This paper discusses the historical development of Taiwan's immigration policy since 1949, the demographic changes in the past two decades that shaped it, and its impact on female marriage migrants and migrant workers. Taiwan's current immigration policy is based on three ideologies: the patriarchal jus sanguinis principle, population quality, and national security. The result is a contradictory policy for marriage and labor migration. As regards the former, many Taiwanese men try to find wives from overseas, on the one hand, while the government strictly controls the entry of ‘low quality’ women from China and Southeast Asia, on the other. In the same manner, the policy allows high-skilled labor to move freely in and out of Taiwan, while it restricts the stay of blue-collar migrant workers and excludes Chinese nationals from working in Taiwan due to national security reasons. The paper also explores the possible impact of China's rising political economy on Taiwan's future policies, particularly on Taiwan's jus sanguinis immigration ideology.
This paper examines marriage migration in Asia through the lens of transnationalism. We pull together results from various studies we conducted on marriage migration in Vietnam and Taiwan between 2004 and 2010, using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Our main contention is that marriage migration constitutes a significant vector of social change for both sending and receiving areas of migrants. We examine the gendered aspects of this transformation, since the vast majority of migrant spouses in Asia are women. We use the concept of 'transnationalism from below' to frame the social impact of marriage migration. In this paper, we first review activities of marriage migrants and their families that constitute either economic or
In contemporary Taiwan, arranged marriage seems a remote legend. However, the mainstream ideology of romantic love and marriage is a recent phenomenon that started only half a century ago. The debate on love and marriage that took place a hundred years ago has been reopened in current Taiwanese society on transnational marriage and same-sex marriage debates, which are regarded as non-conforming marriages in a specific historical period. We argue that the hegemonic ideology of romantic love has produced a powerful exclusionary effect on cross-border marriages based on ethnic and class discrimination, but also an inclusive effect on same-sex marriage in present Taiwan society, which underscores the power of the discourse of love in modern Taiwanese social life. The love discourse can be progressive in a specific historical conjuncture, but it can also be regressive by excluding other forms of intimacy.
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