Mika Toyota

Editorial introduction: international marriage, rights and the state in East and Southeast Asia

The dramatic increase in intra-Asia cross-nationality marriage is a distinct, yet relatively under-researched, aspect of globalization and regionalization. Most existing research focuses on individual experiences of international marriage, but articles in this issue are intended to examine the politics of legal recognition: namely, how states categorize, legitimate and de-legitimate various intimacies, and how gender, religion, nationality and class play their roles in this process. More specifically, the articles address the following four themes: (1) the links between the institutionalization of marriage and ideologies of family in the process of nation-building; (2) the coexistence and conflicts between different legal systems vis-à-vis marriage and the related social implications; (3) gender and its implications for access to citizenship; and (4) recent policy changes in nationality laws and the reconstruction of ‘national identities’ in the transnational context. Thus, collectively this volume deepens our understanding of citizenship issues in East and Southeast Asia by teasing out how, in the case of foreign spouses, membership of a nation is determined legally, politically, culturally and socially.

Freedom Found? The Later-life Transnational Migration of Japanese Women to Western Australia and Thailand

Despite being a relatively recent research topic, studies on transnational later-life retirement have noted the diversity of the phenomenon. This study of Japanese women in later-life moving to live in Western Australia and Thailand adds to the diversity by examining the gendered dimension of the phenomenon. Through an analysis of the dominant narrative of “seeking for freedom” in their motivation to leave Japan, the paper examines what are the expressions of freedom as perceived by the women and the challenges confronting them in later-life migration. Their subjective experiences reflect migration in later-life as a dynamic process, and later-life migration as more complex than mere classification of their motivations into amenity-seeking or otherwise.

HEALTH CONCERNS OF ‘INVISIBLE’1 CROSS-BORDER DOMESTIC MAIDS IN THAILAND

With the rising number of sex venues along the Thai–Burmese border and the perceived links between migration and the HIV epidemic, the Thai authorities and NGOs have begun concerning themselves with health problems of immigrant workers and seeking effective social welfare programmes for them. However, this paper argues that formal service programmes targeting specific groups may not be enough and notes a need to call attention to officially invisible migrants, particularly domestic maids from Burma who are more vulnerable precisely because they are ‘invisible’. The ‘maid trade’ from Burma to Thailand is statistically invisible firstly because domestic work is not recognized as a formal occupation either by the employers or the employees and therefore, they fail to be registered in census data. Burmese female domestic workers in Thailand are normally recruited through informal channels facilitated by regional trans-national networks that also engage in human smuggling. Domestic workers remain invisible in Thailand also because most of them are live-in and tend to work for one family for lengthy periods of time. They are normally out of reach of labour unions, religious organizations, non-governmental organizations and public health services. The fear of being caught as ‘illegal workers’ by the authorities further hinders their contact with the public. This paper also attributes the migrants’ invisibility to the tradition of ‘domestic servitude’ in Thai society. Using three detailed case studies, the paper demonstrates how the invisibility has contributed to the health vulnerability of these women in their daily lives.

Cross-Border Mobility and Social Networks: Akha Caravan Traders

The development of new infrastructure linking the northern margins of Southeast Asia with the southern perimeter of China is retracing historical trade routes that once connected the indigenous peoples of the region. This chapter is an attempt to provide some empirical evidence of Akha1 cross-border trading activities between southwest China, Myanmar,2 and Thailand. Trade and commerce activities are found to be important components of Akha society and they especially illuminate the dynamics of Akha mobility and social networks. Trade activities also shed light on the way in which the Akha interact with other ethnic groups and the way in which their ethnic identities are manipulated in such a context.

Ethnographic experiments in transnational mobility studies

Transnational mobility has become a ubiquitous phenomenon. Yet it is inherently transient and unstable. How then can we analyse it ethnographically? This special issue presents a number of methodological experiments that explore the interfaces between individuals’ migratory experiences that are always context specific and can never be fixed, and institutional, structural and historical forces that are themselves constantly changing. The articles respectively explore ‘multi-scalar’, ‘tandem’, ‘multi-media’, ‘centripetal’, and ‘lateral’ ethnographies as new modes of field research, writing, and analysis.