both accompanying spouses of Vietnamese nonimmigrants and their families.
On the one hand, most of the “dependent” women suffered from psychological distress at the beginning of their sojourns owing to abrupt changes in their social and gender roles. Their housewifelization, in many cases, also negatively affected their familial relationships as the women, due to their financial dependence, were not able to fulfill the social expectations for a good daughter and daughter-in-law in Vietnam. On the other hand, liberation from in-law family obligations, increased autonomy, and the retainment of egalitarian decision-making practices were major sources of satisfaction for them in the post-migration period. That was why my research participants had different responses when being asked about their satisfaction with their post-migration marriage life. Lan, the businesswoman who was forced to migrate to the U.S. for a stable marriage, for instance, struggled with her identity crisis caused by her feeling of isolation, the domestic burden, and the social stigma of stay-at-home mom. Although in our occasional friends’ gatherings before Lan reunited with her spouse in the U.S., Hung used to talk about his good-looking, educated wife who had a strong business acumen with pride, in our
133 interview, Lan frequently mentioned her feeling of being looked down on by her husband and the in-law family after her transnational migration. She complained:
“I have been here for more than 10 months but you [the researcher] are the only one of
Hung’s [her spouse] friends that I know here. One time I asked him why he did not
introduce me to his friends. He just told me that ‘my friends do not need to know you.’
His words really hurt me. Maybe he was ashamed of me as his friends are all doctoral
students and post-doctoral researchers who might look down on me because I am only a
stay-at-home mom.”
Lan’s self-doubt together with her spouse’s reluctance to help her widen her social network led to her feeling of insecurity in her marital relationship. Lan added:
Frankly speaking, I sacrifice without recognition. I always feel that I am looked down on
by other people. If this situation remains unchanged, my marriage may perish. When I
was in Vietnam, I could dress up, felt happier, and accordingly, looked more attractive.
But in the U.S., everyday my husband comes back home seeing my unhappy face, he
may soon get bored with me and lose interest in me. Then when he meets other women at
work, he may fall in love with them. At that time, my sacrifice is meaningless.
Lan’s explanation of her insecurity helped me understand why rumors circulated among our group of Vietnamese friends that Lan seemed to be jealous of a couple of Vietnamese women who worked in the same office building and usually gathered together for lunch with her husband. Although Lan did not mention her jealousy in the interview, she talked about her frequent quarrels with her spouse over issues such as his “ignorant” statements, his long work hours, his reluctance to introduce her to his friends, and his refusal to answer her phone calls during the time he was at work. Lan insisted that even if she took a manual labor job while
134 staying in the U.S., her marriage may still eventually end in a divorce because it was difficult for a couple to maintain their respect for each other if they have different occupational statuses and accordingly, different social locations. Lan’s fear was based on the intensification of social class stratification in Vietnam with middle-class people in Vietnam trying to distinguish themselves from the lower-class. While Lan clearly showed her frustration with her marriage, Hung, nevertheless, indicated his sympathy with Lan’s emotions in my private conversations with him.
Hung believed that Lan’s negative feelings resulted from the change in her role from a businesswoman to a stay-at-home mom, and the only thing that he could do was trying his best to find a job with a better pay so that Lan could be free from childcare responsibility to do whatever she wished. With a strong determination to find a well-paid job in the industry, Hung spent extra hours in his lab where he worked as a post-doctoral researcher to search and apply for jobs.
Hung’s tremendous efforts to fulfill the expectation of a breadwinner limited his time at home, and thus, exacerbated the tension between the couple, which resulted in Lan’s increased marital dissatisfaction.
Unlike Lan whose transnational migration did not ensure a healthy marital relationship, many of my other respondents indicated a satisfaction with their post-migration marriage life.
An, a doctoral student who used to be a nonimmigrant spousal visa holder, wittily commented:
In Vietnam, in a square meter, there are several “long-legged” girls who are waiting for
opportunities to steal a married man, especially if he is as talented and good-looking as
ours (laugh). Therefore, extramarital affairs are so common there. However, it is difficult
for Vietnamese men, especially the ones who are neither wealthy nor having a permanent
resident status, to find a partner here. That’s why I don’t have to worry about my
husband’s cheating. In contrast, it’s him who must worry about keeping me!
135
An’s comment refers to the effects of Western stereotypes about Asian men’s and women’s sexuality on the balance of power among Vietnamese nonimmigrant couples in the U.S. Yen Lê
Espiritu, in a study on the racial construction of Asian American manhood and womanhood, argues that Western films and literature have long fetishized Asian American women while desexualizing Asian American men. She explains: “Both Western film and literature promote dichotomous stereotypes of the Asian woman: either she is the cunning Dragon Lady or the servile Lotus Blossom Baby (Tong, 1994, p. 197). Though connoting two extremes, these stereotypes are interrelated: both eroticize Asian women as exotic “others” – sensuous, promiscuous, but untrustworthy.”209 In contrast to an excess of womanhood that Asian women are endowed with, Asian men suffer from the denial of “manhood” in American popular culture.
The depiction of Asian men as sexual deviants in Western culture, Espiritu notes, began ever since the first Chinese communities immigrated to the U.S. During the nativist movement against
Asians at the turn of the 20th century, Asian men were portrayed as “lascivious and predatory” due to the alleged threats they posed to white men as “stealers” of white Americans’ jobs and women. The construction of Asian masculinity was, however, reversed from “hypersexual” to
“asexual” and “homosexual” when “bachelor societies” of Chinese men emerged owing to the exclusion of Asian women from the United States. “The contemporary model minority stereotype,” Espiritu insists, “further emasculates Asian men as passive and malleable.”210 The dissemination and perpetuation of “sexual Asian female” and “asexual Asian male” stereotypes,
209 Yen Le Espiritu, “Ideological Racism and Cultural Resistance: Constructing Our Own Images,” in Contested Images: Women of Color in Popular Culture, ed. Alma Garcia (Lanham, Maryland: AltaMira Press, 2012), 10.
210 Espiritu, 7.
136 according to Espiritu, exist to “define the white man’s virility and the white mam’s superiority”211 as well as to justify the social and economic discrimination against Asian
Americans. However, the persistent racist constructions of Asian American womanhood and manhood in the popular media contributed to the internalization of these sexual attributes among
Asian Americans. Research points out that “many Asian females do not perceive their ethnic counterparts as desirable marriage partners,”212 and although intermarriage patterns among Asian
Americans are high, the rate of Asian American women involving in intermarriage (usually with white males) is much higher than that of Asian men.213 The absorption of these stereotypes among Vietnamese immigrants together with “a ‘surplus’ of men of marriageable age in
Vietnamese overseas communities, especially in Australia and the United States”214 have increased “the value,” and accordingly, the bargaining power of Vietnamese women in the U.S.
This trend was reflected in my study as it was usually very difficult for single Vietnamese male intellectuals (either post-graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, or specialty workers) in my friend circle to find partners in the U.S., whereas many single Vietnamese female intellectuals who possessed good language skills and considerable knowledge of American culture got married to foreigners. A single male postdoctoral researcher disclosed in one of my
Vietnamese friends’ gatherings that he joined a Facebook dating group of Vietnamese
211 Espiritu, 10.
212 Espiritu, 13.
213 Gretchen Livingston and Anna Brown, “Intermarriage in the U.S. 50 Years after Loving v. Virginia,” 2017, https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2017/05/18/1-trends-and-patterns-in- intermarriage/.
214 Thai, “The Dual Roles of Transnational Daughters and Transnational Wives: Monetary Intentions, Expectations and Dilemmas,” 220.
137 intellectuals in the U.S., but he could not find a partner because the gender ratio for the group members was about 10 men per woman.
In the meantime, married Vietnamese women, according to An, were constantly worried about their spouses’ marital infidelity when living in their home country. Huong Nguyen et al. suggest that “Vietnamese married men have some of the highest EMS [extramarital sex] rates in the world” due to multiple, even contradictory reasons such as the lingering influence of
Confucianism and Taoism which condoned historical practices of polygamy and the “quiet” sexual revolution which occurred since privatization under the 1986 Đổi Mới (reform) legislation allowed “individualist, pleasure-focused discourses on sexuality” to permeate through
Vietnamese society.215 Hoan Bui also points out that Vietnamese-constructed masculinity is
“associated with three areas of social action: procreation, protection, and provision of goods and food for families and communities.”216 Therefore, in Vietnam, the buying of sex can be considered a way of doing heterosexual masculinity as it projects an image of “a potent, powerful man” who has money and power.217 Moreover, since it is believed that male sexuality is “a natural quintessential drive,” and men’s sexual desires are “urgent and powerful,
215 Huong Nguyen, Cheng Shi Shiu, and Melissa Hardesty, “Extramarital Sex Among Vietnamese Married Men: Results of a Survey in Urban and Rural Areas of Northern and Southern Vietnam,” Journal of Sex Research 53, no. 9 (2016): 1076, https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2015.1104287.
216 Bui and Morash, “Immigration, Masculinity, and Intimate Partner Violence from the Standpoint of Domestic Violence Service Providers and Vietnamese-Origin Women,” 194.
217 Paul Horton and Helle Rydstrom, “Heterosexual Masculinity in Contemporary Vietnam : Privileges , Pleasures , and Protests,” Men and Masculinities 14, no. 5 (2011): 551, https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X11409362.
138 demanding instant release and gratification,”218 a man’s engagement in extramarital affairs is usually attributed to his wife’s failure to comply with the husband’s sexual needs. Vietnamese women in Vietnam are, subsequently, encouraged to “acquiesce to their husbands’ sexual infidelity” to maintain the family harmony and happiness.
However, owing to the Western stereotypical image of Asian men as “undesirable” sexual partners in the U.S., Vietnamese women reversed their position in their spousal relationship and became the more “desirable” partners who needed to be “kept” by their spouses in the host country. Their transnational migration, thus, actually released them from some of the social pressure of ‘pleasing’ their husbands (chiều chồng) in both social and sexual terms to prevent their husbands from having extramarital affairs. Thoa, spouse of a post-doctoral researcher at a university in California, also remarked: “It is common for men to get together at cafes, pubs, and restaurants, chatting and drinking beer regardless of time when in Vietnam.
However, in the U.S., we do not have many social relationships, so my husband just goes home and helps me with housework after work.” Hoa’s comment refers to a common practice of male bonding that is closely tied to conceptions of masculinity in Vietnam. As Horton and Rydstrom argue, “stress-relieving” activities such as “going out” with (male) friends during which
Vietnamese men “engage in ‘social evils,’ most notably alcohol consumption” and even purchases of semi-sexual and sexual services are normalized in this country as they are associated with manliness in terms of sexual and financial prowess. These male bonding activities, as Laurie James-Hawkins et al. uncovers, usually leads to spousal conflicts and
218 Horton and Rydstrom, 554. 139 intimate partner violence.219 Therefore, even though Thoa did not elaborate the negative connotation of male get-together in Vietnam, her remark points out the fact that transnational migration eased Vietnamese women’s worries about their partners’ performative heterosexual masculinity performances which were frequently observed in their home country. Thoa was thus delighted by the full attention that she received from her husband during his spare time, even though he usually came home late from work.
In short, the bargaining power that Vietnamese women gained from the social construction of Asian women as more “desirable” sexual partners than their male counterparts together with fewer chances/ less pressure for Vietnamese men to perform negative aspects of
Vietnamese-constructed masculinity in the U.S. brought about marital satisfaction to a large proportion of my research participants. It should be noted that the experience of Vietnamese women holding nonimmigrant derivative visas differs from that of Vietnamese refugee/family- sponsor female immigrants described in Hoan Bui’s study on immigration, masculinity, and intimate partner violence among Vietnamese refugees/ immigrants. According to Bui, greater availability of unskilled female-oriented jobs than male-oriented ones enabled Vietnamese refugee/ immigrant women to make more money than their male counterparts in the U.S. Due to the loss of masculinity caused by their downward movement in economic status and their inability to control their partners’ independent interactions with other men in the host country,
Vietnamese-origin men often tried to maintain their status and respect in their home country through frequent remittances despite their families’ economic hardship in the U.S. They also
219 Laurie James-Hawkins et al., “Norms of Masculinity and the Cultural Narrative of Intimate Partner Violence Among Men in Vietnam,” Journal of Interpersonal Violence 34, no. 21–22 (2019): 4421–42, https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260516674941.
140 engaged in “masculine” pursuits of drinking and gambling with other men in the local
Vietnamese community and reinforced their dominant positions in the family by using violence against their intimate partners. Vietnamese-origin men’s attempts to accomplish “masculine ideals of control and power”220 through violence revealed in Bui’s research were not observed in my study possibly because the ability to perform Vietnamese-constructed masculinity of
Vietnamese nonimmigrants was not substantially challenged in the post-migration period. As primary visa holders with jobs or month stipends, the men were able to maintain their role as the family breadwinner. Moreover, the relegation of accompanying wives to the domestic sphere which limited the wives’ social interactions with other men in the U.S. reduced occasions in which spousal jealousy occurred among Vietnamese male nonimmigrants. Vietnamese male nonimmigrants also had to “keep” their wives owing to negative stereotypes about Asian masculinity in the U.S. Hence, violence is seldomly observed in Vietnamese nonimmigrant families that I either studied or interacted with.
Conclusion
This chapter uncovers post-migration challenges that Vietnamese dependent spouses encountered in the domestic sphere as well as their efforts to negotiate changing gender roles, familial and gender expectations to maintain a healthy marriage in the U.S. It is evident from my research that Vietnamese women, like other groups of accompanying spouses of nonimmigrants from other countries such as India and China, faced a variety of psychological issues due to the change in their social status from working women to housewives. However, while some women tried to find happiness in their new roles, other made strenuous efforts to escape from the
220 Bui and Morash, “Immigration, Masculinity, and Intimate Partner Violence from the Standpoint of Domestic Violence Service Providers and Vietnamese-Origin Women,” 191.
141 dependent visa trap and the domestic sphere. Their resistance will be discussed in the last chapter. It is also clear from this chapter that the experiences of accompanying women were profoundly influenced by various aspects of their identity such as their race, gender, social class, nationality and immigration status. In addition, my study supports the argument advanced by existing literature on transnational migration and gender relations that “gains for women or men may be uneven and contradictory”221 since it reveals both the pros and cons of Vietnamese nonimmigrants’ sojourns in the U.S. My examination of changes in gender roles and spousal relations in Vietnamese nonimmigrant families also confirm gender socialization theory and theory of Orientalism. In the next chapter, I will examine the social integration of Vietnamese highly skilled migrants and their spouses, who were subject to various restrictions in the host country.
221 Pessar and Mahler, “Transnational Migration: Bringing Gender In,” 5. 142
CHAPTER V. SEARCHING FOR A COMMUNITY OF BELONGING: THE SOCIAL
INTEGRATION OF VIETNAMESE NONIMMIGRANT WOMEN IN THE U.S.
“I feel isolated here. There are no communities that I feel I truly belong to! Exactly. No
communities.”
- Thoa, 36, B.A., former logistics coordinator in Vietnam -
Thoa’s voice thickened with emotion when she talked about her general feeling after six years in the U.S. first with a J-2 visa and then with a H-4 visa. Like other Vietnamese women holding nonimmigrant spousal visas, Thoa encountered enormous challenges when navigating her loss of professional identity as well as changes in gender roles and family relationships at the beginning of her stay in the U.S. However, what upset her the most at the time of our interview was her feeling of isolation in the host country. Although Thoa used to socialize with
Vietnamese family-sponsored immigrants and Vietnamese refugees when she worked as a nail technician for a Vietnamese nail salon with her J-2 visa, she did not feel a part of the Vietnamese
American community in her city due to what she perceived as differences in political perspectives. Her limited time for social interactions outside the workplace together with the lack of suitable community engagement activities for nonimmigrant visa holders in her neighborhood also discouraged her from building strong social ties with the local community. Meanwhile, geographical distance, different time zones and differences in lived experiences impeded her interactions with friends and relatives in Vietnam, which subsequently weakened her emotional bonds with her home country. Thoa’s lack of sense of belonging to both Vietnam and the U.S., was shared by many of my interviewees who found themselves “insiders of nowhere” despite their enormous efforts to “integrate” into the host society. The absence of a physical community to which accompanying women could establish close connection, however, motivated them to
143 join digital “imagined” Vietnamese communities where they could find useful information and emotional support in dealing with post-migration issues.
The social (dis)integration process of temporary migrants like Vietnamese accompanying women has not been thoroughly examined in migration studies literature because integration was considered a long-term process, and temporariness “does not fit with the nature of the integration process as understood by most scholars as well as policy-makers.”222 One of the efforts to fill the dearth of research on the social (dis)integration of temporary migrants was made by Şahizer
Samuk, who examined temporary migration policies in Canada and the United Kingdom; Samuk found that despite diverse immigration histories, Canada and the UK “do follow similar logics in devising policies for temporariness.”223 Temporary migrant workers in these countries are deliberately excluded from the scope of integration policies. Thus, they are “disintegrated via temporariness and a lack of access to the most basic social and economic rights.”224 Samuk’s study elucidates the negative impacts of temporary immigration policies on the integration of temporary migrant workers. However, it overlooks the influence of other factors such as race, gender, class, and nationality, as well as Samuk’s assumption that “the highly skilled are usually perceived as more deserving,” and accordingly, enjoy more privileges beneficial to their integration process than the low-skilled. Interviews with my research participants challenged
222 Şahizer Samuk, “Can Integration Be Temporary? The (Dis)Integration of Temporary Migrant Workers in Canada and the UK,” in Politics of (Dis)Integration, ed. Sophie Hinger and Reinhard Schweitzer, 1st ed. (Springer, 2019), 61.
223 Michael Collyer, Sophie Hinger, and Reinhard Schweitzer, “Politics of (Dis)Integration – An Introduction,” in Politics of (Dis)Integration, ed. Sophie Hinger and Reinhard Schweitzer, 1st ed. (New York: Springer, 2019), 15.
224 Collyer, Hinger, and Schweitzer, 15.
144
Samuk’s assumption since they uncovered various barriers to integration that spouses of highly skilled Vietnamese migrants encountered in the U.S.
While the previous chapter considers Vietnamese accompanying women’s experiences at personal and family levels by concentrating on their identity negotiation and the post-migration gender relations in their families, this chapter explicates these women’s experiences at the community level, with a focus on how factors such as race, gender, class, and nationality interact with the U.S. visa regime to impact the women’s social integration process. The chapter provides a brief review of theories on social (dis)integration of immigrants and discusses Vietnamese accompanying women’s attempts to integrate into their local communities, the “ideological” barrier between the “newcomers” and existing Vietnamese American communities, and the formation of “imagined” Vietnamese communities in the U.S.
Theories on Social (Dis)integration of Immigrants
Social integration, as denoted by the United Nations Research Institute for Social
Development (UNRISD), is “a complex idea, which means different things to different people.”225 For some, social integration means social inclusion, implying equal opportunities to
“participate in central societal domains like the educational system and the labor market” for all human beings.226 For others, the term has a negative connotation, “conjuring up the image of an
225 C. Hewitt De Alcantara, “Social Integration: Approaches and Issues,” Briefing Paper - United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, 1994.
226 Sarah E. Martiny et al., “Young Immigrants in Norway: The Role of National and Ethnic Identity in Immigrants’ Integration,” Scandinavian Journal of Psychology 61, no. 2 (2020): 312, https://doi.org/10.1111/sjop.12594.
145 unwanted imposition of uniformity.”227 The term is also considered by some people “simply a way of describing the established patterns of human relations in any given society” without either positive or negative connotation.228 I start from the assumption that integration is desirable as it blurs the social boundaries between “legitimate members” (or the insiders) and
“nonlegitimate members” (or the outsiders) of the nation, and thus, promotes equal relations between people. Social integration, as insisted by intergovernmental organization such as the
United Nations, helps reduce outsiders’ feeling of social alienation and foster solidarity between insiders and outsiders so that together, they can build “secure, vibrant, and cohesive communities.”229 Social integration for migrants, thus, has the same meaning as social inclusion and participation, which mean “to have access to, use, participate in, benefit from, and feel a sense of belonging to a given area of society.”230
Since the U.S. is a nation built by immigrants, there has been a strong interest in the study of immigrants’ social incorporation among American scholars. Classical assimilation theory,
227 Cynthia Hewitt de Alcäntara, “Social Integration: Approaches and Issues,” Development in Practice 5, no. 1 (1995): 61, https://doi.org/10.1080/0961452951000157004.
228 de Alcäntara, 61.
229 Paul McDaniel, “Why Is Immigrant Integration Important?,” The Migrationist, 2013, https://themigrationist.net/2013/11/08/why-is-immigrant-integration-important/#:~:text=The Center for the Study,outcomes for immigrants and the; Maria Amparo Cruz-Saco, “Promoting Social Integration: Economic, Social and Political Dimensions with a Focus on Latin America,” 8AD, https://www.un.org/esa/socdev/social/meetings/egm6_social_integration/documents/Promoting_ Social_Integration.pdf.
230 Anja Rudiger and Sarah Spencer, “Social Integration of Migrants and Ethnic Minorities: Policies to Combat Discrimination,” in The Economic and Social Aspects of Migration - Conference Jointly Organized by the European Commission and the OECD, 2003, 5, https://www.oecd.org/migration/mig/15516956.pdf.
146 which was introduced by the Chicago school of sociology in the 1920s, proposed a linear route to integration in which all immigrants were supposed to achieve assimilation and higher socio- economic status after shedding their “cultural distinctiveness” and blending into American culture. This theory was widely accepted until the 1960s and 1970s when it was proved to be ineffectual in explaining diverse experiences of immigrant groups and the persistence of racial inequality in American society.
As classical assimilation theorists’ assumptions about “a single universal outcome for all immigrants”231 and a straightforward relationship between assimilation and upward mobility have been challenged, segmented-assimilation theory developed to explain disparate integration outcomes of immigrants. Segmented assimilation theory asserts that different immigrants and immigrant groups, depending on their group characteristics, adaptation behaviors, and social conditions, assimilate into different segments of American society.232 They may either assimilate into the white American middle class and experience upward mobility or undergo downward assimilation when integrating into the impoverished under-class. Immigrants may also choose to retain their cultural customs and practices while still being able to achieve rapid economic advancement. Segmented assimilation theory provides an insightful perspective on the diverse experiences of immigrants and their children. Nevertheless, some of its assumptions and suggestions remain questionable. For example, critics point out that observation of limited
231 Chris Lee, “Sociological Theories of Immigration: Pathways to Integration for U.S. Immigrants,” Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment 19, no. 6 (2009): 733, https://doi.org/10.1080/10911350902910906.
232 Alejandro Portes and Min Zhou, “The New Second Generation: Segmented Assimilation and Its Variants,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 530 (1993): 74– 96.
147 assimilation among post-1965 immigrants’ second generation does not provide a sound basis for segmented assimilation theory as limited assimilation can be observed in the children of
European immigrants arriving the U.S. between 1890 and 1920 as well. The theory is also criticized for essentializing “central-city black culture in the image of the underclass.”233 Despite those critiques, segmented assimilation theory has been widely adopted among sociologists.
Besides segmented assimilation, sociological and cultural theories such as ethnic boundaries and communities, spatial assimilation, social capital and networks, and transnationalism bring other factors such as ethnic identity, contact with the majority group of the host society, the capability of immigrants to secure resources through social networks both within and cross geographical borders into the examination of the immigrant integration process, respectively. These theories, in general, emphasize the influence of two main factors including the context of the host society and group characteristics and adaptations of arriving immigrants in the social integration process. However, as Lea Klarenbeek argues, by considering the role of the receiving society in the integration of immigrants as merely “the context” that immigrants have to deal with, these theoretical frameworks portray integration as “a one-sided affair” in which immigrants (or in other words, outsiders) need to integrate with “real citizens” (insiders), but not the other way around. In Klarenbeek’s opinion, integration should be understood as “a two-way process” in which “(a) insiders are affected by the integration of outsiders; (b) insiders can influence the integration of outsiders; and (c) insiders and outsiders integrate with each other.” Adopting Klarenbeek’s suggestion, in this chapter, I will pay attention to not only
233 Richard Alba and Victor Nee, Remaking The American Mainstream: Assimilation and Contemporary Immigration (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, n.d.), 8.
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Vietnamese accompanying women’s “purposive actions” but also the decisive role of the receiving society in Vietnamese nonimmigrants’ integration process.
Moreover, as noted by Michael Collyer et al., immigration policies and practices that deliberately hinder migrants’ participation in the various social systems “contribute to the processes of disintegration or the undermining of integration.”234 Since not everyone is expected to integrate, Collyer et al. insist, disintegration needs to be added into the integration paradigm.
The examination of the inherently connected integration/disintegration processes, Collyer et al. reckon, highlights “migrant agency as well as the fragility of the distinctions on which the corresponding policies are based.” Following Collyer et al., in this chapter, I use the term
(dis)integration when discussing the processes of negotiation around Vietnamese nonimmigrants’ social adaptation. I also consider the complex interrelations between different actors with various interests, strategies, and power positions—such as temporary Vietnamese migrants, local communities, migrant support groups, American educational institutions,
American employers, and policy makers—when examining Vietnamese accompanying women’s integration process.
In addition, I adopt Antonio Tomas De La Garza and Kent A. Ono’s theory of
“differential adaptation” which “acknowledges the radical diversity of immigrants’ experiences, immigrants’ agentic efforts to navigate pressures to assimilate, and the potential they have to reshape subjectivities, culture, and society.”235 According to De La Garza and Ono, the ways
234 Collyer, Hinger, and Schweitzer, “Politics of (Dis)Integration – An Introduction,” 2.
235 Antonio Tomas De La Garza and Kent A. Ono, “Retheorizing Adaptation: Differential Adaptation and Critical Intercultural Communication,” Journal of International and Intercultural Communication 8, no. 4 (2015): 270, https://doi.org/10.1080/17513057.2015.1087097.
149 immigrants adapt to the new environment may differ depending on the ways that “agency, power, and discourse structure their experience.”236 Furthermore, the individual (immigrant) is not only one who changes, but their resistance to the host country’s pressure to assimilate also make gradual changes to the host culture. In the next part, I will clarify how Vietnamese accompanying women and their families actively chose how and to what extent they integrated into the American society depending on their specific contexts, resources and desires. I also emphasize “the role of power in immigration, social, historical, political, and cultural context, and the concrete effects of ideological and material forces” on Vietnamese accompanying spouses’ identity formation and their social adaptation.
The (Dis)integration of Vietnamese Accompanying Women in the U.S.
Collyer et al., when explaining the concept of disintegration, point out that “the context and perceived desirability of migrants’ and minorities’ integration ultimately depends on how they are categorized by the state in which they live.”237 While “legal” immigrants are required to fulfill certain criteria associated with integration in order to become naturalized citizens, migrants whose presence in the country is deemed ‘illegal’ are often criminalized for their integration efforts. The undesirability of particular groups of migrants’ integration is clearly demonstrated in the emergence of U.S. policies which “do not simply exclude groups from the potentially beneficial impact of integration policies, but … have the specific objective of undermining their integration or certain aspects of it.”238 As discussed in previous chapters,
236 De La Garza and Ono, 275.
237 Collyer, Hinger, and Schweitzer, “Politics of (Dis)Integration – An Introduction,” 2.
238 Collyer, Hinger, and Schweitzer, 2.
150 because of their race, class, gender, and temporary migration status, Vietnamese nonimmigrant visa holders—the “wanted but not welcomed” migrants in the U.S.—were subjected to various laws and regulations which resulted in the exploitation of temporary skilled workers and the relegation of many Vietnamese accompanying spouses to the domestic sphere. In this section, I will clarify how these laws and regulations negatively impacted the social integration of
Vietnamese skilled migrants’ families whose integration was considered not necessary “given their intended temporary residence or employment in the country.”239 My main argument is that temporary Vietnamese skilled workers’ exploitation, together with their accompanying spouses’ ineligibility to either take up employment or receive much-needed support from the U.S. government impeded certain aspects of their integration, and in many cases, even made the integration of their family either “temporarily suspended”240 or “failed.”
Lan, spouse of a postdoctoral researcher at a university in California, who was “forced” to migrate to the U.S. for family reunion, explained how she experienced financial distress resulting from her inability to work, which negatively impacted her family’s social integration in the U.S.:
My husband works in one of the most renowned universities in the U.S., but his income
cannot cover our monthly expenses. He made a little more than 3,000 dollars a month
after tax, but our monthly rent is already 2,000 dollars. We also pay almost 500 dollars
for our car loan, car insurance, gas, and about 100 dollars more for the parking permit in
my husband’s workplace. Food expense here is also extremely high, not mentioning other
239 Collyer, Hinger, and Schweitzer, 2.
240 Collyer, Hinger, and Schweitzer, 2.
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expenses. That’s why we don’t dare to go anywhere or to spend money on anything
except for foods and very basic needs. Every month, either I transfer my earnings from
my online business in Vietnam to the U.S., or my parents send us some financial support.
Without these resources, we would go hungry.… Since I came here, I seldom travel to
any places further than 5 miles from my apartment.… I spend most of my time at
home.… I don’t want to be here. People say that America is paradise, but my ‘paradise’
is inside these four walls. It is, thus, not a paradise.
As mentioned in previous chapters, Lan struggled badly during her post-migration period.
Once an energetic and successful businesswoman in Vietnam and now a housewife in the U.S.,
Lan suffered from not only her feeling of insecurity and lack of confidence but also a perceived disrespect from her in-laws. Her unexpected second pregnancy added another layer of stress both financially and emotionally to Lan and her spouse, Hung, who already faced enormous challenges living in one of the most expensive coastal cities in the U.S. on an ‘entry-level’ postdoc salary. While Hung tried to solve the family’s problems by dedicating all his time and energy to his current position and new job applications, Lan exhaustingly took care of their one- year-old daughter, simultaneously managing a Facebook account where she sold “American products” shipped from the U.S. back to Vietnam. Lan did not have enough time to sleep, let alone socialize. She rarely gathered with her husband’s Vietnamese friends who lived quite far away from her neighborhood. Nor did she interact with her neighbors who “go to work all day and close their doors after coming home in the evening.” Her financial situation even discouraged her from taking their child to the nearest park because she would have to pay for the bus fare. As Lan confided, the only places that she usually visited were grocery stores and the local shopping mall where she purchased the so-called “American products” for her online 152
“store” in Vietnam. Lan’s limited exposure to American society and American people resulted in her lack of knowledge about American culture and her intense feeling of alienation in the host country. As a trailing spouse with a young child, a busy husband, major financial constraints, and most importantly, a lack of social support networks, Lan had few chances to integrate. During our interview, Lan repeatedly expressed her intention to go back to Vietnam, where she could lead an independent life and be a “valuable person” even if she might have to sacrifice her marriage. Her intention became real action after her family underwent an unsettling experience during her post-childbirth period. Her second child, who was born in the U.S. a year after Lan’s transnational migration, suffered from a rare disease and was, thus, transferred to one of the nation’s best hospitals, which was located in an expensive area for treatment. Not being able to afford accommodation near the hospital, Lan’s family had to stay in the living room of another
Vietnamese family’s one-bedroom apartment during the time their baby received inpatient care.
Every day, Hung spent one hour driving his wife, who was still recovering from a ceasarean delivery, to the hospital, where she breastfed and took care of the baby. In the evening, they came back to the friends’ apartment where their one-and-a-half-year-old child constantly cried because of her insecurity living in a strange place with strange people. The couple were under severe stress as they worried about their newborn’s health, their copayments for the baby’s treatment, the inconveniences their stay caused to their Vietnamese friends, and enormous pressure from Hung’s supervisor, who threatened to terminate Hung’s employment contract when he found out about Hung’s job search. Their traumatic experience made them perceive their transnational migration as the wrong decision. Therefore, after the baby recovered from the illness, Lan insisted on bringing their kids back to Vietnam, even though her husband got a job offer from another top university in the U.S. The family eventually returned to their home
153 country before the Covid-19 pandemic broke out. In Vietnam, Lan found a job as a bank official, and her husband worked in a newly established private university, where his generous salary could ensure a comfortable life for the whole family. Their satisfaction with the new chapter of life in Vietnam marked the end of their integration process in the U.S.
Lan’s family’s return to Vietnam confirms Collyer et al.’s argument that “the disintegration of certain individuals is not just a side-effect of broader societal changes
(globalisation, individualisation, etc.) but is produced by law, policy and/or everyday practice.”241 In the case of Lan’s husband, Hung arrived in the U.S. as a “wanted” skilled worker who was supposed to contribute to the host country’s economy. However, his efforts were not rewarded with equal rights and opportunities to participate in the U.S. society. Since his stay was framed as “temporary,” Hung was vulnerable to abuses and exploitation from his U.S. employer who, according to his wife, forced him to work unpaid overtime, refused to write recommendation letters for him, and decided not to extend Hung’s employment contract when he learned of Hung’s intention to find another job. Hung’s “temporary” status also restricted his opportunities to find a better paying job as employers usually hesitate to recruit nonimmigrant visa holders due to complicated visa requirements. The temporariness of his immigration status undermined his family’s social integration since it created great uncertainties about the family’s future. As Hung explained, if he accepted the new job offer from another university, he would again have a nonimmigrant visa that prohibited his wife from working. In addition, Hung was not sure when the university would sponsor his family’s applications for permanent residency so that his family could settle down in the U.S. The precarity of foreign postdocs’ families like
241 Collyer, Hinger, and Schweitzer, 6.
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Hung’s originates not only from the principal visa holders’ uncertain employment prospects, low income, and lack of jobs security but also from the lack of career growth opportunities for their accompanying spouses. In Lan’s case, her housewifization resulting from various factors such as the devaluation of her Vietnamese qualifications, the lack of affordable childcare in California, and Vietnamese social stigma against blue-collar workers not only deprived her of valuable opportunities to widen her social network but also put her family under great economic precarity, and accordingly, discouraged the couple from settling in the U.S. and integrating into American society. Similar to Lan and Hung, families of my other four Vietnamese research participants either went back to Vietnam or moved to countries with seemingly more favorable immigration policies such as Canada, New Zealand, and Sweden, where they hoped to have more opportunities to integrate both economically and socially. Their disintegration in the U.S. reflected the unwillingness of the U.S. government to “open the door” to full membership in the
U.S. society to Vietnamese skilled workers – the “wanted but not welcomed” migrants.
Vietnamese Accompanying Women’s Cultural, Social, and Economic Integration
Except for those five families, the rest of my respondents and their spouses, for a variety of reasons, decided to stay and made strenuous efforts to overcome integration challenges caused by U.S. law, policies, and daily practices. Previous studies assert that integration is “a two-way process,” and immigrants living in different geographical areas may have distinct experiences due to factors such as attitudes of the receiving communities toward immigrants, local policies, and the local identity. My research supports this argument as it explicates Vietnamese accompanying women’ multiple pathways to social integration as well as their perceived success and/or failure in their integration process.
155
Nhung’s family was an example. In 2005, the family migrated to the U.S. with student visas when Nhung’s husband, Dung, got a fellowship for his graduate study from the Vietnamese
Education Foundation (VEF). Seven years later, in 2012, Dung graduated from his doctoral program, and the family had to make a difficult decision regarding whether they should leave or continue their stay in the U.S. As Nhung explained, her spouse would have more opportunities to fully utilize his expertise in cancer research if he worked in the U.S. In addition, her children who had been familiar with the living and learning environments in the host country would face enormous difficulties if they came back to Vietnam. Nevertheless, as her spouse studied in the
U.S. with the VEF fellowship, the family was subject to a two-year-home-country physical presence requirement set by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Without fulfilling this requirement, her family would not be able to change their immigration status to permanent residents, and thus, would be ineligible for various social benefits and political rights in the host country. When Nhung’s husband got an offer to work as a post-doctoral researcher in a leading American research institute, the couple decided to take the opportunity. From the couples’ viewpoint, science and technology advance quickly, so if they spent two years working in Vietnam, a developing country which lagged far behind other developed nations in science and technology, they would have a slim chance to find jobs and reenter the U.S. later. The couple, therefore, chose to become “permanently temporary” migrants in the U.S. With an O-1 visa for individuals with extraordinary ability or achievement migrants, Dung needed his employer to sponsor his visa extension every year after the first three-year period and Nhung, with an O-3 visa, was prohibited from working indefinitely.
Like other nonimmigrant visa holders, Dung’s temporary immigration status resulted in his low occupational mobility. Nhung explained: “To tell the truth, Dung’s supervisor has used
156 many tricks to prevent him from leaving the lab and finding a more steady and well-paying job somewhere else. It’s, thus, very tiring for us. If Dung accepted low salary and worked for that professor for the whole life, he would enjoy a great relationship with his supervisor. However, if he tried to get a better job, he would know what ‘search and destroy’ is.” Research has highlighted the exploitation of international postdocs who are “cheap, disposable, contingent” labor in the U.S.242 In this case, although Nhung did not clarify how Dung’s supervisor prevented him from seeking quality employment during our interview, she insisted that Dung was stuck with his post-doctoral position for six years because of the lack of necessary support from his supervisor. Dung’s employment precariousness and financial instability were, unsurprisingly, major obstacles for his family’s social integration. Nhung vividly described their precarious life during their six years in California:
I feel badly depressed by our financial problem and the fact that my career just stops
there. … Living in California is so expensive! I have no pennies in my savings account
because our income could barely cover our monthly expenses. Moreover, as we are not
sure how long we will live in California, we spend little money on buying furniture.
That’s why I always feel that I am staying at a train station [waiting for the next journey]
but not a home. The thought of living in a place temporarily also makes my teenage sons
to be messier. This year, we got so upset that we decided to buy a nice kitchen table and a
bed for my kids to reduce their suffering from our temporariness.
Like Lan’s family, Nhung and Dung were discouraged from integrating into American society because of their employment and financial precarity. Without knowing how long they
242 The Editors, “Protect Postdocs: A Survey of Young Scientists in the United States Highlights the Exploitation of Visa Holders.”
157 would stay in a place, Nhung’s family made little effort to either turn their rented apartment into their home or establish local community connections. Nevertheless, unlike the former couple, the latter were more persevering in their decision to stay in the U.S.; in Nhung’s words, they did not have “the courage to leave all of their efforts and achievements behind” for a new start in
Vietnam, especially when Nhung and Dung had entered their middle age after thirteen years living in the U.S. Therefore, though the couple did not actively integrate into American society, one of their integration efforts could be seen in their choice of residential area. As Nhung recalled, she used to live in a nice college town during her husband’s doctoral study, so she was not aware of ‘bad neighborhoods’ in the U.S. When moving to California, because of meager income, her family rented an affordable apartment in a working-class neighborhood. However,
Nhung’s fourth grade son soon got bullied at school because, according to Nhung, her older son was the tallest and biggest in his class and thus, became the target of the school “gangs” who considered defeating a “big kid” was one way of gaining “reputation.” To help her son deal with bullying, Nhung spent two months volunteering at his school and discovered various school problems such as dishonest students and incompetent teachers. The school board, in Nhung’s opinion, also seemed to be afraid of racial discrimination accusations, resulting in them “only advocating for black students” but not Asian students like her son, who was bullied by both black and white students. Nhung also reckoned:
California offers beautiful nature and convenient urban lifestyle, but its people are not
always desirable to be surrounded with. I guess it’s the difference between city life and
country living.… My family was deeply shocked at the beginning of our stay in
California as we assumed that everything was as good as in our previous residential area.
However, the school that my children went to during our first year in California, I think,
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was as bad as the one located in a gang area in Vietnam. I remembered my son once
confided with me that his close friend, who often defended him against school bullying,
suffered a lot because her mom left her family, and her father and brother were drug
addicts. Although I felt pity for the girl, I was very concerned about my son’s friends’
family backgrounds. The girl was white, but many working-class whites were even more
messed up than blacks.
Nhung’s nagging worries about the negative effects that socializing with people from disadvantaged backgrounds could have on her children might originate from the ideas of anti-
Blackness and anti-poverty existing in the white, mainstream culture that she consumed (Nhung told me that she learned English mostly by watching American movies and TV shows). To provide her son with better learning and social environment, Nhung’s family decided to move to a “better school district” where the rent was much higher, but her son no longer suffered from bullying. Nhung disclosed that her husband’s income was not enough to cover the rent and basic family expenses. Therefore, her parents in Vietnam had to sell their land and sent her the money with the hope that the money would help Nhung’s family survive until Dung found a higher- paying job. Nhung felt guilty for taking her parent’s money. However, during our interview,
Nhung gladly told me that she had recently been able to make some money by buying
“American” products and selling them online in Vietnam. Her “illegal” income helped her make up the family’s “budget deficit” and allowed her children to join some after-school sports programs like many of their “American” friends in the new schools.
Nhung’s decision to move to a neighborhood with “good public schools” illustrated a popular spatial integration strategy that Vietnamese skilled nonimmigrants adopted. In fact, many of my interviewees, despite their financial instability, prioritized their children’s education
159 when deciding where to live. Nga’s family, for instance, spent almost two-thirds of the family’s income in rent so that their son could go to a highly-rated, upper-middle class, and majority white public school in the city. Minh’s family of four shared a two-bedroom apartment with another Vietnamese friend so that they could afford living in an upper-middle class neighborhood. Thao, the spouse of a highly skilled worker who was able to obtain permanent residency after a few years staying in the U.S. with a nonimmigrant visa, also stated that the quality of neighborhood public schools (which usually had positive correlation with the social- class of the neighborhood residents) was one of the two most decisive factors for their home- buying decision.
Studies suggested that the education of their children is very important to immigrant parents, particularly the ones who perceive “the school as a means of social advancement.”243
For Vietnamese skilled migrants, institutions such as schools provided not only a “means of social advancement” for their children but also a pathway to social integration for the migrant parents. Thao, for instance, made her first non-Vietnamese friends with some immigrant mothers when volunteering at her daughter’s school. Le, another research participant, also explained that by putting her children in a good school, she was able to build connections with people of high socio-economic status through her children’s birthday parties and playdates. Spatial assimilation theorists argue that social and spatial mobility “go hand in hand” which means “family income
243 France Beauregard, Harriet Petrakos, and Audrey Dupont, “Family-School Partnership: Practices of Immigrant Parents in Quebec, Canada.,” School Community Journal 24, no. 1 (2014): 179.
160 among immigrant populations is positively associated with neighborhood quality.”244 My study challenges spatial assimilation theory when uncovering that Vietnamese skilled nonimmigrants, despite their low income and/or financial insecurity caused by their immigration status, found different ways to settle in good neighborhoods where their children were served by well-funded school districts and enjoyed other institutional support services. The integration strategy that most of my research participants’ families adopted was aimed at integrating into middle-class neighborhoods populated mostly by white Americans and highly skilled Asian migrants; this process confirmed Jolanta Drzewiecka and Melissa Steyn’s suggestion that when “the host” is not a monolithic group and the host society is structured in difference, immigrants usually align themselves with particular groups which enable their claims to advantage.245
In the case of Vietnamese skilled migrants, their resettlement in middle-class, predominantly white and skilled Asian migrant neighborhoods implied their hope to get “greater access to society’s rewards,”246 including safe neighborhoods, good schools, “more meaningful” social connections, and accordingly more upward mobility opportunities. However, my informants’ expectations were not always fulfilled. Although they usually enjoyed safe, well- kept neighborhoods, and their children seemed to love the “good schools”, it was difficult for my research participations to make “meaningful” social connections. Nga, mother of a
244 National Academy of Sciences Engineering and Medicine, The Integration of Immigrants into American Society, ed. Marisa Gerstein Pineau and Mary C. Waters (Washington DC: National Academies Press, 2016), 209.
245 Jolanta A Drzewiecka and Melissa Steyn, “Racial Immigrant Incorporation : Material- Symbolic Articulation of Identities,” Journal of International and Intercultural Communication 5, no. 1 (2012): 1–19.
246 National Academy of Sciences Engineering and Medicine, The Integration of Immigrants into American Society, 210.
161 kindergartener, confided that she found it difficult to carry on conversations with “American” parents of her child’s friends (by which she meant white Americans) because of cultural differences and lack of shared commonality. Thao, after three years being an active parent volunteer at her daughter’s school, was also able to make friends with two other Asian immigrant women like her.
Similarly, Nhung did not actively build social connections with the local community even after her family moved to a good neighborhood due to both her difficulty in making friends with her neighbors and the temporariness of her spouse’s employment. Therefore, she spent most of her spare time learning about the history and culture of the host country to prepare for her
“future” social integration when her husband could find a more stable job. With a good command of English, she often went to local libraries to borrow books on American history and society. She also closely followed news about American politics and even took courses on
American history and culture offered by a nearby community college. During our conversations,
I was surprised by her in-depth knowledge of contemporary issues in American society. She explained: “My husband just paid attention to his research, so he did not know much about
American society. Therefore, he was shocked when seeing American racial conflicts on TV news following Trayvon Martin’s murder. I had to explain to him about racial inequality and other social issues that I learn from the courses that I took.” Nhung’s cultural exposure and cultural knowledge enabled her to “lead” her family in their social integration process. Her strong interest in “exploring” American culture also reflected her efforts to integrate into American society despite her “permanent” temporariness in the U.S. However, since most of her knowledge came from mainstream (white-dominated) media and educational institutions but not from social networking with other people in her community, she developed a mixed feeling towards
162 oppressed and stereotyped people. While she clearly understood the systemic racism and social inequality in the U.S., for example, she hesitated to socialize with socially disadvantaged individuals because of her internalization of negative stereotypes about them. Nhung, thus, missed opportunities for coalition-building, solidarity with other marginalized community members.
While Nhung was not very active in local networking, many of my research participants actively reached out to their local communities for social support and community engagement.
Ha, who lived in a small college town in the Northwest during her spouse’s doctoral study, described her experience:
At the beginning of my stay in the U.S., I often participated in activities organized by my
husband’s university and the local library... Most of the events that I joined in were for
international students, so I met very friendly and enthusiastic people who were interested
in culture exchange. The university had a lot of international students, so the local
community was also very welcoming to people like us.
According to Ha, the college town residents welcomed international students because they understood the important contributions of international students to the host community.
Moreover, there were a lot of retirees in the college town who wanted to make their free time more interesting and meaningful by engaging in immigrant integration activities such as a Host
Family program for international students. The positive community reception subsequently motivated Ha to be more active in local community activities. With previous experience in financial management, Ha worked as a volunteer bookkeeper for a local non-profit organization aimed at fostering international students’ and immigrants’ integration though various community events. She also got involved in various fund-raising activities for the organization, such as
163 organizing a fashion show and selling donated items online. In addition, she participated in free community English classes as a teaching assistant who helped teachers facilitate small group discussions. Ha’s frequent interactions and emotional bond with local residents helped her build a sense of belonging to the local community. Besides community-engagement activities, Ha spent time preparing for her application to a doctoral program at her spouse’s university.
Nevertheless, when she got an admission into the program, her spouse decided to quit his study to work for a big tech company. Leaving her higher education opportunity and warm friendships behind, Ha and her husband moved to a large city in Washington State where she actively searched for socializing opportunities while enrolling in a couple of career-related certificate programs at a nearby community college. Ha remarked:
Life in big cities in California and Washington is very different from life in a small
college town. I don’t think people here are as friendly as the college town residents we
socialized with. There, people always greeted me and were eager to talk to me on the
street, but in big cities like ours, I don’t know any local people.
Ha’s comment referred to a common feeling among my respondents. Research points out
California’s warm receptivity toward immigrants—both the highly skilled and the “unskilled,” the legal and the undocumented—which was indicated in the development of “a wide range of institutional mechanisms to ease the newcomers’ arrival and transition” and a growth of nonprofit immigrant serving and advocacy organizations.247 However, my research participants, particularly the ones who had experience living in both big California cities and small college
247 Manuel Pastor and John Mollenkopf, “The Cases in Context: Data and Destinies in Seven Metropolitan Areas,” in Unsettled Americans: Metropolitan Context and Civic Leadership for Immigrant Integration, ed. John Mollenkopf and Manuel Pastor (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2016), 21.
164 towns in other states, expressed their difficulty in social integration in California. According to
Ha and Nhung, the involvement of local Americans in immigration integration activities made them feel welcomed. In small college towns, families of international students like Ha’s and
Nhung’s had more opportunities to interact with local Americans through community activities, which helped them build a sense of belonging to the local community. Nonetheless, in
California, where about a fourth of the population are foreign born248, it was more difficult for my research participants to have frequent interactions with “Americans,” the term Ha used to mean white Americans. The lack of a visible “American community” for Vietnamese accompanying women to integrate into often discouraged them from engaging in local community activities in big cities. Ha explained:
I like volunteering. However, because Seattle is very large, and I could not drive, I could
not find any suitable volunteering activities to take part in. Therefore, I participated in an
English conversation group whose members usually met at a shopping mall to chat with
each other.… It was fun meeting new people, but I was soon bored with the group
gatherings because there were not many interesting topics for us to discuss. People just
asked “how are you?” and had little more to say.… Many activities for immigrants that I
know were organized by immigrant volunteers who wanted to help other newcomers.
Some were organized by Americans, but because the activities were for immigrants, few
Americans joined in those activities, which was a shortcoming.
From Ha’s viewpoint, interactions among recent immigrants from different countries reduced their feeling of loneliness in the host country. Nevertheless, they might not be as useful
248 Public Policy Institute of California, “Immigrants in California,” n.d., https://www.ppic.org/publication/immigrants-in-california/.
165 for their integration as interactions with white upper-middle class Americans who could introduce newcomers to American culture, inform them of job opportunities, serve as references for job applications, and so on. Ha, therefore, left the English conversation group after a few gatherings. When Ha’s family moved to California for her husband to pursue another doctoral degree, she lived in campus housing, and thus, had few chances to interact with local Americans.
Although Ha often took her one-year-old daughter to events organized by the university for the families of international students and met people coming from many countries, she could not form strong connections with other international students’ families, who tended to be transient - returning to their home countries, moving to other cities, or changing their place of accommodation sometime after they met. Consequently, she tried to build more supportive social networks by reaching out to immigrant-serving organizations in the city. However, in her opinion, the services offered by those organizations were more useful for immigrants (either legal or undocumented) than nonimmigrant visa holders like her who were ineligible for employment and voting. As her social interactions were limited to a couple of Vietnamese families on campus, Ha felt socially isolated even though she had been in the U.S. for more than five years.
Ha’s difficulty building a sense of belonging and community illustrates the inadequacy of social supports for the integration of nonimmigrants’ accompanying spouses in immigrant- friendly California. In large California cities where my respondents are located, enormous efforts have been made to incorporate the voices of immigrant communities into decision-making process and to promote immigrant integration. However, nonimmigrant visa holders were, in most cases, not the focus of integration policies and immigrant rights movements. For instance, a vibrant network of social justice and religious organizations in Los Angeles including Coalition
166 for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, Asian Americans Advancing Justice—Los
Angeles, the South Asian Network, Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance, and the Catholic
Archdiocese of Los Angeles, among others, champion immigration reform and immigration integration issues by advocating for civil rights, pushing for a living wage, improving community-police relations, and “pressing for increased educational quality and postsecondary access.”249 None of those organizations’ efforts were of pressing concern to the accompanying spouses who struggled with their forced housewifization, feelings of isolation, and financial precarity resulting from the class-, gender-, and race-biased U.S. immigration policy. Even in
San Jose, the city “among the most inventive with regard to new approaches to incorporating immigrants,”250 more attention is paid to legal reform of immigration policy towards nonimmigrant visa holders such as H-1B than the social integration of their accompanying spouses. Although a few big tech companies, according to my research participants, provided their foreign skilled workers’ accompanying spouses with some support at the beginning of their resettlement—such as helping them open bank accounts and learn how to drive—little was offered afterward.
Since my respondents could not find suitable activities and adequate support from their spouses’ affiliated institutions and local advocacy organizations, many of them reached out to local community centers and community colleges to widen their social networks and equip
249 Manuel Pastor, Juan De Lara, and Rachel Rosner, “Movements Matter: Immigrant Integration in Los Angeles,” in Unsettled Americans: Metropolitan Context and Civic Leadership for Immigrant Integration, ed. John Mollenkopf and Manuel Pastor (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2016), 125.
250 Manuel Pastor, Rachel Rosner, and Jennifer Tran, “OUT OF MANY, ONE: Collaborating for Immigrant Integration in San José,” in Unsettled Americans, ed. John Mollenkopf and Manuel Pastor (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2016), 223.
167 themselves with knowledge and skills necessary for their integration into American society. As discussed above, Nhung obtained comprehensive knowledge of American history, politics, and culture by taking courses offered by a community college. Nga, who had more than ten years’ experience working for an intergovernmental organization in Vietnam, also enrolled in an
English course to accelerate her integration process. As Nga confided, the Vocational English as
Second Language course that she participated in was below her English level, but it provided her with opportunities to make new friends, learn about various aspects of American culture, and most importantly, find an American who could write a reference letter for her in her job applications. Nga was quite happy with what she gained from the English course, though she still found it difficult to build up a strong social network during her study.
However, many of my research participants could not take free language courses because there were not enough people enrolling in advanced English courses suitable to my research participants. For Hai, spouse of a doctoral student, her two-year English participation in free
English language training program also did not yield considerable benefits. Hai explained:
There are free preschool programs for children of full-time students and working parents
in my area. To get free childcare for my son, I had to enrolled in a full-time program. I
wanted to pursue a Master program in Economics, my undergraduate major, but the
tuition fee was very high while my husband’s stipend was just enough for us to pay for
foods and rent. Therefore, I enrolled in free English programs offered by the County.… I
studied full time from Monday to Friday.… When in Vietnam, I worked for an Australian
company, but my direct supervisor was Vietnamese, so my English listening and
speaking skills were not very good. However, when I was studying English here, I felt the
pronunciation of my English teacher who was an immigrant very funny. I asked the
168
program coordinator to transfer me to a class with a native English-speaking teacher, but
I was informed that the course I was taking was the most advanced, and my current
teacher was the only instructor there.… My English teacher asked me several times why I
was in her class for such a long time, but I kept coming to the class until my son started
his elementary school two years later.
Hai’s story revealed a mismatch between Vietnamese accompanying spouses’ needs and the supporting services offered by their local communities. As mentioned by Manuel Pastor et. al., one of the important efforts to promote immigrant integration in California is the incorporation of language and citizenship education into numerous adult education programs offered by many agencies and workforce developers. Language programs also include various applied subjects such as “civic engagement, parental involvement, and domestic violence” to equip immigrants with useful information for their integration process.251 Nonetheless, for many
Vietnamese accompanying spouses who possessed good English language skills, university education, and professional experience, free language and entry-level certification programs might not fulfill their career developmental needs, while post-graduate education was not an affordable option.
Understanding the significance of employment in immigrants’ economic and social integration, some of my respondents who were not allowed to work tried to maintain some level of professional activity for future job opportunities by engaging in non-paid work. Ha, for instance, worked as a remote volunteer data analyst for a non-profit organization which focused on mentoring black kids when she was living in Washington State. Minh participated in another
251 Pastor, Rosner, and Tran, 237.
169 non-profit organization which addressed global poverty as a remote volunteer advocate, and An volunteered to be an interpreter at some events requiring Vietnamese-English interpretation.
Their non-paid work, as argued by Ievgeniia Zasoba, was “coerced volunteering” because they did not have any options to take paid employment.252 Nevertheless, their non-paid work provided them with sophisticated understanding about American society which was necessary for their integration into the host country. In our daily life conversations, Ha often expressed her sympathy with underrepresented and marginalized groups such as undocumented and African
American youth. She also showed her awareness of the social inequalities that Asian Americans suffered in the U.S. as well as her desire to work for good causes. Ha, however, was discouraged from engaging in local community activities when reaching out to immigrant-serving organizations in the city because she felt that the inequality that accompanying spouses like her suffered from was neglected. Despite her inability to connect with local organizations fighting for social justice, Ha usually shared her knowledge and experience with other Vietnamese migrants in both daily life conversations and online discussions on contemporary American social and political issue.
In general, my research reveals that U.S. immigration policies and everyday practices which created temporariness and a lack of equal access to the U.S. labor market either contributed to the disintegration of Vietnamese skilled migrants’ families or hindered their integration process. In addition, despite the existence of various immigrant-serving programs as well as Vietnamese accompanying women’s great efforts to integrate into the American society through free education, non-paid work, and their choices of residential areas, many of my
252 Zasoba, “Migration , Individualism and Dependency : Experiences of Skilled Women from the Former Soviet Union in Silicon Valley.”
170 participants could not “have access to, use, participate in, benefit from, and feel a sense of belonging” 253 to their local communities. Some of them, then, looked for supports from preexisting Vietnamese American communities which composed mainly of post-1975
Vietnamese refugees in the U.S. Nevertheless, Vietnamese accompanying women, for another time, experienced social disintegration which mainly resulted from the differences in political ideology and social class between the newcomers and the “old-timers”.
Vietnamese Skilled Migrants’ (Dis)integration into Vietnamese American Communities
Research points out various benefits that co-ethnic communities can provide to immigrants, including “sheltered environment, shared experiences,” job opportunities and accordingly, more “financial resources available for social activities.”254 As California houses some of the largest and most well-established Vietnamese-American enclaves—in Orange
County, San Jose, and San Diego—Vietnamese accompanying spouses of nonimmigrant visa holders living in those cities have greater access to Vietnamese community structures and subsequently, have more interactions with Vietnamese Americans. Nevertheless, it is challenging for the newcomers to integrate into existing Vietnamese American communities because of various class, cultural and ideological barriers.
Ha, who moved from a small college town with few co-ethnics to big cities with large
Vietnamese immigrant populations, noted the comfort and convenience of living in an area where she could easily find either necessary ingredients to cook Vietnamese foods or local
253 Collyer, Hinger, and Schweitzer, “Politics of (Dis)Integration – An Introduction,” 15.
254 Nadzeya Laurentsyeva and Alessandra Venturini, “The Social Integration of Immigrants and the Role of Policy — A Literature Review,” Intereconomics 52, no. 5 (2017): 290, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10272-017-0691-6.
171 restaurants that served authentic Vietnamese cuisine. My other respondents also mentioned their occasional visits to Vietnamese business centers, churches, temples, and pagodas where various cultural activities were carried out during Vietnamese holidays and celebrations. The presence of visible Vietnamese communities—the cultural zones where Vietnamese language, food, traditions, and customs were preserved255—undeniably helped Vietnamese accompanying women overcome homesickness when they could not afford frequent travel back to their home country. These cultural zones also helped Vietnamese nonimmigrant families sustain Vietnamese practices and introduce their children to their culture of origin.
Nonetheless, my research participants found it challenging to integrate into their local
Vietnamese American communities due to various social and political barriers. As clarified in chapter 2, Vietnamese communities in the U.S. are largely made up of Vietnamese refugees who fled their home country and resettled in the U.S. after the fall of Saigon in 1975, with their offspring and their relatives arriving in the U.S. on family visas. Among Asian Americans,
Vietnamese Americans stand out for their fervent anti- communism which, according to many scholars, facilitated their social and political integration in the U.S. Nevertheless, as I have argued elsewhere, the anticommunist discourse that many Vietnamese community leaders embraced “directly opposed and marginalized many tolerant refugees who had emotional, cultural, and economic ties with the Vietnamese communist government” as well as recent
Vietnamese professional migrants.256 My interviews with accompanying spouses of Vietnamese
255 Karin Aguilar-San Juan, Little Saigon: Staying Vietnamese in America (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009).
256 Ly Thi Hai Tran, “‘Outsiders No More?’: The Discourse of Political Incorporation of Vietnamese Refugees in the United States (1975–2020),” Journal of Asian American Studies 23, no. 2 (2020): 243, https://doi.org/10.1353/jaas.2020.0019.
172 skilled workers and international students explicated the negative effects of Vietnamese
Americans’ anti-communist discourse on the integration of new Vietnamese migrants into preexisting Vietnamese American communities. They also revealed other factors that encouraged
Vietnamese skilled migrants to distinguish themselves from war-related Vietnamese Americans including Vietnamese refugees, their offspring, and their relatives in the U.S.
Ha, who got acquainted with some Vietnamese refugees when living in cities with large
Vietnamese American populations described her experience:
I met quite a few Vietnamese refugees and family-sponsored immigrants here. The
difference in our political viewpoints might not significantly affect our relationship, but
the difference in circumstances might. As refugees, they struggle more in life.... I know a
woman who is a spouse of a former re-education detainee coming to the U.S. in the
Humanitarian Operation program. They seem to have a hard life here.… Although they
dislike the communist government, they respect and even admire us when knowing that
we have postgraduate degrees and a decent job in the U.S.
As Ha revealed, her relationship with some Vietnamese refugees whose forced migration resulted from the Vietnamese communist government’s tyranny was not strongly affected by ideological differences, despite her family connections to the communist party. This barrier was surmounted by an appreciation for and honor toward those with advanced education. In other cases, recent skilled Vietnamese migrants, might meet a more favorable reception from their co- ethnic refugees if they did not disclose their family’s affiliation with the Vietnamese Communist
Party. Ha, for example, said that she sometimes “intimidated” her Vietnamese refugee friends when accidentally disclosing her father’s former occupation as a police officer. Therefore, when her father visited her in the U.S., he avoided trouble by self-identifying as an engineer, the job
173 that he did before becoming a police officer. “My Vietnamese American friends” Ha recalled,
“often smiled happily when hearing that my father was an engineer.” This was unsurprising as engineering required higher education, and was, thus, a respected profession in Vietnam. In addition, according to Ha, not all Vietnamese refugees were antagonistic toward Vietnamese communists. She opined:
In our interactions, they [Vietnamese refugees] did not often express their political
attitudes. Sometimes they asked me about my political stance, but it was just a topic of
our conversations, not a potential conflict. I am also acquainted with some Saigon
intellectuals. Prior to the Vietnam war, they came to the U.S. to study and then stayed, so
their political views are different from other Vietnamese refugees’. They are very open-
minded and tolerant of different political views. They often send me videos and movies
about the Vietnam war and current political events.
Ha’s statement confirms the diversity in political views among Vietnamese Americans, which resonates with Hao Phan’s suggestion that Vietnamese Americans’ political attitudes toward the
Vietnamese government varied, depending on their life experiences in Vietnam.257 However, as I point out elsewhwere, the dominance of anti-communist discourse in Vietnamese American politics not only undermine their community cohesion but also drive away recent Vietnamese migrants who came to the U.S. for educational and professional purposes.258 Ha described her
257 Phan, “The Disjunctive Politics of Vietnamese Immigrants in America from the Transnational Perspective.”
258 Tran, “‘Outsiders No More?’: The Discourse of Political Incorporation of Vietnamese Refugees in the United States (1975–2020),” 250.
174 feeling when exposed to the anti-communist fervency in her local Vietnamese American community:
I saw the three-red-striped, yellow flag of the former South Vietnam in many of the
pagodas and temples I visited. In the Vietnamese enclave in my city, that flag is
displayed everywhere even in cars. I do not feel comfortable when seeing the flag. Thus,
I usually avoid contacts and refrain from having conversations with Vietnamese people in
places where the flag is displayed.
From Ha’s view, the flag of the former South Vietnam did not represent recent Vietnamese migrants who grew up under communism like her. In addition, the staunch anti-communism the flag symbolized together with continuing controversies over the use of the flag made its presence a powerful reminder of the differences in experiences between post-1975 Vietnamese refugees and post-1995 Vietnamese skilled migrants. According to Claire Wang, the flag of the former
South Vietnam (the Vietnamese “Freedom and Heritage Flag”) is used by Vietnamese
Americans in important community events to “express nostalgia for a lost home and opposition to communism.”259 Since the mid-2000s, Vietnamese American community leaders have pressured legislators to pass resolutions to recognize the flag the “official flag of Vietnamese people overseas” for use in state-sponsored events in more than eighty cities. Research points out that although the flag serves as an emblem of “solidarity and rebirth” for Vietnamese exile communities, the use of the flag actually deepens divisions among people of Vietnamese descent
259 Claire Wang, “Why the Defunct South Vietnam Flag Was Flown at the Capitol Riot,” NBC News, January 15, 2021, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/why-defunct-south- vietnam-flag-was-flown-capitol-riot-n1254306.
175 in the U.S.260 Despite political diversity within the Vietnamese American community, “the flag's alignment with right-wing causes,” particularly its presence at the 2021 U.S. Capitol riot, widens
“chasms within Vietnamese American community — along class, age and ideological lines.”261
For many post-1995 Vietnamese skilled migrants like Ha, the recognition of the former South
Vietnam flag by more than twenty U.S. states, which amounts to a ban on displaying the
Vietnam National flag in many state properties, was disappointing to say the least. Especially when controversies over Vietnamese flags spread to U.S. higher educational institutions where
Vietnamese “domestic and international students … fought over which Vietnamese flag should be flown at graduation ceremonies,”262 the flag issue has divided students of Vietnamese descent on many American college campuses.
The politicization of Vietnamese flags has, therefore, turned the former South Vietnam flag into an emblem of anti-communism whose display alienates many post-1995 Vietnamese professional migrants. Like Ha, Minh felt uncomfortable when attending the former South
Vietnam flag salute at a Lunar New Year celebration organized by her local Vietnamese
American community. In addition, though she took many photos of her children enjoying
Vietnamese foods and cultural performances at the festival, she decided not to share the photos with her friends on social networks after noticing that the flag of the former South Vietnam was accidentally captured in most of her photos. The presence of an “anti-communist” symbol in her pictures, Minh clarified, could lead to unfortunate consequences as it might raise unwanted
260 Tran, “‘Outsiders No More?’: The Discourse of Political Incorporation of Vietnamese Refugees in the United States (1975–2020).”
261 Wang, “Why the Defunct South Vietnam Flag Was Flown at the Capitol Riot.”
262 Wang.
176 speculations among her Vietnamese friends and, accordingly, Vietnamese authorities over her family’s affiliation with California-based Vietnamese terrorist organizations frequently reported in Vietnamese media for their anti-state activities. As a temporary migrant whose family might return to Vietnam in case her spouse lost his job, any signs of her family’s connections with the
“enemy” of the Vietnamese communist state might seize their economic and political opportunities and threaten their personal safety if they came back to Vietnam. Minh’s concern suggested that the temporariness that the U.S. visa regime imposed on Vietnamese highly skilled migrants and their spouses which created their in-betweenness contributed to the disintegration of these new migrants into preexisting Vietnamese American communities. Unlike “stateless”
Vietnamese refugees, Vietnamese highly skilled migrants and their families had to maintain social connections and social conformity to both the home and the host countries, which limited their opportunities for social integration in the U.S.
The Vietnamese Americans’ discourse of anti-communism is produced not only in the politicization of Vietnamese flags but also in the organization of numerous anti-communist protests and the enactment of various anti-communist laws in U.S. cities with large Vietnamese populations.263 Although the anti-communist fervor in Vietnamese-American communities did not pose direct threats to new Vietnamese migrants, my participants feared it might encourage political-based discrimination and harassment against recently arrived Vietnamese professionals.
My subjects, particularly the ones coming from Northern Vietnam, where the communist party ruled before the country’s reunification in 1975, often mentioned the microaggressions they encountered when interacting with Vietnamese refugees. Thi, who lived in a city with a small
263 Tran, “‘Outsiders No More?’: The Discourse of Political Incorporation of Vietnamese Refugees in the United States (1975–2020).”
177
Vietnamese-American population, recalled an incident when she was abruptly interrupted by a
Vietnamese man during her conversation with her daughter in a Vietnamese grocery store: “The man came up to me and rudely asked me if I was a communist, and how the Communist Party was doing in Vietnam. I think my northern Vietnamese accent reminded him of his old enemy.”
Although the man left without waiting for Thi’s answer, his hostility made Thi later avoid shopping in areas frequently visited by Vietnamese refugees. Thi’s story also reminded me of a time when the keeper of a bookstore in the most prominent “Little Saigon” in Orange County flatly refused to sell me a book after realizing from my Vietnamese accent that I am a Northern, and allegedly, communist-related Vietnamese. Microaggressions originating from Vietnamese
Americans’ anti-communist sentiment could be observed in not only stores and public spaces but also in religious sites where political activities were generally discouraged. Minh vividly described the discrimination she experienced at a Vietnamese Buddhist temple:
A friend of mine informed me that the pagoda-goers at a Vietnamese temple where he
practiced Buddhism would hold a sticky rice-cake (bánh Chưng) making activity to
celebrate the Vietnamese New Year and raise funds for the temple’s renovation. He
insisted that everyone was welcomed to participate in the activity and invited us to join
them. Since we had visited the temple many times, we decided to go to the temple on the
cake-making day. As soon as we arrived the temple, my kids were so excited to learn
how to make their favorite Vietnamese tradition food that they ran directly to the group
who were making cakes and happily chatting with each other. However, when I asked the
people there if we could join them, a middle-aged woman coldly told me that we should
wait until next year because they were almost done with the cake-making. As
disappointed as we were, we spent time sightseeing the temple and attended a monk’s 178
lecture. A couple of hours later, we noticed that people were still making the cakes! We
stopped by the cake-making area one more time, and another woman asked me which
city in Vietnam that I was from. When I told her that I was from Hanoi, she sarcastically
remarked that Hanoi is the headquarters of the Communist. I suddenly realized the reason
for their unwelcomeness. Our Northern Vietnamese accents had betrayed us!
As revealed in Minh’s story, Minh was unwelcomed by a Vietnamese American community because of her regional and presumed ideological differences from Vietnamese refugees who fled the South of Vietnam several decades ago. An Nguyen, in his dissertation, details the discrimination of some Vietnamese refugees against Vietnamese international students in Orange
County, arguing that “it is common for them [recent Vietnamese migrants] to be suspected of being ‘Hanoi spies,’ even if they disclose no political viewpoint.”264 The tensions between “the old-timers” and new Vietnamese migrants, according to An Nguyen, were also caused by the former’s “arrogance” and “ignorance” illustrated in their media-fed “wrongfully thought of new immigrants as lesser citizens who came from an oppressive and isolated third-world country with very little education and were victims of communist brainwashing.”265 The discourse of anti- communism utilized by Vietnamese American community leaders which “set[s] up rules of belonging and acceptable behaviors and ideologies” in Vietnamese American community, therefore, alienated both pro-communist professional migrants and those who may never claim to
264 Nguyen, “Luggage To America: Vietnamese Intellectual and Entrepreneurial Immigrants in the New Millenium,” 278.
265 Nguyen, 284.
179 be communist nor advocate for communism but were “frustrated by what they perceive as anti-
Vietnam propaganda broadcasted in the Vietnamese-language radio and TV stations.” 266
It should be noted that the disintegration of current Vietnamese professional migrants into preexisting Vietnamese-American communities observed in my California-based study might not represent the experiences of all Vietnamese skilled migrants in the U.S. as “depending on local sociopolitical contexts, Vietnamese ethnic enclaves across the United States might engage in the discourse of anti-communism with various forms and levels of intensity to create and bolster an exile identity.”267 However, the “anti-communist signature” of dominant Vietnamese American communities have “scared” many newcomers away from both fervently anti-communist communities and apolitical Vietnamese communities. An Nguyen, in his ethnographic research, observes the apoliticality of some Midwestern Christian communities whose members’ political involvement “may be constrained by their Christian code of conduct.” He, however, notes that despite the apoliticality of those Christian communities, concerns about potential ideological clash between Vietnamese refugees and new Vietnamese migrants prevented the latter from joining the former in religious practices.268
Besides the discourse of anti-communism, as Ha mentioned above, social class differences between many war-related Vietnamese Americans and recent Vietnamese skilled migrants contributes to the segregation between the two groups. According to a report by the
266 Tran, “‘Outsiders No More?’: The Discourse of Political Incorporation of Vietnamese Refugees in the United States (1975–2020),” 250.
267 Tran, 243.
268 Nguyen, “Luggage To America: Vietnamese Intellectual and Entrepreneurial Immigrants in the New Millenium,” 276.
180
Migration Policy Institute, although “Vietnamese overall have higher incomes,” they are “less likely to be proficient in English,” and have “much lower educational attainment” compared to the native- and overall foreign-born populations.269 Research also points out that most
Vietnamese refugees, even skilled and well-educated ones, experienced downward mobility, having to “hold jobs at lower levels in the occupational structure.”270 In contrast, recent
Vietnamese professionals and their spouses are well-educated with a generally high degree of
English proficiency. They moved to the U.S. for at least one family member to either participate in higher education or take nonmanual jobs. The differences in their educational achievements, occupations, and subsequently, social classes further discouraged accompanying women from integrating into preexisting Vietnamese American communities.
Simone Schüller suggests that immigrants, especially the newly arrived, may benefit from ethnic enclaves which, through the ethnic network in an enclave, provide immigrants with not only jobs “within the so-called ‘enclave economy,’” but also “valuable information on opportunities in the labor market, job contacts or job-search channels.”271 As ethnic business owners tend to prefer hiring co-ethnic workers, it was not too difficult for Vietnamese accompanying spouses living in close proximity to Vietnamese-American communities to find temporary, manual jobs in the “enclave economy.” However, my study reveals that discrepancy
269 Elijah Alperin and Jeanne Batalova, “Vietnamese Immigrants in the United States,” Migration Policy Institute, September 13, 2018, https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/vietnamese-immigrants-united-states-5#:~:text=In 2017%2C more than 1.3,born group in the country.
270 Bui and Morash, “Immigration, Masculinity, and Intimate Partner Violence from the Standpoint of Domestic Violence Service Providers and Vietnamese-Origin Women,” 201.
271 Simone Schüller, “Ethnic Enclaves and Immigrant Economic Integration,” IZA World of Labor, 2016, 2, https://doi.org/10.15185/izawol.287.
181 in educational attainments and English proficiency might become a source of conflict for
Vietnamese of different migratory genealogies. Thoa’s story illustrates this argument. Thoa graduated from a top Vietnamese university and worked for a Vietnam-based German logistics company before accompanying her spouse to Japan where the husband pursued a doctoral degree in Biotechnology. During her four years in Japan, Thoa stayed at home to take care of her young child. She was so fed up with the life of a homemaker that she decided to take a job as a nail technician right after her family’s move to California where her husband worked as a post- doctoral researcher at a university. Although Thoa was new to the job, her English proficiency enabled her to have pleasant conversations with her customers. Thoa soon became the most popular technician at the Vietnamese nail salon, which aroused considerable envy in her co- workers who could not communicate well in English. One time, when Thoa worked “under the table” because her work-permit was not renewed in time, she was reported by a Vietnamese co- worker. Luckily, Thoa was not caught by the local authority, but she lost her job after staying at home waiting for the new work permit. Despite the unpleasant experience in initial interactions with Vietnamese refugees and family-sponsored immigrants, Thoa continued to work for other
Vietnamese nail salons until her husband changed his visa status from J-1 (for exchange visitors which has a five-year limit) to H-1B (for specialty workers whose spouses are not allowed to work) to extend their stay in the U.S. Thoa’s frequent interactions with Vietnamese refugees helped clear up misunderstandings between the two sides. Thoa stated, “At first, because of their
[Vietnamese refugees’] old and outdated thoughts, they held a grudge against me. Gradually, I made them understand and change their attitude. Now I am acquainted with many Vietnamese refugee families in the neighborhood. Some are more open-minded, but some still have a deep hatred of the Communist because of their miserable post-war lives.” Through daily interactions,
182
Thoa was more aware of Vietnamese-refugee traumatic circumstances, and accordingly, developed genuine sympathy for struggling Vietnamese Americans. However, she insisted that she could not develop a sense of belonging to the local Vietnamese American community because of their differences. “The problem may lie within myself,” Thoa confided, “but I can’t find a group that I feel I belong to.… When interacting with Vietnamese Americans, I don’t have the same feeling as when I was interacting with Vietnamese people in Vietnam.”
Thoa found it difficult to integrate into preexisting Vietnamese American communities despite her frequent interactions with Vietnamese refugees. It is, thus, unsurprising that many new Vietnamese migrants who, due to their educational backgrounds and social class, were discouraged from working in temporary, manual labor jobs with their “old” co-ethnics disidentified from war-related Vietnamese Americans. Le, for instance, complained that she wanted to contribute to her family finances by working as a waitress in a Vietnamese restaurant, but her spouse did not want her to “waste” her education. Le was, therefore, pressured to spend time preparing for standardized tests so that she could apply for some post-graduate courses when the family finance allowed. Nhung was also persuaded to quit a job as an assistant cook in a Vietnamese restaurant after a few days because her husband thought it was not worth it for a former university lecturer to endure a bad-tempered, school-dropout chef for such a small wage.
Limited opportunities for meaningful interactions between Vietnamese professional migrants and
Vietnamese Americans caused by both their perceivably opposing political views and the difference in their educational attainments/ social class, then, made it challenging for members of the two groups to cross their boundaries to integrate with each other. Thus, Vietnamese
American community leaders’ emphasis on anticommunism hindered their community development as it prevented the newcomers from joining the community of the “old timers” in
183 the struggle for social equality in the U.S.272 Vietnamese professional migrants’ disidentification and segregation from Vietnamese Americans also denied them of the benefits that preexisting
Vietnamese American communities might offer such as sheltered environment, shared experiences, and improved employment prospects. Without a local community to connect to, however, many post-1995 Vietnamese skilled migrants were motivated to join both online and offline “imagined” Vietnamese communities which, as my study suggests, assisted their resettlement in the U.S.
The Emergence of Imagined Vietnamese Communities in the U.S.
The concept of the “imagined community” developed by Benedict Anderson refers to the idea that “belonging to a group that one cannot see or interact with directly is based on imagining the greater unit and coming to identify with it through various media such as newspapers and novels.”273 Research points out that for Vietnamese Americans, their diasporic identity and anticommunist politics have become the foundation for their imagined community. Christian
Collet and Hiroko Furuya, when discussing the significance of “Little Saigon”—the most prominent Vietnamese American community located in Orange County, California—argue that with its rich Vietnamese culture and fervent anticommunist politics, “Little Saigon has evolved beyond the physicality implied in the place concept and is better conceived of as an ‘imagined political community’: a label for a nation that is inventing new traditions and building a public
272 Tran, “‘Outsiders No More?’: The Discourse of Political Incorporation of Vietnamese Refugees in the United States (1975–2020),” 250.
273 Deborah Reed-danahay, “From the ‘Imagined Community’ to ‘Communities of Practice’: Immigrant Belonging Among Vietnamese Americans,” in Citizenship, Political Engagement, and Belonging: Immigrants in Europe and the United States, ed. Deborah Reed-danahay and Caroline Brettell (New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2008), 78.
184 culture to achieve recognition from the state.”274 For Vietnamese intellectual migrants who disidentified with anti-communist Vietnamese Americans, however, their Vietnamese language and culture became their main points of connection in the U.S.
According to An Nguyen, “demographically, there is no specific ethnic enclave of newer
Vietnamese professional immigrants”275 in the U.S. as their residence was decided by the locations of their jobs and their educational institutions. My study also suggests that except for small groups of international Vietnamese students living on university campuses, Vietnamese skilled migrants often dispersed throughout predominantly white, middle-class suburbs. Despite geographical distance, Vietnamese professionals usually connected to their peers of the same educational and political background through either their occasional gatherings or phone calls, emails, and social media. Thao, a Bay Area resident, told me that her family often met up with several Vietnamese couples who graduated from the same university in Singapore, then got jobs and settled down in Silicon Valley like Thao and her husband. Their common country of origin, shared histories, experiences, and memories of “the good old days” in Singapore created a strong bond between them. Thao’s close friendship with her old collegemates confirmed Nguyen’s argument that “the cultural connections via the educational foundation” proved to be important in the formation of small “imagined communities” among Vietnamese skilled migrants.276 Like
Thao, many of my informants formed a strong network with their either old or current
274 Christian Collet and Hiroko Furuya, “Enclave, Place, or Nation? Defining Little Saigon in the Midst of Incorporation, Transnationalism, and Long Distance Activism,” Amerasia Journal 36, no. 3 (2010): 2, https://doi.org/10.17953/amer.36.3.88753n313n76h58n.
275 Nguyen, “Luggage To America: Vietnamese Intellectual and Entrepreneurial Immigrants in the New Millenium,” 291.
276 Nguyen, 292.
185 schoolmates in the U.S. Binh, who accompanied her spouse to the U.S. after completing a doctoral program in Italy, described how her old college classmates provided her with a valuable source of social and emotional support at the beginning of her sojourn in the U.S.:
When my husband and I were studying in Italy, we were closely connected to a small
group of international students in our PhD program. The group hang out quite often, so I
did not feel lonely there. After we moved to the U.S., I have met more Vietnamese people
at my husband’s university [where he worked as a postdoctoral researcher], but everyone
is busy, so we rarely get together. In addition, as most of the Vietnamese graduate
students and postdocs we meet here are male, it is difficult for me to talk to them.
Therefore, I usually feel isolated here. Luckily, besides my husband, I have some close
Vietnamese friends who I frequently chat with. They are my old college classmates who
also live in the U.S. now. Though they live in other states, my conversations with them
reduce my stress and the feeling of loneliness.
As confided in our interview, Binh refrained from complaining to her friends and family in
Vietnam because words could neither fully convey her feelings nor clearly describe her circumstance in the U.S. and accordingly, could hardly help her gain genuine sympathy from
Vietnamese people who believe in a “wonderful American life.” Binh, therefore, felt fortunate to have some long-standing friends who underwent similar experiences of temporary migrants, and thus, could understand the challenges that she encountered in the host country.
For accompanying spouses who were not as lucky as Thao and Binh, lack of social connections and emotional supports from existing relationships urged them to establish new contacts with Vietnamese migrants who shared the same migratory genealogy with them. Le, for instance, joined a group of post-1995 Vietnamese professional migrants in Silicon Valley after
186 moving from Florida to San Jose where her spouse got a job in a tech company. According to Le, the group consisted of about four hundred families of Vietnamese intellectual migrants working and living across the Bay Area. The group members usually communicated through an email list.
They ask for information and advice, and seek to find people with the same interest, hobbies, or within the same neighborhood to form smaller groups with real-life interactions. Le and Thao, for example, became real-life friends after a few times sharing online orders for Vietnamese groceries via the group email. Besides creating opportunities for interpersonal relationships and small group interactions, the group also organized annual Lunar New Year celebrations with various traditional Vietnamese activities such as sticky-rice-cake making, Vietnamese music and dance performances, and Vietnamese traditional folk games to promote Vietnamese cultural identity and tradition in the U.S. This hybrid virtual community (a term referring to “groups that overlap their offline and online communication”277) allowed dispersed Vietnamese skilled migrants and their families to create a shared sense of connectedness, to define their
“Vietnamese intellectual” identity, and most importantly, to help each other to integrate into
American society through socio-economic integration.
In cities where such a large hybrid virtual community of local Vietnamese professional migrants had not existed, Vietnamese accompanying women and their spouses usually joined virtual Vietnamese communities on social networks. Some Facebook groups that most of my informants became members of were managed by Vietnamese intellectuals who aimed at creating supportive online communities for Vietnamese people in the U.S. It was notable that
277 Celene Navarrete and Dominguez Hills, “Building Virtual Bridges to Home : The Use of the Internet by Transnational Communities of Immigrants,” International Journal of Communications Law & Policy, no. Virtual Communities (2006): 1. 187 although virtually all topics could be discussed in those groups’ forums such as cultural shocks, racial microaggressions, children’s education and financial management, political debates were generally discouraged. The reason might lie in the groups’ admins’ awareness of the political diversity among people of Vietnamese descents in the U.S. To avoid alienating people with certain political stances and to minimize potential conflicts among group members, the admins of those groups often explained that the discussions violated the group’s rules and turned off the comment feature of the posts when common topics led to political dissensions. The focus on social integration rather than on politics somehow helped transcend the ideological barrier among Vietnamese people of different migratory genealogies in the U.S. Although those
Facebook groups mostly attracted first and 1.5 generation of Vietnamese/ Vietnamese
Americans, their members, according to my interviewees, came from all walks of life. The welcoming environment that those Facebook groups created, together with their rich content, made them popular among accompanying spouses of Vietnamese professional migrants. Most of my research participants, when asked if they joined any Facebook groups for Vietnamese in the
U.S., disclosed their membership with some Facebook groups which, according to the women, provided them with valuable information about living in the host country. Some women also recalled their active participation in charitable activities organized by those groups’ admins and members, such as a book drive and a fundraising campaign to help poor children and families in
Vietnam. Virtual communities created by Vietnamese professional migrants on social networks such as the aforementioned Facebook groups not only helped my informants cope with their adaptation issues but also offered them a loose sense of unity, and accordingly, “psychological 188 and social empowerment.”278 Lan, who suffered from serious stress and the feeling of isolation at the time of our interview later sent me a short “Thank you” message because I recommended to her some Facebook groups popular among intellectual migrants and their accompanying spouses.
Thanks to her membership in those Facebook groups, Lan uncovered, she got to know more about American culture which she could not have exposure to owing to her “imprisonment” in her apartment during her stay in the U.S. Lan also learnt from the experiences of other group members how to find business partners to maximize profits from her online store selling
“American products” in Vietnam. The benefits that Vietnamese “imagined communities” provided my respondents with confirms segmented assimilation theory which argues that immigrants may also choose to retain their cultural customs and practices while still being able to achieve rapid economic advancement.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this chapter, which deals with the question of belonging among
Vietnamese accompanying spouses, reveals the negative effects of U.S. class-, gender-, and race- biased laws, regulations, and practices on the integration process of temporary Vietnamese skilled migrants’ families. It is clear from my study that the financial and social precarity resulted from the exploitation of temporary Vietnamese skilled workers and the housewifization of their accompanying spouses together with the in-betweenness resulted from Vietnamese highly skilled migrants’ temporariness either discouraged or barred families of the “wanted but not welcome” migrants from integrating into the host country. In addition, while the lack of necessary supports from local American communities as well as ideological and class differences
278 Ahmed Al-Rawi, “Facebook and Virtual Nationhood: Social Media and the Arab Canadians Community,” AI and Society 34, no. 3 (2019): 562, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-017-0742-3. 189 between post-1995 Vietnamese professional migrants and post-1975 Vietnamese refugees prevented the newcomers from developing a strong sense of belonging to preexisting communities in the U.S., “imagined communities” fostered by Vietnamese language and culture among Vietnamese professional migrants helped them deal with “the alienation from mainstream
American society and their disidentification with Vietnamese American communities.”279 In the next chapter, I will further discuss the benefits Vietnamese “imagined communities” offered to families of highly skilled migrants when uncovering the accompanying women’s empowerment process.
279 Nguyen, “Luggage To America: Vietnamese Intellectual and Entrepreneurial Immigrants in the New Millenium,” 294. 190
CHAPTER VI. NAVIGATING GLOBALIZATION: VIETNAMESE ACCOMPANYING
WOMEN’S STRUGGLES AGAINST SUBORDINATION IN THE U.S.
“My effort has paid off. I have got a dream job in Silicon Valley.”
- Binh, 33, PhD, Data scientist, Former teacher in Vietnam -
Binh happily sent me this news through a text message more than a year after she moved from our city to the Bay Area where her spouse had gotten a permanent job in a national laboratory. Binh’s success in turning from a housewife with a doctoral degree in Theoretical
Physics to a data scientist with a six-figure salary and excellent benefits in a big tech company exemplifies Vietnamese accompanying women’s strenuous efforts to escape the trap of their dependent visa. In fact, Binh was not my only informant who was able to regain their financial and social independence after a few years in the U.S. About a fourth of my research participants landed white-collar jobs three years after our interviews while some others tried different ways to increase their family incomes.
The struggle of highly skilled women to counteract the disempowering effects of globalization and transnational migration remains largely overlooked in existing literature on gender and migration which focuses on the experiences of either economically disadvantaged women of color doing unskilled and care work in global cities or highly-skilled women holding nursing positions in developed countries.280 The first part of this chapter fills in this research gap by elucidating Vietnamese accompanying women’s struggles against subordination in the U.S. In
280 Anjali Fleury, “Understanding Women and Migration: A Literature Review,” Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD) Working Paper Series, 2016, http://www.knomad.org/docs/gender/KNOMAD Working Paper 8 final_Formatted.pdf.
191 the second part of the chapter, I conclude the study with a summary of the key research findings and a brief discussion of the significance of my research to various fields of critical studies.
Vietnamese Accompanying Women’s Struggles against Subordination in the U.S.
According to Tseun Kweun Yu, because women of the Global South are often rendered as “weak, voiceless and faceless subjects, homogeneous and indistinguishable,”281 their active struggle against subordination often goes unrecognized. Therefore, although many scholars mention both the disempowering and empowering effects of globalization and transnational migration, they usually focus on the former, neglecting women’s “individual agency and their ability as social agents to negotiate and transform the structure.”282 My study avoids this problem by adopting “an actor-centered and multilevel approach” which takes into account the
“interconnectedness of global, national, local, and individual considerations,”283 to uncover the empowerment process of Vietnamese accompanying women during their sojourns in the U.S.
Definitions of Power and Empowerment
Power and empowerment are usually conceived as a “form of force or coercion,” and
“the ability to exert power over institutions, resources, and people,” respectively.284 However,
Foucault rejects the notion that power is something held by only dominant groups or individuals.
281 Aihwa Ong, “Colonialism and Modernity: Feminist Re-Presentations of Women in Non- Western Societies,” Inscriptions 3, no. 4 (1988): 79–93; quoted in Tseun Kweun Yu, “An Empowerment Approach to Female Migration: A Case Study of China’s Manufacturing Industry,” vol. 07, 2007.
282 Yu, “An Empowerment Approach to Female Migration: A Case Study of China’s Manufacturing Industry,” 13.
283 Yu, 4.
284 Yu, 11. 192
He argues that power exists in the everyday relationships of people both individually and in institutions. It is “fluid, relational, and connected to control over discourses/knowledge.”285
Foucault insists that, “where there is power, there is resistance and yet, or rather consequently, this resistance is never in a position of exteriority in relation to power.” Feminist scholars also understand empowerment as not only the possession of power, but also the exercise of power. In addition, although empowerment commonly refers to people’s struggles to challenge or subvert power relationships, Jo Rowlands reckons that, “empowerment is more than participation in decision-making; it must also include the processes that lead people to perceive themselves as able and entitled to make decisions.”286 Therefore, in this section, I examine empowerment not only as an outcome but also as a process which, in its core, “consists of increases in self- confidence and self-esteem, a sense of agency and of ‘self’ in a wider context, and a sense of dignidad (being worthy of having a right to respect from others).”287 In my analysis of empowerment, I also take into consideration Rowlands’ emphasis on the importance of
“individual consciousness/understanding (power within)” and their “collective action (power with)” in the organization and exertion of power to challenge gender/racial/class hierarchies and improve women’s lives.288
285 Jane Parpart, Shirin Rai, and Kathleen Staudt, “Rethinking Em(Power)Ment: Gender and Development: An Introduction,” in Rethinking Empowerment: Gender and Development in a Global/Local World, ed. Jane Parpart, Shirin Rai, and Kathleen Staudt, 1st ed. (London: Routledge, 2002), 7.
286 Parpart, Rai, and Staudt, 11.
287 Parpart, Rai, and Staudt, 11.
288 Parpart, Rai, and Staudt, 8.
193
The (Dis)empowering Effects of Globalization
As explicated in chapters 2 and 3, the participation by Vietnam and the U.S. in the global race for talent since the second half of the 20th century manifested in the former’s prioritization of industrialization and modernization in their post-Đổi Mới development strategies and the latter’s gendered labor demand after the technology industry boom of the 1990s have resulted in the masculinization of the post-1990 skilled migration from Vietnam to the U.S. While highly skilled Vietnamese temporary migrants whose knowledge and labor in world-famous educational institutions, multinational corporations and global tech giants marked them as principal actors in globalization processes suffered from racial exploitation because of their immigration status, their accompanying spouses also experienced various disempowering effects of globalization. It is evident from my research that because of various factors such as contemporary Vietnamese gender ideologies which underscored the significance of women’s financial and social independence as well as the U.S. gender-, class-, and racially-biased immigration laws, regulations and practices which relegated many nonimmigrant spousal visa holders to the domestic sphere, many Vietnamese accompanying women were vulnerable to identity crisis, pressure for gender role conformity, and social alienation in the “country of freedom and opportunities.”
Despite the negative impacts of globalization, as documented in chapter 4, well-educated
Vietnamese accompanying women made strenuous efforts to negotiate changing gender roles, familial and gender expectations to maintain a healthy marriage in the U.S. The women’s active search for a community of belonging and their attempts to work with other Vietnamese migrants/immigrants to build supportive “imagined communities” discussed in chapter 5 also showed their resistance to the disempowering aspects of globalization.
194
However, in previous chapters, Vietnamese accompanying women’s struggles to regain their lost professional identity and financial independence remains underdiscussed. As female employment and empowerment are often interlocked, this section concentrates on Vietnamese accompanying women’s resistance to their housewifization reflected in their enormous efforts to obtain employment and generate income in the host country.
Regaining their Lost Confidence and Social Independence: Vietnamese Accompanying
Women and their Journeys to Obtain White-collar Jobs
As clarified in Chapter 5, many of my research participants were discouraged from taking manual labor jobs owing to the high level of social capital they possessed in their home country.
Ha, after becoming a U.S. permanent resident, for example, wanted to apply for cashier jobs because her exhaustive search for financial management-related positions which she was trained and had experience in prior to her transnational migration produced no positive results. However,
Tuan – Ha’s spouse did not agree. He, instead, encouraged Ha to take both online and in-person professional certificate programs to reskill for in-demand jobs in the U.S. Ha, therefore, studied hard to earn two data-science-related certifications. She also worked as volunteers for a couple of non-profit organizations to boost her resume. At the time of our interview, Ha’s effort had not paid off. I remembered my heartfelt sympathy for Ha was invoked when she grieved her lost professional identity at the end of our interview. Ha sobbed:
It may be different in other societies, but in Vietnam, people always believe that
education and employment are important for both men and women as they are both
expected to contribute to the family finance. I haven’t made any financial contribution
since I migrated to the U.S., which makes me think my life has been backsliding.
Especially after my recent visit to Vietnam, I feel I am lagging behind all my Vietnamese
195
friends. … When I was in Vietnam, I evaluated NGO’s [non-governmental
organizations’] projects and worked as a financial advisor for a few NGOs. It’s difficult
to find similar jobs here. … I am very sad about my career prospect.
Ha was desperate when her applications for hundreds of jobs were rejected. However, she did not stop trying. Nearly two years after our interview, Ha’s husband happily informed the couple’s family and friends on Facebook that she got a job as a data analyst for a mid-size company in the city where her spouse was pursuing his doctoral program. Ha’s bright smile and cheerful conversations in her new job party among our Vietnamese friends indicated her self- confidence which seemed to have been lost during her first seven years in the U.S. In this case,
Ha’s empowerment process was illustrated in her struggle to “perceive herself as able” and to regain her self-esteem after numerous failures with job applications.
Like Ha, some of my other informants had to retrain or reskill to obtain employment in the host country. Hao, for instance, got a bachelor’s degree in Irrigation planning and management in Vietnam. Foreseeing limited job opportunities in this field, Hao spent four and a half years studying at a local community college and then a state university to obtain another bachelor’s degree in Accounting. She recalled the difficult time when she juggled school and parenting responsibilities:
I started college when my daughter was two years old. Then I gave birth to my son two
years later. Almost every day during my college time, I woke up early, prepared for the
family’s meals, sent the kids to childcare, then hurried to school. After school, I rushed
home, picked up the kids, did the housework, put the kids to bed, did my homework, then
woke up again a couple of times during the night to feed my son. My husband helped me
196
but there was just too much work. I usually shiver whenever remembering about that
time.
Despite the many times that Hao either completed her assignments with a child on her lap or took exams after sleepless nights because of her children’s sickness, Hao graduated with excellence. She got her first job as a manager assistant for a Vietnamese small business, then a seasonal tax preparer, and three years after our interview, she had secured a senior position in a big company. During our recent conversation when I congratulated her family on their new house purchase, Hao modestly attributed her family’s financial success to “luck”. I was, nevertheless, certain that Hao’s empowerment illustrated in her substantial contribution to her family’s finance came from her “power-within” which means her hard work and strong determination to escape the domestic sphere after her first there years suffering from identity crisis and the feeling of isolation in the U.S.
In the case of Binh, however, strong determination and hard work were not enough as
Binh’s professional achievements also resulted from her courage to fight against racial and gender discrimination. Binh and her husband, Bach, obtained their doctoral degrees in the same field from European universities. As Bach always wanted to try his luck in the U.S., he applied and got a job offer for a postdoctoral researcher position at a university in California. Binh supported her husband’s “American dream”, so she rejected a few postdoctoral offers in Europe and accompanied her spouse to the U.S. after her graduation. With J-2 visa, Binh was allowed to work, but she believed that it would be difficult for her family if both spouses worked in the academia. Anticipating that her expertise in theoretical physics might not be desirable in U.S. job market, Binh started her self-training in data science, an in-demand job field just two weeks after her arrival in the U.S. Binh stated:
197
At first, I was very naïve when thinking that though my expertise is not directly related to
data science, my research skills could significantly ease my transition to the new field. …
Then I soon realized that getting a job in data science was extremely challenging for me
because there were big holes in my knowledge of the field. … I was overwhelmed with
the massive amount of information and did not know where to start. Initially, I just
googled and tried to read seemingly important things on the Internet. … Then I looked at
data scientist job descriptions, listed all the key requirements for the job, and developed a
plan to update my knowledge and skills for my resume. In those dark months struggling
in the vast ocean of knowledge, I also faced serious emotional difficulty as I was unhappy
with my financial dependence on my husband and the intense pressure to have a baby
from my in-law family. I had to spend a lot of time learning to control my negative
emotions and thoughts before I could focus on my study. … Until now my chest still
feels heavy with my unfulfilled duty to produce a heir for my husband’s family.
Binh’s statement vividly describes her arduous journey to enter the American workforce.
According to Jennifer Rubin et al., migrant women usually experience “double disadvantage” in the labor market because they had to face “a double battle; first to migrate and integrate as foreign-born people in their host country, and then to overcome the gender bias in the labour market as well as in other areas of social, political and economic life as a migrant woman.”289
For accompanying spouses like Binh, to participate in the labor force in the host country, they ought to overcome multiple difficulties such as their foreignness, the devaluation of their foreign qualifications, the need to retrain or reskill, the lack of social support, the burden of gender roles,
289 Jennifer Rubin et al., “Migrant Women in the European Labour Force: Current Situation and Future Prospects” (Cambridge, 2008), 44.
198 and their negative feelings caused by their post-migration financial and social dependence.
Besides, during our interview, Binh uncovered the racial exploitation and gender bias that migrants from the Global South usually faced in their workforce participation. As Binh explained, she got her first job opportunity when Binh’s spouse’s boss – a university professor – accidentally discovered on a conference trip with her spouse that Binh was self-training in the field that the professor was looking for in employees to be hired for his new project. However, the professor just offered Binh a non-paid volunteer position as he was not sure if Binh could meet his requirements for the full-time jobs. Binh took the opportunity believing that joining a group and working on a real project would speed up her learning and acquisition of new skills.
Though it was just a volunteer position, Binh worked even harder than full-time employees.
Three months later, when Binh was certain that her work yielded desirable results for the research project, she asked the professor if she could get a promotion from the volunteer position. The professor granted her a part-time research associate title with a wage equal to forty percent of a full-time postdoctoral researcher. Binh continued to work for four more months before realizing that her monthly pay was much lower than the salary of another coworker who worked in the same project as her but whose work efficiency, in Binh’s opinion, was much lower than hers. Believing in the value of her work, Binh actively approached the professor again to negotiate her salary and job title. Binh explained:
The professor did not show any intention to raise my salary even though he was well
aware that my impressive research findings resulted from my hard work. At that time, I
was determined to find jobs in the industry, so I think it would be my failure if I could not
make my employers realize my value and pay me based on the quality of my
performance. Therefore, I made an appointment to discuss the possibility for a pay raise
199
with my boss. The professor did not object to my raise request, but he proposed to keep
my part-time research associate title and send the pay difference to my husband’s account
as if it was Bach’s salary raise instead of mine. He explained that the practice would
reduce administrative work for him, but I disagreed. I wanted my efforts to be
recognized. In addition, a full-time researcher title would help me find jobs in the U.S.
more easily. The professor seemed to be shocked at my assertive response, but he
eventually complied with my request.
Christine Ro argues that, in Western countries, the “docility myth” about Asian women often make them vulnerable to racial and gender discrimination at work.290 In Binh’s case, the professor took advantage of her free labor and then underpaid her for almost half a year possibly because he supposed that Binh, as a “subservient” Asian woman with a “dependent” visa would not want to upset her spouse’s boss who had the right to terminate their immigration status at any time by requesting for a full-time position with equal pay to other employees. However, contrary to the image of submissive Asian women, Binh was confident and willing to fight for what she believed in. Binh’s capability to produce “knowledge” through her research activities gave her the power to challenge her boss on her unreasonable pay. However, it was clear from Binh’s story that without her push, the professor would not have given her what she deserved.
Stories of my informants such as Ha, Hao, and Binh illustrated Vietnamese women’s agency during their journeys to regain their financial and social independence in the host country. They support Foucault’s argument that power is fluid, and even the most subordinated
290 Christine Ro, “The Docility Myth Flattening Asian Women’s Careers,” BBC, August 2020, https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200807-the-docility-myth-flattening-asian-womens- careers.
200 could manage to mobilize resources to change their social location and influence the more powerful. My respondents’ personal recounts also debunked the myth that there are many Asian immigrants pursuing careers in STEM in Western countries because Asian people are good at math and science. In fact, interviews with Binh and my other respondents, especially Mai, who changed her career from an English teacher to a technician in biotechnology after her migration to the U.S., revealed that many Asian immigrants chose to work in STEM because of the limited number of paths available for them to secure skilled jobs in the host country. Moreover, even for people with high levels of education like Binh, transitioning into and attaining achievements in a different career field was extremely difficult as it required both persistence and courage to challenge negative gender and racial stereotypes.
Parpart et al. note that the relation between power and resistance is complex: “People are empowered and changed through resisting disciplinary power relations, but this very action/agency may also strengthen their incorporation into the status quo.”291 Analysis of empowerment, Parpart et al. insist, should, therefore, take into consideration the impact of larger political and economic structures on people’s agency. Parpart’s suggestion buttresses my argument that Vietnamese accompanying women’s empowerment processes were not only illustrated in their professional achievements as discussed in the cases of Ha, Hao, and Binh, but could also be seen in the cases of accompanying women who remained trapped in the domestic sphere because of various cultural and social structural barriers but were still able to use their time, language proficiency, knowledge of financial management and understanding of the host
291 Parpart, Rai, and Staudt, “Rethinking Em(Power)Ment: Gender and Development: An Introduction,” 6.
201 country’s culture and society to center themselves in family-decision-making processes, and thus, challenge traditional patriarchy family authority.
In addition, Patricia Hill Collins points out that, “change can also occur in the private, personal space of an individual woman’s consciousness. Equally fundamental, this type of change is also empowering.”292 Therefore, though I do not detail the agency of Vietnamese women who either were still struggling in the domestic sphere or have learnt to be content with their new role as housewives, I understand that gradual changes in the women’s view of the world and of themselves were also indicative of their empowerment. In fact, my informants showed their “power-within” when they tried to overcome uncomfortable feelings such as stress, anxiety, and depression to either enjoy their new roles as housewives or find different ways to alter their undesirable normality in the host country. Especially, their ability to work with other
Vietnamese (professional) immigrants to build “imagined communities” which helped them deal with adaptation issues, the alienation from mainstream American society and their disidentification with Vietnamese American communities also exemplified their “power with”.
It should also be noted that among my twenty informants, about half of them, at some point during their stay in the U.S., generated income by engaging in transnational activities such as buying goods in the U.S. then selling them in Vietnam. The profit from online businesses, in many cases, could not help my informants’ families solve their financial problems in the host country. Nevertheless, it enhanced my respondents’ self-esteem as the women were able to make some contribution to the family finance, and accordingly, alleviate the financial burden on their spouses. Nhung, for instance, happily informed me in our interview that the money she earned
292 Patricia Collins, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (Unwin Hyman, 1990), 111.
202 from her cooperation with a friend to buy “American” products and sell them in Vietnam could help her pay for the sports programs that her sons enjoyed. The sense of agency that my informants attained through their engagement in transnational activities manifested an empowering effect of globalization. In the next section, I clarify how Vietnamese accompanying women used the tools of globalization to mitigate globalization’s disempowering effects.
“Globalization from Below”: Vietnamese Accompanying Women and their Engagement in
Globalization Processes
The concept of “globalization from below” originates from Douglass Kellner’s theorization of globalization. According to Kellner, “globalization involves both capitalist markets and sets of social relations and flows of commodities, capital, technology, ideas, forms of culture, and people across national boundaries via a global networked society.” It is a product of technological revolution as the Internet and global computer networks produce a technological infrastructure for the global economy, and accordingly, make possible globalization.293 Kellner contends that globalization “increases supremacy of big corporations and big government,” but it can also empower “groups and individuals who were previously left out of the democratic dialogue and terrain of political struggle.”294 Therefore, globalization is not only imposed from above by capitalist corporate structures and capitalist states, but also contested and reconfigured from below by individuals and groups negatively affected by globalization. While “globalization from above” refers to “corporate capitalism and the capitalist state,” “globalization from below”
293 Kellner, “Theorizing Globalization,” 287.
294 Kellner, 293.
203 denotes “the ways in which marginalized individuals and social movements resist globalization and/or use its institutions and instruments to further democratization and social justice.”295
Existing research on “globalization from below” examines various issues such as the formation and operation of the global informal/ illegal/(il)licit economy296 and transnational grassroot organizations.297 This section further illustrates the concept of “globalization from below” through the explication of Vietnamese accompanying women’s transnational activities which enabled them to generate income that many of them were prohibited to earn in the U.S.
As mentioned above, nearly half of my informants uncovered that they participated in the informal international trade between the U.S. and Vietnam by buying “American products,”298 transporting those goods back to Vietnam, and selling the goods either online or offline to
Vietnamese customers. The emergence of online businesses operated trans-pacifically by
Vietnamese women in the U.S. resulted from the rapidly growing middle-class in Vietnam, the anti-made-in-China trend among Vietnamese customers, Vietnamese customers’ long- established trust in transnational petty trade, and the boom of e-commerce in Vietnam during the last two decades.
295 Kellner, 293.
296 Gordon Mathews, Gustavo Lins Ribeir, and Carlos Alba Vega, Globalization from Below: The World’s Other Economy, 1st ed. (Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2012).
297 Donatella della Porta Della Porta et al., Globalization From Below: Transnational Activists And Protest Networks (Minneapolis: University Of Minnesota Press, 2006).
298 American products, in this case, did not refer to products that were made in the U.S., but they were products sold in the U.S. domestic retail market which were expected by Vietnamese consumers to be of high quality thanks to the U.S. strict quality control system.
204
According to Peter Vanham, Vietnam’s economic and political reforms since the late
1980s have enabled the country to become an “economic miracle”-“one of the stars of the emerging markets universe.”299 The country’s economic growth led to a rapid expansion of a middle-income consumer class which increased from 12 million in 2012 to about 33 million
(around one third of the country’s population) in 2020. Huong Le Thu argues that the young profile of society (with nearly 60% of the population are under 30 years old) makes Vietnam an important market for the consumption of global trends. The country, for instance, has become
“the fastest growing market for Apple products.” 300
Lan, who started a small online business prior to her transnational migration also reckoned that increased household income and improved quality of life led to a substantial rise in demands for high quality, branded goods among Vietnamese people, particularly young adults and the middle-aged. “Customers with high-income start to avoid China-made products because of their low quality. They now prefer branded goods from developed countries where products’ quality is strictly controlled,” Lan described a trend among the middle-class Vietnamese who started to find alternatives to “low-quality China-made products,” and thus, provided her with a good opportunity to run an online business selling goods purchased in the U.S. Reports point out that China has long been the leading exporting country of consumer-oriented products to
Vietnam.301 However, according to Ralph Jennings, “generally amongst Vietnamese, China-
299 Vanham, “The Story of Viet Nam’s Economic Miracle.”
300 Huong Le Thu, “Vietnam’s Urban Middle Class: Rapidly Growing, Slowly Awakening,” Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia, 2016, https://kyotoreview.org/yav/vietnams-urban-middle- class-rapidly-growing-slowly-awakening/.
301 Statista, “Import Value of Consumer Goods in Vietnam 2019, by Trade Partner Published by Statista Research Department, Dec 9, 2020 In 2019, China Was the Leading Exporting Country of Consumer-Oriented Products to Vietnam with an Import Value of 3.83 Billion U.S. Dol,” 205 made products are perceived to be of low quality.” Ralph Jennings insists that “some of this is fact, but some of this is also driven by social media posts and ensuing perceptions.” 302
Nevertheless, Vietnamese customers’ suspect of the quality of China-made merchandise usually discourages their purchases of low-cost China-made products when they can afford imported- goods from other countries. Especially, when Vietnamese businesses urged their customers to
“prioritize homemade, fairly priced and safe products” amid rising anti-China sentiment in
Vietnam since the 2010s, Trung Nguyen argues, they implicitly called for a boycott of “low quality and unsafe Chinese products,” which widens the door for both made-in-Vietnam goods and imported goods from foreign countries other than China.
In addition, the long-lasting practice of overseas Vietnamese transporting foreign goods back to Vietnam for their families and relatives has created trust among Vietnamese people in transnational petty trade. As pointed out by An Nguyen, it was common for Vietnamese intellectuals in Eastern Europe during the 1980s and the 1990s to commit petty-smuggling (i.e. smuggled merchandise, often T-shirts, denim clothes or “fake products from Thailand” into the host countries and sold them in black markets) to improve their family finance.303 Part of the money earned “illegally” by the intellectuals were then used to buy goods such as fabric and household appliances to send back to Vietnam for their needy families and relatives. Similarly,
2020, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1116912/vietnam-major-trade-partners-of-consumer- goods/.
302 Ralph Jennings, “Vietnamese Consumers Resist China as Officials Try to Get Along,” VOA, August 25, 2017, https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/vietnamese-consumers-resist- china-officials-try-get-along.
303 Nguyen, “Luggage To America: Vietnamese Intellectual and Entrepreneurial Immigrants in the New Millenium,” 126.
206
Vietnamese refugees in America, soon after their resettlement in the U.S., set up businesses to transport basic commodities to their relatives and families who were suffering from post-war poverty in Vietnam.304 The appreciation of goods transported from overseas to Vietnam when the country’s economy was on the verge of collapse created a good impression on Vietnamese people about the quality of products either made or used in developed countries, and accordingly developed their trust in transnational petty trade. Especially, frequent news coverage on
Vietnamese companies selling counterfeit consumer goods in the country’s national media outlets encouraged many middle-class Vietnamese to opt for “authentic” imported products offered by trusted individual sellers rather than by big businesses.
The boom of e-commerce in Vietnam further reinforced this consumer trend. According to Retail News Asia, with “young population, high Internet penetration rate and rising smartphone penetration rates,” Vietnam is considered “a land of opportunity” for domestic and foreign e-commerce companies. By 2021, there were approximately 42 million e-commerce users representing 58% of the total population.305 The popularity of e-commerce among middle- class Vietnamese created excellent conditions for the flourish of small online businesses selling
“American goods” in Vietnam which provided many Vietnamese accompanying women with opportunities to generate income in the U.S. Lan, for instance, ran her online business on social network platforms either with her internet-connected smartphone or iPad. She explained:
304 Karin Aguilar-San Juan, Little Saigons: Staying Vietnamese in America (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009).
305 “E-Commerce Boom in Vietnam: The Rising Tiger,” Retail News Asia, June 6, 2019, https://www.retailnews.asia/e-commerce-boom-in-vietnam-the-rising-tiger/.
207
I usually buy goods on sales both online and at local stores such as Marshall, Nordstrom
Rack, and Costco; then I advertise them on my social network accounts, most importantly
on Facebook. The lower prices I could buy the goods at, the more easily I could sell
them, and the higher profit I could earn. Sometimes, when my Vietnamese customers
want to buy specific products, they ask me. I will order and send the products back to
Vietnam for some fee. All the goods I sell are transported by VietAir Cargo [a
Vietnamese American logistics company located in San Jose, California] to my house in
Vietnam, then my family help me ship to my customers.
Lan statement summed up the “informal” transnational flow of goods from the U.S. to Vietnam which was enabled not by trading activities of big corporations and businesses typically involving way-earning employment but by individuals involving in transnational petty trade who got profit from the time and labor they spent on the trading activity [những người buôn bán nhỏ lẻ, lấy công làm lãi]. The products sold in Lan’s online store were diverse including over-the- counter medications and formula milk for children; clothing, shoes, watches, sunglasses, and cosmetics for adults; and dietary supplements for seniors. Her customers, Lan uncovered, were mostly people over thirty years old whose above-average income helped them afford higher- priced products with “guaranteed” quality sent from the U.S.
While some of my informants took charge of the whole buying and selling process in their online businesses like Lan, some others were responsible for just one part of the process.
Nhung, for example, coordinated with a friend in Vietnam in her transnational trading activity.
While Nhung searched for discounted goods both on U.S. websites and at stores, her friend in
Vietnam approached potential customers and advertised for the goods in Vietnam. Unlike Nhung
208 and Lan, there were also people acting as packagers like Hanh whose involvement was described as follows:
During the time I lived in Oregon, some of my friends living across the U.S. asked me to
help with their online businesses by letting them use my home address for their online
purchases. You know, Oregon residents do not have to pay for state sales tax. I was, thus,
able to make some money by receiving the goods sent to my address, pack them up, and
send them back to Vietnam for my friends.
As indicated in Hanh’s statement, she was in charge of neither the buying nor selling parts of the trading process. Instead, she acted as an intermediary helping some Vietnamese online sellers to lower their goods’ purchase prices for higher profits. The income Hanh generated from her participation in transnational trading activities was, unsurprisingly, much lower than the income of Lan, an “online-store” owner who could earn up to three thousand of dollars a month.
Nevertheless, Hanh could avoid dealing with complications in online business. As she could not work legally in the U.S., she was happy with her small income which helped her buy personal care products, clothes, or books without creating further financial burden on her husband.
Interviews with my research participants also point out that the creation of “imagined communities” among Vietnamese intellectuals/ immigrants in the U.S. proved to be beneficial for my respondents’ transnational trading activities as members usually shared with each other tips about where and how to buy products with great discounts and which freight companies had good offers. In addition, according to Lan, since Vietnamese government set limits for transferring money abroad, it was usually difficult for “unregistered” online sellers to transfer the money that they earned from selling goods in Vietnam to the U.S. for another round of goods purchase. Virtual Vietnamese communities then helped the online sellers to find people to
209 exchange money with. Lan, for instance, often exchanged money with people who wanted to send remittances to their families in Vietnam that she found contacts through Vietnamese
Facebook groups. Vietnamese “imagined” communities, in this case, made the informal transnational flow of capital possible.
It was, however, notable that running online businesses selling “American” products in
Vietnam was not easy. In our interviews, my informants discussed a few disadvantages of the job. First, it was time consuming because the sellers had to spend a great amount of time searching for the best discounted products either online or at store to compete with an increasing number of competitors. Lan, for instance, complained about many times when her potential customers selected other providers after Lan had spent hours searching for the sites/ places where she could buy the wanted products for the customers with the lowest possible price. Second, the job was tiring as it required immediate interactions with customers living in a fifteen-hour difference time zone. Lan, Le, and Loan mentioned their frequent exhaustion resulting from both their night-time conversations with their Vietnamese customers and their full-time care for their young kids during the daytime. Third, in undesirable situations such as the shipping process took longer than usual or the products might not look as good as the customers expected, the buyers might cancel or return their purchases. The sellers, owing to the difficulty in transporting the goods back to the U.S. to return to U.S. stores, might have to sell the goods at a loss. Therefore, although half of my respondents engaged in this “informal” transnational trade at some point during their stay in the U.S., many gave up because the job did not yield as much profit as it was supposed to. Le, for example, was forced by her husband to quit the work to focus on her application to a Master program because the job was too time-consuming. Loan also closed her
Facebook account selling American goods to spend more time with her child. For Lan, she had to
210 continue the trading activity to help her family overcome their financial problems in the U.S.
Lan, however, left the business after her family returned to Vietnam, and she found a new job as a bank official in her home country.
Besides contributing to the flow of goods and capital between the U.S. and Vietnam, some of my informants also contributed to the transnational flow of people through other transnational activities such as offering “birth tourism” services to Chinese women or recruiting
Vietnamese students for U.S. summer-education camps. Thi who lived in a cosmopolitan city recalled the time when she worked with another Chinese friend to find housing and aid Chinese mothers-to-be in their trips to grocery stores and medical centers. Thi, at that time, was not aware that assisting Chinese women who traveled to the U.S. to give birth to “U.S. citizen” children on
U.S. tourist visas was illegal. She was, therefore, happy to get more opportunities to interact with other women and earn some money from the work. However, when she read local news about people being arrested for their involvement in this visa fraud, she and her friend stopped offering the services. Similarly, An, spouse of a doctoral student, a former international student who was very active and sociable, coordinated with other Vietnamese professionals and American educational institutions to recruit participants and organize trips for children from wealthy families in Vietnam to participate in summer-education camps in the U.S.
The transnational flow of “people and goods involving relatively small amounts of capital and informal, often semi-legal or illegal transactions” that Vietnamese accompanying women made possible is defined by Gordon Mathews and Carlos Alba Vega as “globalization from below.”306 Interviews with my informants, therefore, showed that the Internet and global
306 Gordon Mathews and Carlos Alba Vega, “Introduction: What Is Globalization from Below?,” in Globalization from Below: The World’s Other Economy, ed. Gordon Mathews, Gustavo Lins
211 computer networks, the tools which were used by big corporations to increase their wealth and supremacy over people, empowered Vietnamese accompanying women to resist the pernicious effects of globalization from below. By using the Internet and global computer networks to communicate, connect, and do business with people both inside and outside the country’s border,
Vietnamese accompanying women were able to generate income, and accordingly, challenge the
U.S. visa regime which prohibited many of them from earning money in the host country. The resistance of Vietnamese women provides me with more sophisticated understanding about the experiences of highly skilled migrants’ accompanying spouses in the U.S. In the next section, I summarize the main findings of the study by answering the research questions posed in the first chapter of this dissertation.
Summary of the Study
As indicated in the first chapter, my study was conducted to answer the three overarching questions:
(1) How do various aspects of identity such as race, class, gender, ethnicity, and nationality
intersect with visa regimes to influence the lived experiences of Vietnamese women
coming to the U.S. as accompanying spouses of temporary skilled migrants?
(2) What aspects of Vietnamese and American cultures are revealed and made salient through
the lived experiences of Vietnamese accompanying women?
(3) What characteristics of globalization and transnational migration are illuminated through
the lived experiences of Vietnamese accompanying women?
Ribeiro, and Carlos Alba Vega (Oxfordshire: Routledge, 2012), 1, https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203106006.
212
Regarding the first question, it is demonstrated throughout the study that the post-migration experiences of Vietnamese accompanying women were significantly affected by their race, class, gender, nationality, and immigration status. As clarified in chapter 3, many accompanying spouses of highly skilled Vietnamese migrants were deprived of the basic right to work in the
U.S. because their race, class, gender, and nationality marked them as “undesirable” in the host country. Even for the women who were given the working privilege, their position as temporary migrant women of color being trained in a “poor, underdeveloped” country made it extremely challenging for them to participate in American skilled workforce. The Vietnamese social expectations for intellectual migrants and Vietnamese traditional gender roles together with discriminatory practices in American society also discouraged them from taking manual labor jobs. Being relegated to the domestic sphere because of various cultural and social structural barriers, many Vietnamese accompanying women suffered from mental health problems such as stress, anxiety, and depression resulting from their identity crisis, pressure for gender role conformity, and social alienation. However, their cultural capital, which, according to Annette
Lareau and Elliot Weininger, referred to by Pierre Bourdieu as “adaptive cultural and social competencies such as familiarity with relevant institutional contexts, processes, and expectations, possession of relevant intellectual and social skills (e.g. ‘cultural knowledge’ and ‘vocabulary’), and a more ‘strategic conception of agency’”307 enabled them to get involved and even take charge of the family decision-making and social integration processes.
307 Annette Lareau and Elliot B. Weininger, “Cultural Capital in Educational Research: A Critical Assessment,” Theory and Society 32 (2003): 567–606, https://doi.org/10.1023/B:RYSO.0000004951.04408.b0; quoted in Jason D. Edgerton and Lance W. Roberts, “Cultural Capital or Habitus? Bourdieu and beyond in the Explanation of Enduring
213
Concerning the second question, thorough analysis of Vietnamese accompanying spouses reveals important aspects of Vietnamese and American cultures. Firstly, the study draws a vivid picture of post-war Vietnam with substantial changes in both economy, society, and culture.
While chapter 2 and chapter 6 uncover how Vietnam managed to escape from economic stagnation and crisis in the 1980s to become the “hidden Asian tiger”308 in the 2010s with their
Đổi Mới (Open Door) policies which emphasize the significance of the country’s development of a market economy, participation in international trade and improvement of the quality of the workforce, chapter 4 discusses the emergence of the professional middle-class youth in Vietnam which leads to the class formation in the domestic sphere, and accordingly, substantial changes in gender roles and social expectations for well-educated Vietnamese women in Vietnam.
Secondly, the study also highlights critical issues in American culture by disclosing how racial, gender, and class hierarchies are constructed and reinforced in American society. As explicated in chapter 3, the U.S. visa regime enables the U.S. government to differentiate their treatments of
“desirable” and “undesirable” aliens entering the country. While temporary highly skilled workers from developed countries such as Australia are given many privileges in the U.S., their counterparts from countries in the Global South - the racially- ‘other’ former colonial subjects – are subjected to a number of immigration laws and regulations which prevent them from prospering and becoming full members in American society. Temporary highly skilled migrants, for instance, depend on their U.S. employers for their visas and immigration status, and are, thus,
Educational Inequality,” Theory and Research in Education 12, no. 2 (2014): 196, https://doi.org/10.1177/1477878514530231.
308 “Vietnam: The Hidden Asian Tiger,” Havard Political Review, May 23, 2012, https://harvardpolitics.com/vietnam-the-hidden-asian-tiger/.
214 vulnerable to exploitation and discrimination. Their accompanying spouses, many of whom are forced to the domestic sphere because of discriminatory laws, regulations, and practices, are not able to make significant financial contribution to their families. The relegation of accompanying women to the domestic sphere, as demonstrated in chapter 4, reinforces the existing gender hierarchy, and perpetuates negative stereotypes about submissive Asian women in American society. Moreover, the financial and social insecurity resulting from the skilled migrants’ underpayment and their spouses’ housewifization creates a barrier for their social integration and puts families of highly skilled migrants from the Global South below families of white intellectuals in the American social class hierarchy.
Pertaining to the third question, my study underscores the contradictions and ambiguities of globalization as well as the gender-specific nature of migration which are discussed in existing literature on globalization and migration. Firstly, my study deepens Kellner’s understanding of globalization as “conflictual, contradictory, and open to resistance and democratic intervention and transformation”309 when it discloses both empowering and disempowering effects of globalization on nations and individuals. Globalization, for example, is a force of progress and increased wealth in Vietnam, but as mentioned in chapter 4, it also increases socio-economic inequality and reinforces class divisions in the country. Similarly, highly skilled migration from the global south allows the U.S. to recruit global talent for their businesses, and thus, maintain its position as “the global superpower.” Nevertheless, globalization makes American society increasingly ethnically diverse and provokes more social conflicts in this country. Besides bringing both positive and negative changes to nations, as discussed in chapter 6, globalization
309 Kellner, “Theorizing Globalization,” 293.
215 can be both disempowering and empowering for individuals. In the cases of many Vietnamese highly skilled migrants’ accompanying spouses, for instance, globalization deprives them of the economic and social independence that they made great efforts to attain in their home country, but it also provides them with tools and opportunities to subvert their subordination and rise above the challenges to attain success in the U.S. Secondly, my study confirms the gender- specific nature of migration. It is demonstrated in chapter 2 that gendered labor demand in the
U.S. and gender role ideology in Vietnam influence reasons for highly skilled Vietnamese men and women to migrate to developed countries with the former migrating mostly for educational and professional purposes while the latter migrating mostly for family reunification. In addition, opportunities and resources available in the host country are also gendered as highly skilled
Vietnamese men could have access to their institutional resources and build their social networks via their professional and educational activities, whereas their accompanying spouses were relegated to the domestic sphere and therefore, had more limited resources and opportunities for their professional development. In addition, my study supports Pessar and Mahler’s argument that migration may bring uneven and contradictory gains for men and women as Vietnamese men despite having more socioeconomic resources than their spouses did not become the dominant partner in their marital relationship because of negative stereotypes about Asian masculinity in the host country. Similarly, many Vietnamese accompanying women, despite their loss of economic and social independence, could still maintain their balance of power in their spousal relationship because their cultural capital allowed them to get involved in and even lead their family decision-making and social adaptation processes. In the next section, I will discuss the significance of my research to various fields of critical studies.
216
The Significance of the Study
As I complete this study in the spring of 2021, the Asian communities in the U.S. have experienced the trauma of a horrific shooting in Atlanta, Georgia, killing eight people, six of whom were women of Asian descent. Although the murderer denied racial animus once in custody, it was widely believed that the attack was “racially motivated sexual violence against women.”310 The shooting not only underscored the surge in anti-Asian violence since the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic when Asian Americans and Asian immigrants were called
“the infection” bringing, what in former president Donald Trump’s words, the “China virus” and the “Kung flu” to the U.S,311 but it also marked a critical turning point in the history of Asian
Americans. For the nation, Georgia state senator Michelle Au insisted, “this is the moment where everyone finally gets to see that Asian Americans do not live in a privileged bubble. They are not the “lucky ones” encapsulated in the toxic stereotype of the “model minority”. On the contrary, they are prone to racism and hatred just like any other disadvantaged US population.”312 The tragedy stirred up an interest among Americans in hearing the stories of mistreatment from Asian and Asian Americans. Many newspaper articles were written to educate the American public about the history of racism and misogyny against Asian women. They explained how the Page
Act of 1875 and the contemporary American popular culture depicted Asian women as
310 Marlene Lenthang, “Atlanta Shooting and the Legacy of Misogyny and Racism against Asian Women,” ABC News, March 21, 2021, https://abcnews.go.com/US/atlanta-shooting-legacy- misogyny-racism-asian-women/story?id=76533776.
311 Ed Pilkington, “‘A New Chapter in an Old Story’: What the Atlanta Shootings Reveal about the US,” The Guardian, March 21, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/us- news/2021/mar/20/asian-americans-racism-atlanta-shootings.
312 Pilkington.
217
“seductive, immoral, hypersexual.”313 My study contributes to the national conversation as it clarifies how the U.S. immigration policies, discriminatory regulations and practices continue to create and perpetuate harmful stereotypes that objectify and depict Asian women as
“‘hypersexualized,’ ‘meek’ and ‘submissive.’”314 My study also brings the plight of highly skilled Asian migrants – the ideal immigrants who uphold the “model minority myth” into light, and thus, changes the national consciousness about the struggles of the “privileged” Asian immigrants. Accordingly, my study calls for a comprehensive reform in the U.S. immigration policies to outlaw regulations which maintain the racial discrimination against Asian migrants, especially the deprivation of temporary skilled Asian migrants’ accompanying spouses of the right to work in the U.S.
In addition, my study, which examines the gendered transnational migration experiences of Vietnamese women migrating to the U.S. with nonimmigrant spousal visas clearly illustrates the benefits of using feminist theories such as Standpoint theory and theory of Intersectionality in social and cultural research. Standpoint theorists insist that “knowledge [is] situated in time, place, experience and relative power,” so understanding the lived experience of oppressed groups provides us with more complete and diverse knowledge of the social and natural world.315 My research supports this argument as it points out that in-depth analysis of the lived experiences of
Vietnamese accompanying women – an oppressed group who suffered from multiple layers of marginalization and subordination in the U.S. owing to their race, class, gender, immigration
313 Lenthang, “Atlanta Shooting and the Legacy of Misogyny and Racism against Asian Women.”
314 Lenthang.
315 Griffin, “A First Look at Communication Theory,” 446.
218 status, and migratory genealogy – could help us understand more about our full-of-conflict-and- struggle contemporary world. Moreover, my analysis of Vietnamese accompanying women’s complex and intersecting oppressions and multiple forms of resistance in multiple spatial and social scales with considerations of various local and national contexts expands scholarship on
Third World and Postcolonial feminism.
Furthermore, my study emphasizes the significance of the practice of “ethic of care” in social research. As my research probed into some personal issues such as spousal relations, familial relations, and household financial management which Vietnamese people often avoid in conversations with strangers, some of my potential informants who I did not know in advance refused to participate in my research after asking to see my proposed interview questions. To gain my informants’ trust and obtain rich and reliable data, I developed friendship with them before conducting the interviews. However, the friendship that I established with my research participants originated not only from my data collection purpose but also from my genuine care for my co-ethnics who suffered from various psychological issues such as stress, anxiety, depression, and social isolation in the U.S. During my research, I always tried to help my research participants overcome their challenges. For example, I introduced some Facebook groups of Vietnamese immigrants in the U.S. to my interviewees to help them reduce their feeling of social isolation. For Lan, whose loss of professional identity led to her loss of self- confidence, financial insecurity, and accordingly, marital conflicts, I spent time talking to her husband and helped the couple understand the challenges each other was facing to reduce their conflict. The mutual respect and connectedness that I developed between me and my research participants brought about not only my comprehensive data but also our valuable long-standing friendships.
219
Additionally, by revealing the strong connection between race and other factors such as class, gender, identity, and immigration status, my study illustrates Michael Omi and
Howard Winant's racial formation theory which proposes that race is a dynamic and fluid social construct, and racial identities are “created, lived out, transformed, and destroyed” through various sociohistorical processes.316 My study argues that the U.S. visa regime is a racial project as it is used by the U.S. government to “organize and distribute resources (economic, political, cultural) along particular racial lines.”317
Besides valuable contributions to various fields of critical studies such as women’s and gender studies, critical race studies, and postcolonial studies, my study brings about hope and optimism to critical scholars whose works aim at advancing social justice when confirming
Foucault’s argument that whenever there is oppression, there is resistance. Despite being disempowered and subordinated in the “country of freedom and opportunities”, the Vietnamese accompanying women in my research used both their “power within” (a sense of their own capacity and self-worth) and “power with” (the ability to get mutual support and build solidarity with either people) to increase their self-confidence and take actions. Their agency enables this dissertation to end on a happy note in which my respondents, three years after our interviews, shared with me good news about their lives: Lan whose family returned to Vietnam fulfilled their
“American dream” in their home country through their purchase of a new house in the capital city where the couple landed desirable jobs which ensured them the financial security that they could not attain in the U.S. Nga, Nhung, Binh, Ha got their first skilled jobs in the U.S. after
316 Omi and Winant, Racial Formation in the United States, 109.
317 Omi and Winant, 125.
220 years of retraining and job searching. Thao’s and Le’s and Hao’s families bought their new houses in desirable neighborhoods in their cities. Huong’s family has settled down in Norway.
And I am awaiting more good news to come.
221
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APPENDIX A. DEMOGRAPHIC DETAILS OF THE RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS
Informant # Pseudonyms Visa Age Regional Length of Highest Occupation in Occupation(s) Age of
Status(es) Identities time in education Vietnam in the U.S. children
the U.S. (years)
(at the
time of
the first
interview)
1 Nga J-2 35 Southern 1 year Bachelor of Program Housewife 5
(husband: Vietnam Science (BS) Coordinator
Manh)
2 Nhung J-2 42 Northern 13 years Master of University (1) Assistant 15
(husband: O-3 Vietnam Science (MS) Lecturer cook 11
Dung) (2) Sales
Associate
(3) Housewife 249
3 Thoa J-2 36 Northern 5 years Bachelor of Coordinator (1) Nail 8
(husband: H-4 Vietnam Arts (BA) technician
Nam) (2) Housewife
4 Loan J-2 30 Southern 7 years MS Bank officer (1) Housewife 5
Vietnam (2) Student
5 Lan J-2 28 Northern 1 years Master’s in Businesswoman Housewife 1.5
(husband: Vietnam Business Pregnant
Hung) Administration with
(MBA) the
second
child
6 Hanh F-2 30 Northern 6 years BS Left Vietnam Housewife 5
H-4 Vietnam right after
college
graduation
7 Le J-2 33 Northern 4 years BS Researcher Housewife 7
H-4 Vietnam 250
8 Hao H-4 33 Northern 9 years BS Left Vietnam Housewife 7
Green Vietnam right after Student
Card college Accountant 3
graduation
9 Huong J-2 29 Northern 2 years BA Bank officer Housewife 1
Vietnam
10 Thao O-3 33 Southern 1 year BS Bank officer in Housewife 7
Vietnam Singapore
11 Nhi L-2 32 Northern 3 years Bachelor of Dentist Dental 4
Vietnam Medicine assistant
Housewife
12 Binh J-2 33 Northern 2.5 years PhD Teacher Housewife Not yet
(husband: Vietnam Data scientist
Bach)
13 Hai F-2 33 Southern 4 years BS Accountant Housewife 5
Vietnam 251
14 Ha F-2 30 Northern 5 years MS Financial Housewife 2
(husband: H-4 Vietnam advisor
Tuan) Green
Card
15 Chi J-2 32 Northern 5 years MS Accountant Accountant 4
H-4 Vietnam for a
Vietnamese
company
located in the
US
16 An J-2 30 Northern 6 years PhD candidate Left Vietnam Housewife 2
F-1 Vietnam right after Student
graduation
17 Thi H-4 34 Northern 5 years MS Secretary Housewife 7
Vietnam
18 Cuc F-2 33 Northern 9 years MS Highschool Housewife 7
H-4 Vietnam teacher 4 252
19 Mai J-2 35 Northern 5 years MA English teacher Housewife 5
H-4 Vietnam Student
20 Minh H-4 34 Northern 3 years MA University Housewife 8
Vietnam lecturer 3 253
APPENDIX B. VISA RESTRICTIONS FOR ACCOMPANYING SPOUSES OF VIETNAMESE TEMPORARY SKILLED
MIGRANTS IN THE U.S.
Type Description Study restrictions Employment restrictions of visa
F-2 Dependent of F-1 (International F-2 dependents may enroll in “less than a Not permitted to be employed in the United States.
Student) full course of study” at a SEVP-certified
school, even if the course of study done
part time leads to or counts toward a
degree. Study that is “avocational or
recreational in nature” is also permitted
“up to and including on a full-time basis.”
To engage in study not covered by these
exceptions, the F-2 must apply for and
receive a change of status that allows such
study (e.g., F-1, M-1, J-1, or another
category that does not restrict study) 254
H-4 Dependent of H-1B May engage in full- or part-time study H-4 dependent spouses of H-1B nonimmigrants may
Nonimmigrant (Temporary apply to USCIS for an EAD if their H-1B spouse: 1) is
Worker in a Specialty the principal beneficiary of an approved Form I-140,
Occupation) Immigrant Petition for Alien Worker; or 2) has been
granted H-1B status beyond six years under sections
106(a) and (b) of the American Competitiveness in the
Twenty-first Century Act of 2000. All other H-4
dependents are ineligible for employment authorization.
J-2 Dependent of J-1 Exchange May engage in full- or part-time study Eligible to apply to USCIS for employment
Visitor authorization. With EAD issued by USCIS, may work
for any employer.
L-2 Dependent of L-1 Intracompany L-2 may engage in full- or part-time study L-2 spouses eligible to apply to USCIS for unrestricted
Transferee employment authorization. EAD required. Other L-2
dependents not eligible for employment authorization
O-3 Dependent of O-1 or O-2 Visa May engage in part- or full-time study. Not permitted to be employed in the United States.
Holder (O-1: Person of
Extraordinary ability. 255
O-2: O-1 accompanying
personnel)
(Adapted from “Foreign Nationals in Nonimmigrant Visa Classifications Who May Be Lawfully Employed and/or Study in the
United States (With Certain Restrictions)318)
318 Gail Rauson, “Immigration Classifications and Legal Employment in the United States,” 2015, http://www.nafsa.org/_/File/_/immigrationclassposter.pdf. 256
APPENDIX C. ABBREVIATIONS, ACRONYMS, AND VIETNAMESE TERMS
Đổi mới: the 1986 Vietnamese Socioeconomic Reform
IMF: International Monetary Fund
ASEAN: The Association of Southeast Asian Nations
APEC: The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
AICE: Association of International Credential Evaluators, Inc.
CPA: Certified Public Accountant
CBEST: California Basic Educational Skills Test
CSET: California Subject Examinations for Teachers
DHS: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security
DMV: Department of motor vehicles
EAD: Employment Authorization Document
IELTS: International English Language Testing System
NACES: National Association of Credential Evaluation Services
NASBA: The National Association of State Boards of Accountancy
NGOs: Non-governmental organizations
ODA: The Official Development Assistance
STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
SIDA: Swedish International Development Agency
USCIS: United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
USOM: The United States Operations Missions
USAID: The United States Agency for International Development
VEF: Vietnamese Education Foundation
WTO: The World Trade Organization
WES: World Education Service 257
APPENDIX D. CONSENTS
Recruitment Script
Hi,
My name is Hai Ly, a PhD student in American Culture Studies Program at Bowling Green State
University in Ohio, USA.
I am currently working on my dissertation titled, “The Experience of Vietnamese Immigrant
Women in the U.S.” My study is conducted to understand the experiences of Vietnamese women who came to the U.S. with dependent U.S. visas such as visas for dependent spouses of international students (visa F2), dependent spouses of exchange visitors (visa J2), dependent spouses of specialty workers (visa H4), dependent spouses of Intracompany Transferees (visa L2), and dependent spouses of individuals with extraordinary ability or achievement (visa O3). I would like to gain insight into the advantages and disadvantages that the women have had when living in the U.S. and their ways of dealing with these challenges in the new environment.
My study is expected to help the U.S., a country of immigrants, understand more about its newcomers from Vietnam who did not migrate to the U.S. as refugees. It also aims at illuminating the enormous efforts that Vietnamese women make in difficult circumstances. Especially, through my study, I hope that Vietnamese immigrant women in the U.S., particularly the ones with dependent visas, would get more support from the communities that they live in or interact with so that they can thrive in the host country.
My study will require about 20 participants who have had the experience of staying in the U.S. with U.S visas for dependent spouses of nonimmigrants such as international students, exchange 258 visitors, and temporary workers, etc. (visa F2, J2, H4, L2, O3, etc.). If you stayed in the U.S. with one of the above visas and have now changed your immigration status, you are still welcomed to participate in my study. Each participant will have one initial conversational interview and one possible follow-up interview with the researcher. Interviews can be conducted in either
Vietnamese or English, in-person or via phone, Skype, Google Hangout, email or chat services. I anticipate the interview conversations will take less than one hour each. For the interview, you can choose the location that makes you feel most comfortable. We can arrange to meet face-to-face or you can choose a convenient time for you to have a phone, Skype, Google Hangout, email or chat services interview with me. For those who do not want to have a face-to-face interview, I will send you documents, including this script, a questionnaire, a consent letter, and a stamped envelope so that you can return to me your signed consent letter. Before I receive your signed consent letter, I will not start the interview. Each interview is conducted separately and I will not share your information with other informants. Again, your personal identity is strictly protected. Your name will also be changed when I use the information you provide in my research writing-up.
If you decide to participate in this study or have any questions relating to your participation, please contact:
Thi Hai Ly Tran
Email: [email protected] Tel. 419 378 0436
Vietnamese Translation of the Recruitment Script
Thông báo nhờ người tham gia đề tài
259
Xin chào các bạn!
Mình là Hải Lý, nghiên cứu sinh ngành Văn hoá Mỹ tại trường Đại học Bowling Green State
University tại bang Ohio, Mỹ.
Hiện nay mình đang nghiên cứu đề tài luận văn tiến sỹ với chủ đề: Trải nghiệm cuộc sống của phụ nữ Việt Nam tại Mỹ.
Đề tài của mình tập trung vào tìm hiểu trải nghiệm cuộc sống tại Mỹ của phụ nữ Việt Nam đã hoặc
đang sinh sống tại Mỹ với visa phụ thuộc như là Visa giành cho vợ/chồng của sinh viên quốc tế tại Mỹ (F2), vợ/ chồng của những người sang Mỹ theo diện khách trao đổi (J2), vợ/ chồng của những người có visa làm việc tại Mỹ thuộc diện không định cư (ví dụ như H4, L2, O3). Mình muốn tìm hiểu trải nghiệm của các bạn khi sống tại Mỹ, những thuận lợi, khó khăn mà các bạn gặp phải và những điều các bạn đã làm để thích ứng được với cuộc sống mới.
Đề tài nghiên cứu của mình được thực hiện nhằm giúp cho nước Mỹ, một đất nước của người nhập cư, hiểu thêm về cuộc sống của những người Việt nhập cư mới, những người sang Mỹ không theo diện tị nạn chiến tranh. Đồng thời mình mong muốn nghiên cứu của mình sẽ góp phần làm sáng tỏ sự cố gắng vươn lên của phụ nữ Việt Nam trong mọi hoàn cảnh. Mình cũng hi vọng khi hiểu
được những khó khăn mà các bạn gặp phải, cộng đồng người Mỹ nơi các bạn đang sinh sống và cộng đồng người Việt mà các bạn vẫn thường giao lưu và giữ mối liên hệ sẽ có những chương trình, hoạt động phù hợp để giúp đỡ các bạn sớm thích ứng và đạt được nhiều thành tựu trong môi trường mới.
Đề tài này sẽ cần khoảng 20 người tham gia. Các đối tượng tham gia sẽ là những phụ nữ Việt Nam
đã hoặc đang ở Mỹ với visa phụ thuộc như là visa F2, J2, H4, L2, O3. Nếu bạn đã từng ở Mỹ với
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1 trong các loại visa trên nhưng hiện tại đã chuyển sang visa khác, đã có thẻ xanh, đã trở thành công dân Mỹ, hoặc đã trở về Việt Nam, bạn vẫn có thể tham gia. Mỗi người tham gia sẽ có một cuộc phỏng vấn ban đầu và một cuộc phỏng vấn phụ với người nghiên cứu. Mỗi cuộc phỏng vấn thường sẽ không kéo dài quá 60 phút. Để tiện lợi cho các bạn, địa điểm phỏng vấn sẽ do các bạn lựa chọn. Chúng ta có thể gặp mặt nói chuyện hoặc phỏng vấn qua điện thoại, Facebook, SKype, email, mesenger. Đối với những trường hợp không gặp mặt trực tiếp, mình sẽ gửi các bạn các giấy tờ cần thiết bao gồm tờ thông báo này, giấy chấp thuận, bảng câu hỏi và một phong bì có dán tem sẵn để các bạn có thể gửi trả cho mình giấy chấp thuận đã kí. Mình sẽ không tiến hành phỏng vấn cho đến khi mình nhận được giấy chấp thuận do các bạn kí. Mỗi cuộc phỏng vấn đều được tiến hành riêng biệt và mình sẽ không chia sẻ thông tin nhân dạng của các bạn với những người tham gia khác. Tên của các bạn cũng sẽ được thay đổi khi người nghiên cứu sử dụng dữ liệu các bạn cung cấp để viết bài.
Mọi thắc mắc xin liên hệ:
Trần Thị Hải Lý
Email: [email protected]
Tel. 419 378 0436
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Vietnamese Translation of the Informed Consent
Giấy Chấp Thuận
Đề tài nghiên cứu: Trải nghiệm cuộc sống của phụ nữ Việt Nam tại Mỹ
Người nghiên cứu: Trần Thị Hải Lý, Nghiên cứu sinh chuyên ngành Nghiên cứu văn hoá Hoa Kỳ, tại trường Đại học Bowling Green thuộc tiểu bang Ohio, Hoa Kỳ.
Giới thiệu chung:
Để có thể tham gia nghiên cứu này, quý vị cần phải từ 18 tuổi trở lên. Xin quý vị hãy đọc kĩ những thông tin dưới đây trước khi đồng ý tham gia nghiên cứu.
Nếu quý vị có câu hỏi hoặc băn khoăn gì, xin liên hệ với tôi, Trần Thị Hải Lý, qua điện thoại hoặc thư điện tử với địa chỉ như sau: Điện thoại: (419) 378 0436; địa chỉ thư điện tử: [email protected],
Hoặc xin liên hệ với giáo sư hướng dẫn của tôi là tiến sỹ Alberto González với số điện thoại (419)
372 6076 hoặc địa chỉ thư điện tử: [email protected]
Mục đích nghiên cứu:
Nghiên cứu của tôi được thực hiện nhằm tìm hiểu trải nghiệm cuộc sống tại Mỹ của phụ nữ Việt
Nam đến Mỹ với visa giành cho vợ/ chồng của di dân không định cư như sinh viên quốc tế, khách trao đổi, người có visa lao động ngắn hạn. Nghiên cứu tập trung vào tìm hiểu những khó khăn về mặt tâm lý và xã hội mà phụ nữ đến Mỹ với visa phụ thuộc thường gặp phải trong quá trình nhập cư và ổn định cuộc sống tại Mỹ. Nghiên cứu mong muốn được đóng góp thêm vào nguồn tài liệu nghiên cứu về di dân đến từ Việt Nam, mối quan hệ giữa giới tính và sự di cư, và chủ nghĩa nữ quyền hậu thuộc địa.
Tiến trình nghiên cứu
Người nghiên cứu sẽ tiến hành 1 cuộc phỏng vấn lần đầu với thời gian kéo dài trong khoảng một giờ. Trong trường hợp vì giới hạn về thời gian mà người nghiên cứu chưa thể thảo luận với bạn
267 những vấn đề quan trọng, cần thiết cho nghiên cứu, hoặc nếu người nghiên cứu cần tìm hiểu để làm rõ thêm thông tin mà bạn đã đưa ra trong buổi phỏng vấn ban đầu, người nghiên cứu sẽ liên lạc với bạn đề nghị được phỏng vấn lần thứ 2. Bạn sẽ không phải thực hiện nhiều hơn hai cuộc phỏng vấn, mỗi cuộc kéo dài không quá 1 giờ. Các cuộc phỏng vấn có thể được thực hiện bằng tiếng Việt hoặc tiếng Anh, phỏng vấn trực tiếp hoặc qua điện thoại, Skype, Google Hangout, email, hoặc các dịch vụ nói chuyện trực tuyến khác. Các cuộc phỏng vấn sẽ được ghi âm, ghi chép lại, và dịch sang tiếng Anh (nếu phỏng vấn được tiến hành bằng tiếng Việt) nhằm đảm bảo tính chính xác và giúp người nghiên cứu hiểu rõ hơn về trải nghiệm cuộc sống tại Mỹ của phụ nữ Việt Nam.
Tính tự nguyện của việc tham gia nghiên cứu
Sự tham gia của quý vị là hoàn toàn tự nguyện. Quý vị có thể rút lui khỏi đề tài bất cứ lúc nào.
Quý vị có thể bỏ qua các câu hỏi, tránh đưa ra một số thông tin mà quý vị cảm thấy không thoải mái, hoặc chấm dứt phỏng vấn bất cứ khi nào quý vị mong muốn mà không sợ ảnh hưởng đến mối quan hệ giữa tôi và quý vị hay giữa quý vị và trường đại học Bowling Green nếu có.
Rủi ro khi tham gia nghiên cứu này
Quý vị sẽ không phải gặp bất cứ rủi ro gì khác biệt so với cuộc sống hàng ngày của quý vị khi tham dự vào nghiên cứu này. Tôi sẽ rất cẩn trọng trong việc bảo mật thông tin cá nhân của quý vị.
Tính bảo mật của nghiên cứu
Tât cả các thông tin mà quý vị cung cấp cho tôi sẽ được bảo mật một cách cẩn thận, chu đáo. Tôi sẽ ghi âm lại các cuộc phỏng vấn để đảm bảo tôi sẽ sử dụng thông tin mà quý vị cung cấp một cách chính xác. Các băng ghi âm sẽ chỉ được dùng với mục đích này và không được chia sẻ với ai. Nếu cuộc phỏng vấn của quý vị được tiến hành bằng tiếng Việt, tôi sẽ dịch cuộc phỏng vấn sang tiếng Anh. Nếu tôi cần tham khảo ý kiến của chuyên gia dịch thuật trong quá trình dịch, tôi sẽ không đưa toàn bộ tài liệu cuộc phỏng vấn của quý vị cho chuyên gia đó. Trong trường hợp tôi
268 thực sự cần phải đưa tài liệu phỏng vấn của quý vị cho chuyên gia dịch thuật, tôi sẽ xoá bỏ tên và các đặc điểm nhân dạng của quý vị trong tài liệu đó. Tất cả các thông tin liên lạc và toàn bộ tài liệu phỏng vấn của quý vị bao gồm các cuộc ghi âm, các bản ghi chép lại của cuộc phỏng vấn sẽ được cất giữ trong một thư mục có khoá bằng mã số trong máy tính cá nhân của tôi, hoặc được cất giữ trong tủ khoá mà chỉ có tôi và giáo sư hướng dẫn của tôi là người có thể mở ra được. Tất cả các thông tin cá nhân của quý vị như tên thật, vị trí công việc, quan hệ gia đình, v.v. sẽ được giữ bí mật. Tôi sẽ sử dụng tên giả để bảo vệ nhân dạng của quý vị.
Theo nhận định của tôi, quý vị sẽ không phải gặp bất cứ rủi ro gì khác biệt so với cuộc sống hàng ngày của quý vị khi tham dự vào nghiên cứu này. Tuy nhiên nếu quý vị có bất cứ câu hỏi, yêu cầu hay mối quan tâm nào khác liên quan đến việc giam gia vào nghiên cứu này, quý vị có thể liên lạc với tôi theo địa chỉ ở trên.
Lợi ích khi tham gia nghiên cứu này
Quý vị sẽ không nhận được tiền thù lao cho việc tham gia vào nghiên cứu. Tuy nhiên, những trải nghiệm của quý vị sẽ giúp xã hội Việt Nam và xã hội Mỹ hiểu rõ hơn về cuộc sống của phụ nữ
Việt Nam tại Mỹ để từ đó có thể đưa ra những trợ giúp cần thiết giúp quý vị sớm thích ứng và đạt
được nhiều thành tựu trong môi trường mới.
Mọi câu hỏi liên quan đến vấn đề quyền lợi của người tham gia xin liên hệ Văn phòng Giám sát
Các Dự án Liên quan đến Con người tại:
Văn phòng Giám sát Các Dự án Liên quan đến Con người
Địa chỉ: 292 Hayes Hall, Bowling Green, OH 43403
Số điện thoại: 419-372-7716, Fax: 419-372-6916,
địa chỉ thư điện tử: [email protected]
Cảm ơn quý vị vì đã giành thời gian cho nghiên cứu này!
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Xin quý vị kí vào vị trí dưới đây nếu đồng ý tham gia vào nghiên cứu này. Quý vị có thể yêu cầu nhận được văn bản này bất cứ khi nào quý vị muốn.
Tên Người tham gia nghiên cứu (Viết chữ in hoa): ______
Chữ kí ______
Ghi rõ ngày tháng ______
Tôi đã được thông báo rằng những cuộc phỏng vấn của tôi với người nghiên cứu sẽ được ghi âm và ghi chép lại. Bản ghi chép sẽ được dịch sang tiếng Anh nếu cuộc phỏng vấn được thực hiện bằng tiếng Việt. Thông tin được cung cấp trong cuộc phỏng vấn có thể được sử dụng trong các bài trình bày hoặc các bài viết về kết quả của nghiên cứu này.
Xin hãy đánh dấu √ vào một trong hai lựa chọn trong mỗi mục sau đây:
Về cuộc phỏng vấn
A. _____ Tôi đồng ý với việc ghi âm cuộc phỏng vấn của tôi
_____ Tôi không đồng ý với việc ghi âm cuộc phỏng vấn của tôi
B. _____ Tôi đồng ý với việc nghiên cứu viên sử dụng các trích dẫn từ bản ghi chép lại cuộc phỏng
vấn của tôi trong các bài thuyết trình hoặc các bài viết về kết quả của nghiên cứu này.
_____ Tôi không đồng ý với việc nghiên cứu viên sử dụng các trích dẫn từ bản ghi chép lại
cuộc phỏng vấn của tôi trong các bài thuyết trình hoặc các bài viết về kết quả của
nghiên cứu này.
Chữ kí của người tham gia nghiên cứu ______
Ghi rõ ngày tháng ______
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APPENDIX E. QUESTIONS FOR OPEN-ENDED INTERVIEWS
Please be reminded that your identity will be strictly protected and the information you provide
will neither put you under any risk nor be used against you and your family.
Thank you very much for participating in the study. Your contribution is highly appreciated,
and I strongly believe that our efforts will bring positive changes to the community!
Demographic information:
Please fill in your answers to the follow questions.
Your age: ……………….
Your education: ………………..
Your current occupation: ……………..
The year when you came to the U.S.: …………………….
The length of time that you had a U.S. visa for dependent spouses of temporary immigrants:
…………. year(s) and …………….. month(s)
The length of time that you have been living/ lived in California? ………………………..
Questions for Initial Interview
1. How would you describe your social status at the time you left Vietnam?
2. Why did you immigrate to the U.S.? Was it difficult to make the decision to leave
Vietnam for the U.S.? If yes, why?
3. Please describe the process of immigrating (Where did you first stay in the U.S.? Have
you moved to other places in the U.S.?)
4. Did you attend any American colleges/ universities? If yes, please name the colleges/
universities that you attended.
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5. What jobs have you worked since your arrival to the U.S.? Can you tell me about your
experiences working in America (e.g. Whether your working experiences are/ were
negative or positive? What did you notice/ learn about American culture from your job?
etc.)
6. What challenges did you encounter due to having a dependent U.S. visa (financial,
emotional, etc.)?
7. How did you deal with those challenges? (e.g. If you feel lonely because of the lack of
Vietnamese friends and family, what did you do to overcome the loneliness?)
8. Have you received any supports from your family in Vietnam and/or from any
Vietnamese and/or U.S. sources (financial, practical, or emotional supports)?
9. If yes, what kinds of supports do/did you receive?
10. How has your life in the U.S. changed compared to your life in Vietnam?
11. What are the advantages and the disadvantages of living in the U.S. compared with living
in Vietnam?
12. From your experience, what social and cultural differences do you see between Vietnam
and the U.S.?
13. Which country do you think you feel more connected to, Vietnam or the U.S.? and why?
14. Do you maintain connections with Vietnam? If so, how do you maintain ties with
Vietnam?
15. Is there any community that you feel you belong to now (e.g. Vietnamese international
student group in your area, Vietnamese-American community in your area, your local
(American) community, an online community, etc.)
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16. Do you have frequent interactions with Vietnamese-origin people in local/ nearby
Vietnamese-American communities? Do you have any difficulties/ obstacles in
interacting with them? If yes, why?
17. Overall, where would you prefer to live – in Vietnam or in the U.S.?
18. As a temporary migrant in the U.S. with a dependent visa, are there any kinds of support
that you would like to receive from Vietnamese government, the U.S. government,
Vietnamese communities, or your (American) local community? If yes, what are they?
19. Can you tell me about how you think social media impacts your experience in the U.S.?
20. Can you tell me about how you think online communities of Vietnamese immigrants in
the U.S. could support women staying in the U.S. with dependent visas?
21. Is there anything that is not asked in the questions that you would like to talk about?
Thank you very much for your time!
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Câu Hỏi Phỏng Vấn
Xin nhắc lại rằng thông tin cá nhân và danh tính của quý vị sẽ được bảo mật một cách chặt chẽ.
Những thông tin mà quý vị cung cấp sẽ KHÔNG được sử dụng để chống lại quý vị và gia đình
quý vị cũng như sẽ không mang lại bất cứ nguy hiểm nào cho quý vị.
Xin chân thành cảm ơn sự đóng góp quý báu của quý vị vào nghiên cứu này. Tôi tin rằng nỗ lực
của tôi và quý vị sẽ mang lại những thay đổi tích cực cho cộng đồng!
Thông tin cá nhân:
Xin quý vị hãy điền thông tin cá nhân của quý vị vào chỗ trống.
Tuổi: ……………….
Trình độ học vấn: ………………..
Công việc hiện tại: …………………
Quý vị đến Mỹ vào năm nào?: ………………….
Khoảng thời gian mà quý vị cư trú tại Mỹ với visa phụ thuộc giành cho chồng/ vợ của người có visa không định cư: ……………. năm …………… tháng
Khoảng thời gian mà quý vị cư trú tại California: ………………………….
Câu hỏi:
1. Xin quý vị (bà/ cô/ bác/ chị/ bạn/ em) mô tả vị thế xã hội của mình trước khi rời Việt
Nam sang Mỹ (Học vấn, việc làm, và nơi sinh sống của quý vị)
2. Tại sao quý vị lại quyết định sang Mỹ? Quyết định sang Mỹ có phải là một quyết định
khó khăn không? Nếu có, tại sao?
3. Xin quý vị mô tả lại quá trình di cư sang Mỹ của mình (Quý vị ở nơi nào khi mới sang
Mỹ? Quý vị đã sống ở những nơi nào ở Mỹ?)
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4. Quý vị có có học cao đẳng, đại học, hay trường nghề nào tại Mỹ không? Nếu có, xin hãy
kể tên những trường mà quý vị đã theo học
5. Quý vị đã từng làm những công việc nào để kiếm thêm thu nhập kể từ khi đến Mỹ (kể cả
công việc chính thức và không chính thức như tự kinh doanh trên mạng)? Quý vị có thể
kể cho tôi nghe về một số kinh nghiệm làm việc tại Mỹ được không (ví dụ: Quý vị có yêu
thích công việc mình làm không? Tại sao? Quý vị có hiểu gì thêm về văn hoá Mỹ khi làm
các công việc đó không?)
6. Quý vị đã gặp những khó khăn gì khi ở Mỹ với visa phụ thuộc (kể cả về mặt vật chất và
tinh thần)?
7. Quý vị đã giải quyết những khó khăn đó như thế nào? (Ví dụ nếu quý vị cảm thấy cô đơn
vì không có bạn bè và người thân ở bên cạnh thì quý vĩ đã làm thế nào để vượt qua được
sự cô đơn ấy?)
8. Quý vị có nhận được sự hỗ trợ nào từ gia đình hay các tổ chức ở Việt Nam hoặc ở Mỹ
không (kể cả về mặt vật chất và tinh thần)?
9. Nếu có, quý vị đã nhận được những sự hỗ trợ nào?
10. Cuộc sống của quý vị đã thay đổi như thế nào từ khi đến Mỹ?
11. Theo quý vị, cuộc sống của quý vị ở Mỹ có những thuận lợi/ khó khăn gì so với cuộc
sống của quý vị ở Việt Nam?
12. Theo quan sát quý vị, văn hoá Việt Nam và văn hoá Mỹ có những điểm khác nhau gì nổi
bật?
13. Hiện tại, quý vị cảm thấy gắn bó với đất nước nào hơn, Việt Nam hay Mỹ, và tại sao?
14. Quý vị có còn giữ mối liên hệ với Việt Nam không? Nếu có, bằng cách nào?
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15. Hiện tại, quý vị cảm thấy mình có thuộc về một cộng đồng (nhỏ) nào hay không? nếu có,
đó là cộng đồng nào? (Ví dụ: Cộng đồng sinh viên quốc tế đến từ Việt Nam tại khu vực
quý vị đang sinh sống; Cộng đồng người Mỹ gốc việt tại khu vực quý vị đang sinh sống,
cộng đồng người Mỹ tại khu vực quý vị đang sinh sống, một cộng đồng mạng nào đó,
v.v.)
16. Quý vị có thường xuyên có mối liên hệ, tương tác với người Mỹ gốc Việt ở các cộng
đồng người Mỹ gốc Việt gần nơi quý vị đang sinh sống hay không? Quý vị có cảm thấy
mình gặp khó khăn hay cản trở gì trong mối quan hệ, tương tác với cộng đồng người Mỹ
gốc Việt tại đây không?
17. Nhìn chung, quý vị thích sống ở đâu hơn, Việt Nam hay Mỹ?
18. Là một người đang ở Mỹ với visa phụ thuộc, quý vị có mong muốn nhận được sự giúp đỡ
nào (kể cả về mặt vật chất và tinh thần) từ chính phủ Việt Nam, chính phủ Mỹ, các cộng
đồng người Việt tại Mỹ, hoặc cộng đồng người Mỹ ở nơi quý vị đang sinh sống hay
không? Nếu có, xin hãy kể tên những sự trợ giúp mà quý vị cần.
19. Theo quý vị, mạng xã hội (social networks) có ảnh hưởng gì đến các trải nghiệm của quý
vị trong cuộc sống tại Mỹ không (ví dụ tạo điều kiện cho quý vị làm quen và tương tác dễ
dàng hơn với những người Việt đang sinh sống tại Mỹ khác, v.v.)?
20. Theo quý vị các cộng đồng trực tuyến của người Việt tại Mỹ có thể giúp đỡ gì cho những
người phụ nữ đang sống ở Mỹ với visa phụ thuộc (ngắn hạn)?
21. Quý vị có điều gì muốn thảo luận thêm ngoài những điều mà các hỏi trên đã đề cập tới
hay không?
Xin chân thành cảm ơn sự đóng góp quý báu của quý vị!