View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by ScholarBank@NUS THAI WOMEN AND MARRIAGE MIGRATION IN SINGAPORE RATTANA JONGWILAIWAN (B.Arts. (Hons.), Chulalongkorn University A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SOCIAL SCIENCES DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2008 Acknowledgements This thesis has been made possible by a generous scholarship from ASEAN Foundation and the Japan-ASEAN Solidarity Fund. To me, your support has been more than financial. I am thankful my parents, grandma and my sibling for all the love and care profoundly and totally give me. Yungta, for giving me the greatest encouragement, inspiration, love, care and patience you’ve given every second that I need it. Dr. Eric Thompson, I am grateful for your kind advice, teaching and training me to be an anthropologist since the first step I have been in NUS. Dr. Pattana Kitiarsa, I wish to express my deep gratitude for giving me advice and wisdom and lighten up my critical thinking. You have inspired my research which I have realized to use both ‘headnotes’ and ‘heartnotes’ in my ethnographic research. Harry Tan, without you I cannot come to this stage. Thank you for your valuable time to discuss with me on cross border marriage migration between Singaporean men and Thai women. Last but not least, I owe my thesis to my respondents who generously gave me information, their time (including very nice Thai food and alcoholic drink!) and for trusting, for sharing so intimately a part of your lives with me. Without their help, my study would not have been possible. Besides, all my students and volunteer at Friend of Thai Workers Association in Singapore who always share your experiences and knowledge about Isan people’s lives which contribute to my writing in this thesis. Table of Contents Page Summary vi Chapter 1: Introduction 1 I. Theoretical Consideration towards Cross Border Migration Phenomena 3 II. Application of Giddens’s Structuration Theory at the Micro-Level of Cross Border Marriage Migration between Thai women and Singaporean Men 6 1. The Change in Social Structure and Women’s Role under Global Capitalism in Thai Society 6 1.1 Feminization of Rural-Urban Labor Migration and Feminization Cheap labor in Thai Society 7 1.2 Urban Migration for Prostitution 11 1.3 Feminization of Transnational Migration 14 1.3.1 Feminization of Transnational Migration: Cross-border marriage migration as Third World Women’s Strategy 16 1.4 The History of Cross Border Marriage of Thai Women 17 1.5 Cross Cultural Marriage: The Product from Human Activities in First World Countries 21 1.6 Cross Border Marriage Migration Phenomena in Singapore 24 1.6.1 Thai Foreign Brides in Singapore 26 III. Application of Giddens’s Structuration Theory at the Micro-Level of Cross Border Marriage Migration between Thai women and Singaporean Men 29 IV. Approaches to Transnational Flow of Thai Migrant Wives in Singapore: The Strategies of Graduated Sovereignty and Flexible Citizenship 30 V. Methodology and Informants 33 VI. Organization of Thesis 35 Chapter 2: The Dynamic and the Duality of Immigration Legal Structure 39 I. The Dynamic of Immigration Legal Structure: The Ambiguity of Migrant Wives’ PR Entitlement 40 1. The Reconstruction of Legal Structure by the State Actor 41 1.1 The Constraint of Legal Structure by State Actor: The Classification of Migrant Wives by Women’s Qualification 45 1.2 The Constraint of Legal Structure by State Actor: The Classification of Migrant Wives by Husband’s Qualification 47 2. The Constraint of Legal Structure by Husband Actor 50 3. The Consequences on Thai Migrant Wives’ Activities under the Reconstructed Legal Structure 52 3.1 Wives’ Identities are Tied to Husbands 52 3.2 Being Confined in Domestic Sphere 55 3.3 Being Confined in Singapore 57 3.4 The Consequence on Thai Pregnant Women 58 II. The Duality of Legal Structure Women’s agency: Negotiating, Challenging and Circumventing against Legal Structure 60 1. Women’s agency: The Negotiation between the Actors: Migrant Wife, Husband and State Actors. 60 2. Women’s agency: Negotiating for Employment Opportunity 64 3. Women’s agency: Negotiating to Survive without Singaporean men 66 Conclusion 69 Chapter 3: The Dynamic and the Duality of Economic Structure 72 I. Rural-Urban Labor Migration: A Livelihood Strategy to Survive from the Failure of Rural Economy 75 II. Cross Border Marriage Migration as Livelihood Strategies to Escape the Oppressive Economic Structure in Thailand 78 a) Marriage Migration 80 b) Migration Marriage 80 c) Women’s Strategy in the Process of Courtship and Staying in Contact 82 III. The Constraining and Enabling Effects of the Singapore Economic Structure 85 IV. After Marriage Migration: Thai Migrant Wives’ Economic Activities under Singapore Economic Structure 86 V. Women’s Agencies toward Singapore Economic Structure 91 1. Reconstructing Gender Identities and Gender Roles 91 2. Negotiating the Meritocratic Economic Regime by Transnational Migrant Network 92 3. Rationalization of Working in Night Work or Working as Entertainer 94 4. Strategizing Transnational Spaces, Singapore as Workplace and Thailand as Real Home 96 Conclusion 98 Chapter 4:The Dynamic and the Duality of Socio-cultural Gendered Structure 101 I. Socio-Cultural Structure of Gender in Thai society: Gender Relation and Gender Role of Dutiful Daughter 103 II. Socio Cultural Structure of Gender in Singapore Society: Chinese Familial Pattern of Modern Singapore 107 III. Transnational Socio-cultural Gender Structure in Family: The Clash between Singapore and Thai expected Gender Roles. 115 IV. Women’s Agency in Negotiating with Socio Cultural Structure of Gender 119 1. Women’s Experiences of Negotiating Thai Gender Structure through Cross-border Marriage Migration 120 2. Women’s Experiences of Negotiating the Clash between Gender Structure by Reconstructing Gender Identity 122 3. Women’s Experiences of Negotiating the Clash between Singapore and Thai Socio-Cultural Gender Structure through Pregnant Bodies 124 V. The Emergent Dynamic Socio Cultural Gender Structure as the Product of Thai Women’s Negotiation 125 1. Women’s Experiences of Negotiating and Strategizing the Space beyond Family Domain 126 2. Women’s Experiences in Negotiating the Socio-Cultural Gender Structure through Creating Religious Spiritual Identity 129 3. Negotiating Practices of “Thai Tai Tai” 131 4. Women’s Experiences of Negotiating through Reconstruction of Gender Relations and Sexuality: ‘Gik’ 134 Conclusion 140 Chapter 5: Conclusion 143 Further Studies 151 Bibliography 153 Appendices 165 Table 1: Particulars of Informants 165 Table 2: The Previous Job, the Contact zone and the Period of Contact before Marriage 167 Table 3: Occupations, Years in Singapore, Estimated Monthly Income and Remittance 169 Table 4: Particulars of Focus Group Discussants 170 Table 5: Occupations, Monthly Income and Money Remittance of Focus Group Discussants 170 Table 6: Husband’s Occupations, Years in Singapore and Period of receiving PR of Group Discussants 171 vi Summary In this thesis, I examined the phenomenon of cross border marriage migration between Thai women and Singaporean men by applying the fundamental idea behind Giddens’s Structuration theory which argues that the relationship between social structures and human practices is inseparable. As such, social structures are in themselves first and foremost constituted of human’s activities but these human activities are made possible (enabled) only by the structural properties that guide them. This brings about the dynamic characteristics of any given social structure in that it is always involved in a process of reproduction through these human activities. It shows that a structure does not only constrain or limit human’s activities but the process of reproduction also enables opportunities for humans to challenge, circumvent and change an existing structure. In this thesis, I focus on the specific circumstances of Thai migrant wives. As their experiences demonstrate, they are active agents in the process striving to improve their lives and social status, not merely passive victims. At the macro level of Giddens’s theoretical framework, I show that cross border marriage migration is the outcome of both First World men’s and Third World women’s activities in negotiating and reproducing structures. I also use Giddens’s duality of structure at the micro level to understand the dynamic nature of structure as well as the inseparable relationship between social structure and human practices. For Thai migrant wives, after marriage migration, their transnational lives are constrained by the various structures, namely the immigration legal structure, economic structure and socio-cultural structure in Singapore. In each category, I demonstrate that the structure is indeed dynamic as it is constituted through complex human activities. The structure could be reproduced to constrain or enable human’s practices since each vii individual has both structural motives and capabilities. These structures tend to limit the options and practices of Thai migrant wives as a result of gender stereotypes existing within the global capitalist system. Yet, I also show that working class women have agency and are knowledgeable about their condition. They rationalize their choices and act in a variety of ways to reproduce, negotiate or circumvent the structures. As I argue in this thesis, marriage migration studies must venture beyond the discourses of foreign brides viewed merely as working class women victimized in positions of subservience .To some extent as I argue in this thesis, they have a variety of means to circumvent and renegotiate the structures by using the resources available to them in the context of their life situations as Thai migrant wives in Singapore. Chapter 1 Introduction The perspective on cross border marriage migration between women from developing countries and men from developed countries emphasizes ways in which women who migrated from developing countries to First World countries had migration motives based on economic desperation.