The article discusses the transformations of gender relations due to transnational migration between Bangladesh and Malaysia. It is shown that the uneven economic development in Asia during the last decades has not only initiated new migration movements and patterns but has also led to a feminization of migration, which has resulted in transformations of gender relations. It is argued that the increased migration of Bangladeshi women as temporary labour migrants to Malaysia and the transnational discourses and practices these movements have initiated are leading to renegotiations and transformations of the existing gender order. Networks and transnational activities of Bangladeshi male migrants are analysed in order to show, first, that transnational spaces are gendered and, second, how transnational influences are changing power and gender relations. The successful exploitation of global markets by female migrants has not only resulted in new migration patterns and new gendered labour markets but has become an important agent for transformations of gender relations.
This article concerns a dilemma that can be observed world-wide: nation-states are seeking to maximize the opportunities from economic globalization processes and transnational cooperation, and are simultaneously closing their doors to the forms of migration that these economic shifts have stimulated. In Malaysia, for example, migrant workers have contributed to the remarkable economic success, but are hardly ever mentioned in analyses of this "miracle economy". Due to economic restructuring and the economic downturns, migrants are increasingly treated as scapegoats for all kinds of problems Malaysia is facing. By analyzing the "Othering" of the Bangladeshi migrant community in Malaysia within this transformation process, it will be shown how through the interlocking aspects of movement and industrial growth concepts like national identity, citizenship and culture are getting challenged and renegotiated.
This article discusses how female 'migrant' entrepreneurs present and connect mobility to their social realities and how spatial mobility influence their economic activities, social interactions and subjectivities and the way how female 'migrant' entrepreneurs experience and define social mobility. This perspective allows to critically analyze the shortcomings of the debates on 'ethnic' entrepreneurship and the gender bias which still dominates the mainstream debates. Based on qualitative interviews with female migrant entrepreneurs in Vienna it can thus be shown that mobility does not only become an important marker for boundary drawing but gets rationalized by the female entrepreneurs as an important qualification and a means for social mobility.
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