Rethinking Subjectivity and Remittances of Isan Women in Transnational Marriage Contexts
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
This article reviews studies on the concepts of subjectivity and remittances among Isan women married to Western men within the complex context of transnational life. Drawing on anthropological and feminist perspectives, it explores how remittances are not merely an economic phenomenon but also a social and cultural practice that reflects relationships, emotions, and power negotiations of Isan women across borders. The study argues that the notion of the “dutiful daughter,” often used to describe Isan women who send money home, represents only one dimension of subjectivity constructed within moral structures and social discourses. In reality, each woman defines and practices “sending money home” in diverse ways - whether as a means of maintaining family ties, negotiating power within marriage, or asserting her cultural identity. This article therefore highlights that understanding the subjectivity of Isan women in the context of transnational marriage requires moving beyond stereotypes and examining the intricate interplay between economy, culture, and emotion embedded in the practice of remittance.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
All written articles published on Journal of Social Sciences is its author’s opinion which is not belonged to Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University or is not in a responsibility of the journal’s editorial committee’s members.
References
Angeles, Leonora C, and Siriji Sunanta. 2009. “Demanding daughter duty: Gender, community, village transformation, and transnational marriages in Northeast Thailand.” Critical Asian Studies, 41(4), 549–574. https://doi.org/10.1080/14672710903328021.
Braidotti, Rosi. 2013. The Posthuman. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Butler, Judith. 1990. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge.
Chantavanich, Supang, Suteera Nittayananta, Prapairat Ratanaolan-Mix, Pataya Ruenkaew. 2001. The migration of Thai women to Germany: Causes, living conditions and impacts for Thailand and Germany. Bangkok: Asian Research Center for Migration, Chulalongkorn University.
Cohen, Erik. 1996. “Open-Ended Prostitution as a Skilful Game of Luck: Opportunity, Risk and Security among Tourist-Oriented Prostitutes in a Bangkok Soi.” In Thai Tourism: Hill Tribes, Islands and Open-Ended Prostitution, 269–291. Bangkok: White Lotus.
Crenshaw, Kimberlé. 1991. Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color. Stanford Law Review, 43(6): 1241-1299. http://doi.org/10.2307/1229039.
Duangkumnerd, Vithaya. 2009. “The Intermarriage of Thai Women in Germany.” Doctoral Dissertation, National Institute of Development Administration. NIDA Digital Repository.
Fraser, Nancy. 2013. Fortunes of Feminism: From State-Managed Capitalism to Neoliberal Crisis. London: Verso.
Fresnoza-Flot, Asuncion, and Sirijit Sunanta. 2022. “Challenging Stereotypes in Europe-Thailand Transnational Migration: Non-Conventional Unions, Mobilities, and (Re)Productive Labor.” Advances in Southeast Asian Studies 15(1): 139–157.
Haklin, K.usuma 2023. “Literature Review.” In Remittances of Thai Female Marriage Migrants in Germany: Motives, Challenges, and Family Relationships. M.A, New York: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-41686-7_2.
Haraway, Donna. 1991.” A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century.” In Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. 149- 181. New York: Routledge.
Hoang, Lan Anh, and Brenda S. A. Yeoh. 2015. “Introduction: Migration, remittances and the family.” In Transnational labour migration, remittances and the changing family in Asia, edited by Lan Anh Hoang and Brenda S. A. Yeoh, 1–23. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137506863_1.
Ishii, Sari K. (ed.). 2016. Marriage migration in Asia: Emerging minorities at the frontiers of nation-states. Kyoto: NUS Press in association with Kyoto University Press.
Jaisuekun, Kakanang, and Sirijit Sunanta. 2021. “Remittances as Social Practices and Agents of Change: The Future of Transnational Society.” In The Palgrave Handbook of Gender and Migration, edited by Claudia Mora and Nicola Piper, 139–157. Cham: Springer.
Lapanun, Patcharin. 2018. “It’s Not Just About Money: Transnational Marriages of Isan Women.” Journal of Mekong Societies 8(3): 1–28.
McRobbie, Angela. 2009. The Aftermath of Feminism: Gender, Culture and Social Change. London: SAGE Publications.
Meyer, Sarah. 2023. “Introduction: Theorizing Remittances - Social Positioning and the Making of Migrant Subjectivity.” In Remittances as Social Practices and Agents of Change, edited by Sarah Meyer and Christine Ströhle. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81504-2_1.
Mills, Mary Beth. 2012. “Thai Mobilities and Cultural Citizenship.” Critical Asian Studies 44(1): 85–112. https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.2012.644888.
Mix, Prapairat R, and Nicola Piper. 2003. Does marriage “liberate” women from sex work? Thai women in Germany. In Wife or Worker? Asian women and migration, edited by Prapairat R. Mi, and Nicola Piper. 53–71. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. 1988. “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses.” Feminist Review 30: 61–88.
Osaki, Keiko. 2003. “Migrant Remittances in Thailand: Economic Necessity or Social Norm?” Journal of Population Research 20(2): 203–222. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03031852.
Parreñas, Rhacel Salazar. 2001. Servants of Globalization: Women, Migration, and Domestic Work. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Plambech, Sine. 2010. “From Thailand with love: Transnational migration in the global care economy.” In Sex Trafficking, Human Rights, and Social Justice. Edited by Tiantian Zheng. 47–61. London: Routledge.
Ruenkaew, Pataya. 2017. “Victims of Traffic in Women, Marriage Migrants, and Community Formation: A History of Migration of Thai Women to Germany.” In Gendered Encounters between Germany and Asia: Transnational Perspectives since 1800, edited by Joanne M. Cho and Douglas T. McGetchin, 253–274. London: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59737-9_13.
Sinsuwan, Woramon. 2017. Thai marriage migrants in Germany and their employment dilemma after the Residence Act of 2005. Berlin: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. https://doi.org/10.25595/1194.
Statham, Paul. 2021. “Living the long term consequences of Thai Western marriage migration: The radical life course transformations of women who partner older Westerners.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 46(8): 1562–1587. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2019.1565403.
Sunanta, Sirijit, and Leonora C. Angeles. 2013. “From Rural Life to Transnational Wife: Agrarian Transition, Gender Mobility, and Intimate Globalization in Transnational Marriages in Northeast Thailand.” Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography 20(6): 699–717. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2012.709827.
Weedon, Chris. 1997. Feminist Practice and Poststructuralist Theory. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell.
