Social community identity formation of vietnamese immigrant women in taiwan and australia a comparative study

VIET NAM HOC - KY YEU HOI THAO QUOC TE LAN THlT TU SOCIAL COMMUNITY IDENTITY FORMATION OF VIETNAMESE IMMIGRANT WOMEN IN TAIWAN AND AUSTRALIA: A COMPARATIVE STUDY Annie Yuan Cih Wu Vie

VIET NAM HOC - KY YEU HOI THAO QUOC TE LAN THlT TU

SOCIAL COMMUNITY IDENTITY FORMATION

OF VIETNAMESE IMMIGRANT WOMEN IN TAIWAN AND AUSTRALIA: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Annie Yuan Cih Wu

Vietnamese marriage migrants are currently the largest non- Llan- Chirese immigrant group in Taiwan Taiwan is experiencing a transformation ol its deraographies from a nation-stale consisting primarily of Han Chinese inio a mulfi-elhnic country regarding Adding to this transformation are South Sast Asian female migrants who have immigrated to Taiwan from the 1990s onwards This research project investigates the social identity of female Vietnamese marriage migrants in Taiwan, and then compares the findings with similar stulies ccmducted in Sydney, Australia

Firstly, the concepts 'female migrants' and 'immigrant women" have to be clarified as two different usages in various contexts Marriage migrants are primarily considered as 'mail-order-brides', which may be a suitable descriptior for most of the eases this researcher has interviewed in Taiwan For some cases in Sydney, Au.slralia, 'Vietnamese marriage migrants' is also a proxy for Vielnaiiese dominated suburbs; like Marrickville, Cabramatta, Fairfield, Bankslown and a few south-western suburbs in Sydney Y'ei, few Vietnamese wives in Taiwan contacted

by this author were previous care-givers ( migrant workers )for Taiwanese families before This could be a consequence the Taiwanese government had not expected when it opened its migrant worker policy ITowever, those women preferably "lave prior Taiwanese experience before marriage, where the proximity of •imniii.rant women' creates more willingness of mobility and equality of informafion intale in Taiwan Regardless of the women being 'mail-order-brides ' or previous eare-gvers that become wives of Taiwanese men, the terra ' iraraigranl women' is hereiftei employed instead o f migrant women' out of respect and recognifion that Taiwm it gradually an iraraigranl country in this aspect

* MA University of Sydney, Australia

SOCIAL COMMUNITY IDENTITY FORMATION

Introduction

Over the last two decades, Taiwan has accepted huge nurabers of ' marriage migrants ' from South East Asia due to the gap between the number of men and women available for marriage (Chen, 2006) Meanwhile in Vietnara, as a resuU of the baby boora in the posl-Vielnam-war era, the feraale population able to marry exceeds that of most developed East Asian countries Vietnam has become a marriage migrant export country (Lan, 2008b; Wang, 2007), contributing to the likelihood of matches between Taiwanese males and Vietnamese feraales; unsurprisingly, there are nuraerous raarriageable feraales who choose to seek an unknown future in Taiwan According to recent studies, Vietnam provides the largest ratio of foreign spouses in Taiwan By 2005, the rate of newborn infants whose mothers are from South East Asia was sixty times greater than ten years ago (Hgc sinhieh & Wang, 2008) That aside, approximately 17% of the newly married feraale populafion in Taiwan have a South East Asian background, with over 100,000 introduced to their husbands through agents (Chi, Jhou, & LIge sinhieh, 2009) It has been noted that the greater the irabalanee in the marriageable percentage of females and males in a given place, the raore 'foreign brides' are introduced (Su, 2006) To disfinguish the distribution of ' foreign brides ' nafionalifies, Vietnaraese feraales constitute about one fifth of the total, and raainly raarry to Taiwanese speaking farailies, ethnic Hokklo', which is the biggest group

in Taiwan (Chi el al., 2009)

This paper targets the discovery of the everyday life practices which influence the social identity fonnation and the intersubjectivity with local Taiwanese; the former signifies the representation of oneself, while the latter connotes the capacity

of communieafing between two individuals or groups (Wan, Chiu, Peng, & Tara, 2007) Absolutely every Vietnaraese woman is unique and differs from local Taiwanese women; however, several situations and occasions were found from them are familiar with my migration experience in Sydney, the experience to be a Taiwanese female migrant in Australia The probleras of raigrants are generally the sarae, marginalisafion, financial insecurity, devoice and the confusion of identities

as Davidson concluded in his Chinese iraraigration study in Sydney (Kuah-Pearee

& Davidson, 2008)

In order to support the arguraent points in this paper, the qualitative fieldwork was undertaken in Taichung, central Taiwan, exclusively with Vietnaraese

1 Ethnical Hokklo principally refers to the early Chinese immigration before the 19th century from Hokkien Province in Southern China, which is currently the largest ethnic group speaking Taiwanese, approximately 70 % of the whole population(Hsu & Chen, 2004)

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iraraigranl woraen Particularly, in- depth interviews and close observafions are utilised widely and intrinsically over tirae Conducting interviews and participating

in social events with interviewees allowed the author to obtain a broader depiction

of their everyday life; meanwhile, the snowball technique was applied to the sampling collection (Denzin & Lincoln, 2005) Since Vietnamese social structure is essentially faraily- based collectivism, to extend the existing social network has always made it easier to acquire raore inforraalion frora participants (Nguyen, 2009) By the sarae token, a researcher needs not only be a researcher, but also a part of the eoraraunily; thus, the ethnographic fieldwork could be facilitated by raulual trust Nonetheless, at this stage, restrictions exist in that the samples do not cover those who attended tertiary education and who are currently single or divorced without children

Identity Negotiation

Undeniably, the self-identification of an immigrant may switch to being a cifizen within the migrating background over time, where an individual does not see himself/herself as a ' guest ' relocated in another state anymore (Faucher, 2010) Accordingly, Michael Foucaull's coneepfion of technology of itself is that certain techniques assist to ' train ' the body for being subject to the unspoken rules or written regulations in a social context, so that the body can constantly connect with society in a ' suitable ' way (M Foucaull, Martin, Gutinan, & Flulton, 1988) The technology of itself is the tactic which immigrant women adopt to integrate into a new cultural sphere in everyday life (de Certeau, 2002) fo some extent, immigrants' identity is a complex of multiple social experiences, is a result of everyday life practices, is a reflection of xenophobia in the host country, and is a push-and-pull effect of cultural symbolic power between country of origin and host countiy (T T N Ho, 2012; Huang, Teo, & Yeoh, 2000; Kristeva, 1982 )

Moreover, in elaboration of the identity of the immigrant, identity is more than who I am, it is the issue of perfoiming the self, too Goffman constituted a fiieatrical metaphor which considers life the theatre, the individual as the performer, and others as the audience, with the laclics of daily life as dramaturgy; people undergo impression management to examine whether the representation of self achieves acceptance from the audience or not (Goffman, 1959) For the immigration case, the expectation, norm, and cultural value become measurements to evaluate immigrants' performance as acceptable or not because every of them has ' foreignness ' to some degree; iramigranls are stared at by everyone else and Iheraselves, too (Kristeva' 1982 ; Swann, 1987) For that reason, iraraigration is principally the process of identity negotiation, where immigrants choose to perform

or to represent their identities between their original culture and the host society

SOCIAL COMMUNITY IDENTITY FORMATION

Work E^mpowerraenl

"My husband paid the air ticket for my mother's trip to Taiwan, but all the household expenditure Is from my earnlngl"

— Lanh,from Thanh Hoa, North Vietnam, now lives In Taichung City

In fact, interviewee Lanh is the mid- 40s wife of a furniture worker and a mother with one son By engaging in her packing job at a small faraily-run egg farm, she bears the burden of raising her child and the responsibility of raost household chores According to Assar's argument, many iraraigranl woraen involved in repetitive work, which is fundaraentally an extension of doraestie chores, such as laundry, cooking, childeare, caring for the elderly, cleaning, and eusloraer service, requiring only siraple skills , where feraales seeraingly stay in the circle of the household (Assar, 1999) Further, repetitive, trivial and informal labour or self-employment among iraraigrants is typically woraen's work; raoreover, different versions of jobs with feraininity are reserved for raigrating women, such as tailors, food vendors, hand-made accessories stalls, raanicure shops, hair salons, cleaning etc (K.-ra J Ho, 2005; Standi, 1999) Correspondingly, Chinami Kasania asserted that many foreign wives are ' target earners ' for the purpose of iraproving the original faraily's economic situafion and their quality of future life, which is why these job categories would be their first preference (Kasaraa^fBlT^tS:, 1991) Although Lanh adraitted that her job is repetitive, boring, and quite fragraentary compared with the farming she helped her parents with back to Vietnam, she regards the paid job as a power for herself to take up a finn position in husband's faraily Put differenfiy, her raonthly wage in a Carabodian shoe factory was approxiraately $130 USD fifteen years ago, but her current salary is three to four firaes that "The raore the money, the better the job" , she stated in a eonfidenfial tone

Adversely, the ' deskilling ' phenomenon which is often discussed in Australia for migrants with full qualifications but are employed by labour intensive work is rarely applied to South East Asian immigrants in Taiwan (Chiu, 2005) To explicate, deskilling as a means of decreasing production costs increases productivity for the sake of a nation (Braverraan, 1974); but little regard to previous work raakes prior trainings a waste Consequently, the feeling of being deskilled is derived frora the eraotion of devaluing one's effort toward social capital and econoraic capital, as though the long term investment of education or great syrabolic reputafion inside the ethnical eoraraunily is lost (Creese & Wiebe, 2012; Man, 2004) Nathalie Nguyen sumraarised Vietnamese women's stories in a broad range of age and social background, discovering that many have the deskilling problera while they settle in Australia (Nguyen, 2003, 2005, 2009) As menfioned

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above, the reason why in the Taiwanese framework that the immigrants' deskilling phenomenon is atypical can be found in Lanh's first citation Before coming to Taiwan as care-giver', she already had a good opportunity for earning money Unquestionably, to be a bread winner and a person with significant productivity for the household reinforces the sense of presence, sense of belonging, and sense of self (Chai, 1987) To sura up, Lanh now views herself as a main supporter of a Taiwanese faraily, describing sorae doinesfie affairs as if being a local Taiwanese Obasan" so that the preoccupied eraphasis on erapowerinent for Vietnamese females

is rather obvious rather than deskilling or upward mobility in the social hierarchy Subsequenfiy, this is generally the situation in Taiwan where Vietnamese females are positioned as a group alienated from the majority and labelled as a business raarriage component in the immigration process Predominantly, ihey marry to males who have less social advantages in the marriage market, which refers to men who are divorced or widowed, have the least economic mobility or are

in an impaired physical condition by Taiwanese standards (ITgc sinhia, 2007) Likewise, in Australia, suburbs inhabited by Vietnamese used to be famous for being drug capitals or smuggling centres Cabramatta, Bankslown, Canipsic, and Fairfield etc., at present, keep being stereotyped as ghettos and districts where evils exist (Brook, 2008; Dunn, 1998)

In Nathalie Nguyen's memoirs of Vietnamese women in Australia, working class Vietnamese women fled to Australia met a similar problem as well; their vocational qualifications were not recognised in an English speaking country or they had not yet finished professional training; but in reality, it was hard at the very beginning to hold an occupation requiring more skills (Nguyen, 2003, 2005) In actuality, and in spite of the fact that a shortage of Mandarin language education is fairly common for newcomers, marital status can determine Vietnamese women's lifelong learning and continuing educafion in Taiwan (Wu, 2001) Most Vietnamese wives in Taiwan were introduced to their husbands by mutual acquaintances, such

as employers or m.arriage agents (Chen, 2006; Chi el al., 2009; FIge sinhia, 2006; Wang & Chang, 2002) Again, the husbands' socio-economic posifions shaped their upward motivation for climbing the social ladder in marriage life; in other words, autonomy dominates the latter mobility and independence for their future in Taiwan Instead, most of post-war Vietnamese ladies in Australia are unrestrained

1 The first lime she came to Taiwan was as her neighbour's domestic helper, afterwards, the grandfather of the neighbour did matchmaking for her husband and her

2 "Obasan" is the Taiwanese word for a middle- aged or older woman which is borrowed fron-Japanese

SOCIAL COMMUNITY IDENTITY FORMATION

to remain single get married, even if they select non-Vietnamese Australians to raarry (Nguyen, 2005, 2009) On the contrary, not only does inforraalion asyinraelry occur, but also the arrival pre-requireinenl is a wedding eereraony, where strong reliance affiliated with husbands have frequenfiy happened to Vietnamese wives, limiting either their economic or spatial mobility in patriarchal Taiwan at least in the early stage of their residency (Wu, 2001)

Marriage Migrafion

"// had already been poor enough back In Vietnam Why would L pick up a

man who has no money (to marry) if I come to Taiwan? "

— Phuong, from Bae Lieu, South Vietnam

A Vietnamese woraan landing in Taiwan through matrimony must clarify her

physical fitness and social abilities for adaptation Owing to the grounded stereotype in public, native Taiwanese still habitually look upon raarriage raigralion

as a social ' problera ' instead of an irreversible necessity (Hgc sinhia, 2007; Lan, 2008a) In consideration to Phuong's opinion about whether the stereotyped image

of Vietnamese material girl was true or not, she admitted to it but reaffirmed that they play a huge role in home econoraics, too In other words, Vietnamese wives are described as foreign brides who are perceived by dominant mass media or even their husbands' farailies in Taiwan as fertile brides and domestic labourers Also, Hgc sinhia (2007) suggested that migrant workers and marriage migrants are considered as ' low quality ' in Taiwan by the ruling classes Conversely, these scholars also suggest that wealthy Taiwanese emigrating to North America or Australia are regarded as ' low quality ' migrants flooding the country Marriage between Taiwanese males and Vietnamese females is generally considered as a cross-boundary business being led by ideological stale apparatuses (Wang & Chang, 2002) In accordance with activist Andrea Dworkin's report, feraale raigrants are inscribed as multiple minorities since they are equipped with two or raore features deemed as disadvantages, which include visibility, power imbalance, discrimination, legitimacy, and self-consciousness etc (Dworkin & Dworkin, 1999) Whether Vietnamese women are in Australia or Taiwan as newcomers from

a different national background, gender and race result in double marginalisation and vulnerability when they interact with locals

In Phuong's case, she opened a betel nut kiosk' in front of her husband's serai-detaehed house on a country road With a brand new laptop and latest iPhone, she

1 Betel Nut Kiosks are popular among truck drivers and blue collar workers in Taiwan They are usually located along the country roads and highways in satellite cities Many young ladies sell betel nut ( a natural stimulant originating from indigenous Taiwanese ), cold drinks, and cigarettes in a small clear kiosk to male customers

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expressed her opinion that working as a betel nut lady gives her something to be involved in and meet new friends in the community During working hours, Phuong listens to Mandarin songs, and states that her husband's adult children hold a neutral attitude toward her as she is the young second wife of an old widowed man, and, she is a foreigner Though giving birth to a child has decreased her homesickness afterwards, it occurred after two years of arrival So, then, she begun to job hunt and eventually ran a small business at home To such a extent, Chinarai Kasama suggested that possessing a career for a "foreign bride" can elevate self-eonlldenee, strengthen local connections and even allow thera to ' be herself ' in domeslies, which boosts the divorce rale reasonably (Kasaraa^fHIT^t^, 1991) In an ethnographical observation of Phuong, sometimes she argues with her husband due

to financial affairs She has her own income and a Taiwanese driver's licence; raoreover, by passing the driver's licence exam, which her husband could not iraagine she could do, her expression revealed a great smile of fulfilment "Who Needs Identity?, "answered by Stuart Hall in a de- and re-eonslruetion perspective

of cultural production (Flail, 1996) An identity of being can be represented via consumpfion or evolving actions within certain ideologies which the target group possesses (Jhally, 1989) Indeed, regardless of reaching the level of " being Taiwanese ' through whatever dramaturgy or laclics, Vietnamese women need an identity in Taiwan Not only for enhancing the home, but by working many Vietnamese women shape the identity of place and often the identity of a mother and economic pillar (Chiu, 2005; Kasama^SfHlT^?!^, 1991) "1 reckon I am a Taiwanese" , suggested by Phuong before wrapping up the conversation

Furthermore, immigration policies and some opportunities offered from the slate apparatus is building the horizon of their future Taiwanese life; more specifically, to encode a discourse of immigration for what the ruling class wish new immigrants to believe in (Allhusser, 1971; Michel Foucaull, 1991) For Marxism, it is subject to production There is a typical capitalist way to formulate the ' Taiwanese dream ' of striving for a free and brilliant life for blue- collar- class marriage immigrants, but the prerequisite is to contribute diligently Insofar as freedom is concerned, it consists of endeavouring reproduction activities or productivity, and is altemptable towards the vision of achieving the ideal life in a relevantly better host society (Marx, 1894)

Nevertheless, the milieu which raarriage immigrants experience in host societies would vary depending on autonomy, mobility, and visibility Especially, their vocational apfitude in original social hierarchy or husband's family background has an effect on their everyday life; sfill, the most significant factor

SOCIAL COMMUNITY IDENTITY FORMATION

toward accessible mobility is the marital status and quality of marriage, which are their backups in the new society Thus, how much aulonoray in raarriage options is crucial for visibility after raigrating through raarriage, and it also depends on whether they strive for establishing their self-identity via everyday tactics (driver licence, vocational corapetence, and the husband's faraily recognition) when the socio-eeonoinie raobility is less in Taiwan

Same Ethnicilv or Same Culture?

"I feel myself Is a Taiwanese, 1 am not hanging out with those Vietnamese women in the factory My best friend is from Guangdong, Mainland China Some /Vietnamese) are uneducated; they speak Mandarin with a vulgar Vietnamese accent "

— Llnh,from Saigon 3'' generation Chinese-Vietnamese

As claimed by every Vietnaraese spouse invited to participate in this study, they have received approxiraately three raonlhge sinh of Mandarin and Taiwanese cultural classes before departure Obviously, this rainiinal educafion cannot bridge the language barrier ranch between husbands and their iraraigranl wives Meanwhile, Mei-Yun Wu investigated the relationship between Mandarin literacy and psychological self-esteera, eraotional independence, and social integration in local coramunities as well as interpersonal fields She illustrates the instance of empowerment in feminine awareness arising from both the Vietnamese-background mentees and Taiwanese feraale volunteer raentors (Wu, 2001) In Wu's ease study, language is a knowledge tool, erapowering the progress of raentees to develop new understandings in their new environraents The eoraraunily participating experience for mentees, on a long term basis, is beneficial in building a sense of belonging among current community residents In short, the stronger social identity of the host country is built in, the lower percent of marginalisation would be fell in the new environment

F^lxplicitly, sooner or later, iraraigrafion is a lifelong period of integration and even assimilation, an often frustrafing task to survive, reside, and integrate with local Taiwanese, and the conflict of assirailafion eventually affect the next generation Sorae authors have stated that parents who possess a higher level language ability or speak less of their raother tongue, produce a greater proportion

of children that master the targeted cultural knowledge of the host country (Liu, 1999; Tan, 2002) Besides, though it has been acknowledged that mastering a language aids in climbing the social ladder of the host society, first generation iraraigranl raothers raay not abandon their native ethnic identity The favourability

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and the attitude towards language raassively influence Taiwan's language prospects,

as reported by Wi-vun Chiung (2001)

Notwilhgc sinhtanding, if one presuraes that language is bonded with ethnicity, do Vietnaraese brides of Chinese deseendenls integrate into Taiwanese society raore successfully?

Much literature has confirmed the benefits of cross boundary for second generation immigrants, border-crossing looks like others expects people with immigrafion backgrounds to perform Yet, Chinese-Vietnamese women or Kinh Vietnamese' who are frora well-off backgrounds will try to eraphasise this connection with Taiwanese culture, and may attempt to dismiss their Vietnamese roots when needed On the one hand, Linh, a third generafion Chinese-Vietnamese lady, never spoke a single sentence of the Teow Chew language" in her early life .At the lime of interview, she persistenfiy reassured interviewer that she just happened

to be born in Saigon, but her soul and her perspective is completely Taiwanese Without quoting her nationality or racial background, it is hard for acquaintances to tell where she is really frora On the other hand, Lanh, a previous migrant worker and now a Taiwanese wi asked someone to bring her a Vietnamese writing handbook from Hanoi for her only child Noticeably, the attitude towards ethnic language is vital to national identity, where a mother's identity experience in Taiwan shapes her children's language favourability to Vietnamese Unsurprisingly, with respect to Lanh's national identity, she immediately replied that she is both Taiwanese and Vietnamese

It should be noted that despite a Chinese background but lacking Mandarin language knowledge neither gains any strength in accent nor reduces learning lime All participants throughout this project expressed their ideas in Mandarin and learned Mandarin merely through listening and speaking to people Regardless, whilst a female Chinese-Vietnamese raay insist that her racial, geographical, or cultural linkage resides with Taiwan, even at a novice local Taiwanese language level, she aims al getting the ' stamp ' of cultural proximity from natives indicating she is no different than Taiwanese women (Chiu, 2005) If so, she is rather differeni from those Kinh Vietnamese brides, and has had more schooling before or within a privileged social background Similariy, the first or the 1.5 generation' Vietnamese

L Kinh is the largest ethnic group in Vietnam

2 Teow Chew and Cantonese are two major dialect for Chinese descendent in Vietnam

3 Arriving in Australia as a teen or sponsored child

SOCIAL COMMUNITYIDENTITY FORMATION

Australian ladies who were previously overseas students in Western countries, in particular, those who chose an inlereullural marriage to Caucasian men, will slate that some Western lifestyle aspects or characlerislies of them had forraed on a long term basis before relocating to Australia In other words, they have already been acculluralcd, open-rainded, and Westernised in nature (Nguyen, 2005) Iraplieitly,

as Franz Fanon coraposed his theory "laetificafion" in 1967, it is still astonishing that nowadays minorities are taken for granted to seek the recognition frora the raajorily (Chiu, 2005; Fanon, 2008) Minorifies unwittingly reveal envious eyes of the features of belonging to the raajorily, such as skin colour, hair colour, body figure, accent, mindset, lifestyle, habits and mannerisras (the way to carry yourself) could be seen as tokens of whiteness (Bourdieu, 2002) More accurately, there is a ' wish ' to become while, to whiten, to cultivate, to purify and to assimilate the minority self so that they can ascend the social ladder until they ' feel ' they have achieved merabership of ' real ' Australian / Taiwanese to be part of them (Tan, 2002; Tsai, 2006) However, in the vein of Fanon's aspect, even though a darker skinned person has achieved high-levels of education, prestigious achievements or numerous efforts to be reckoned as a ' whiteness feature ', also, has married to a Caucasian partner, himself and anyone else would still evaluate him through ' white eyes ', stereotypes to non-Caucasian people frora Caucasians' standards (Fanon, 2008) Sarcastically, this third person's consciousness keeps functioning on non- Anglo Australians/ non Han-Taiwaneses, which raakes them eager to seek the approval from majorities hence they could be counted as ' truly laetified ' regardless of whether this wish is ever fully fulfilled (Fanon, 2008)

Likewise, a darker skinned south east Asian continuously inspects herself by quasi whiter skinned Taiwanese ' conceptions, where obtaining acceptance from them has always been the first mission of Vietnamese wives, specifically Chinese-Vietnamese Frankly, this will forever be an unattainable mission for first generation iraraigrants in Taiwan

Conclusion

To conclude, for the social eoraraunily identity of feraale Vietnamese immigrants in Taiwan, the process of identity formation is associated with the idenfily negotiation between two cultural entitlements in everyday life Firstly, these migrants' sense of belonging, self-identification, autonomy in marriage, visibility in community and their spatial mobility between Vietnam and Taiwan all profoundly affect their understanding of Taiwan It is also important to maintain a career in Taiwanese society because it is the source towards erapowerraent and self-awareness in the doraestie field As a result, their aulonoray and independence are