Catherine Locke

Migration, Remittances, Livelihood Trajectories, and Social Resilience

Abstract We argue that all aspects of demographic change, including migration, impact on the social resilience of individuals and communities, as well as on the sustainability of the underlying resource base. Social resilience is the ability to cope with and adapt to environmental and social change mediated through appropriate institutions. We investigate one aspect of the relationship between demographic change, social resilience, and sustainable development in contemporary coastal Vietnam: the effects of migration and remittances on resource-dependent communities in population source areas. We find, using longitudinal data on livelihood sources, that emigration and remittances have offsetting effects on resilience within an evolving social and political context. Emigration is occurring concurrently with, not driving, the expansion of unsustainable coastal aquaculture. Increasing economic inequality also undermines social resilience. At the same time diversification and increasing income levels are beneficial for resilience.

Visiting Marriages and Remote Parenting: Changing Strategies of Rural–Urban Migrants to Hanoi, Vietnam

Abstract Despite the ongoing centrality of marriage and reproduction in Vietnam, family and spousal separation is an increasing reality for many poor rural–urban migrants. We offer a social relational analysis of reproduction to explore how migrant men and women in their peak child-bearing and child-rearing years negotiate conjugal strategies and expectations. Labour migration for these poor men and women involves high costs for family relations, social identities and emotional experiences which are strongly patterned by gender. This social relational analysis of reproduction deepens analyses of changing marriage relations and studies of internal labour migration.

Bringing analysis of gender and social–ecological resilience together in small-scale fisheries research: Challenges and opportunities

The demand for gender analysis is now increasingly orthodox in natural resource programming, including that for small-scale fisheries. Whilst the analysis of social–ecological resilience has made valuable contributions to integrating social dimensions into research and policy-making on natural resource management, it has so far demonstrated limited success in effectively integrating considerations of gender equity. This paper reviews the challenges in, and opportunities for, bringing a gender analysis together with social–ecological resilience analysis in the context of small-scale fisheries research in developing countries. We conclude that rather than searching for a single unifying framework for gender and resilience analysis, it will be more effective to pursue a plural solution in which closer engagement is fostered between analysis of gender and social-ecological resilience whilst preserving the strengths of each approach. This approach can make an important contribution to developing a better evidence base for small-scale fisheries management and policy.

Do Male Migrants ‘Care’? How Migration is Reshaping the Gender Ethics of Care

ABSTRACT Emerging literature about male migrants and changing family relations suggests the importance of revisiting the gendered politics of current analyses of the global chains of care. This paper situates care in relation to social reproduction and considers how men ‘do’ care and what this means for (re)constructing masculinities and class in the context of different migration regimes. The paper argues that a better analysis of the contradictions that exist for migrant men and their masculinities in performing caring roles (as sons, brothers, husbands and fathers) across particular settings is needed. Deepening the analyses of the global chains of care in this way has significant implications for understanding how gendered inequality is being (re)configured and for debates about the gendered ethics of care.

Book review: Pearson, Ruth and Kusakabe, Kyoko. 2012: Burmese migrant women factory workers: Thailand’s hidden workforce

Pearson, Ruth and Kusakabe, Kyoko. 2012: Burmese migrant women factory workers: Thailand’s hidden workforce. London and New York: Zed. 205 pp. £70 hardback. £16.99 paperback. £19.98 e-book. ISBN: 978 84813-985-5 (hardback), ISBN: 978-1-84813 984-8 (paperback), ISBN: 9781848139879 (e-book).