Obedience or Resistance?:New Southeast Asian Immigrant Women’s Experiences of Caring for Family
Date Issued
2011
Date
2011
Author(s)
Cheng, Shih-Ying
Abstract
New Southeast Asian immigrant women, who have moved to Taiwan through marriage, are commonly stigmatized as ‘marauders of welfare resources’ by Taiwanese media. However, drawing on my observation and by reviewing some existing empirical studies, I find them working diligently as laborers in labor markets and as caregivers within their family. Thus, they do not seem to be ‘marauders of welfare resources’, but ‘providers of care services’, who ironically compensating the state’s failure. What roles do new Southeast Asian immigrant women actually take on in Taiwanese society? When their husband and his next of kin demand them to assume the role of family caregiver, is it possible to say no? Given their extensive grounds of being foreign, being discriminated against and being distant from the original family, how can they fight their way? This research intends to raise the following questions: 1) what are the distinctive experiences of new Southeast Asian immigrant women as family caregiver? 2) What mechanisms make these women obey, or resist, the role as family caregiver? And 3) how do they resist this role? To approach these questions, I follow the qualitative research paradigm, conducted my field work in the metropolitan area of Taipei and Qingshui Township of Taichung County, and had in-depth interviews with 17 new immigrant females (5 from Indonesia and 12 from Vietnam). My research findings to the above questions are demonstrated respectively in three chapters of this thesis: Family Caregivers Who Crossed Ocean to Taiwan, Mechanisms Which Force Women to Obey or Resist the Role as Family Caregiver, and Weapons of the Weak. On the basis of this research, I contend that ‘sweet’ home not only cultivates the very mechanism producing ‘good/bad’ women, but transmits and replicates patriarchal oppression. Although women are as the oppressed by patriarchy, these immigrant females’ experiences reveal that it is also women who are made the essential person to convey patriarchy, which is then inherited from generation to generation, endlessly.
Subjects
new Southeast Asian immigrant women
family caregiver
patriarchal oppression
obedience
resistance
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