This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Yen, N. T. H. Articles by Resurreccion, B. P. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Gender, Class and Nation in a Transnational Community

Practices of Identity among Undocumented Migrant Workers from Vietnam in Bangkok

Nguyen Thi Hai Yen, Gender and Development Studies, School of Environment, Resources and Development, Asian Institute of Technology, P. O. Box 4, Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand. Email: nguyenhaiyen82vn{at}yahoo.com

Thanh-Dam Truong

Thanh-Dam Truong, Women/Gender and Development Studies, Institute of Social Studies, Kortenaerkade 12, 2518 AX The Hague, The Netherlands. Email: truong{at}iss.nl

Bernadette P. Resurreccion

Bernadette P. Resurreccion, Gender and Development Studies, School of Environment, Resources and Development, Asian Institute of Technology, P. O. Box 4, Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120, Thailand. Email: babette{at}ait.ac.th

This article discusses the social construction of identities in transnational migration as experienced by a community of undocumented Vietnamese service workers in Bangkok. Being of rural origins, undocumented and on a temporal, sequential and circular move without a definite time line, these migrant workers are set apart from the larger and more established overseas Vietnamese community and knowledge workers. Members of the overseas community are active in recruiting and employing them. The transmigrant workers form their own community, weaving gender practices with identities such as family and community, ethnicity and nation to ensure mutual protection and support. Conflating femininity with ethno-marking lends legitimacy to the control over transmigrant women as workers and their identity as Vietnamese. Identified also as homemakers, these women also carry responsibilities for caring and maintaining the well-being of this community. Displacing their resistance and gender conflicts takes place by way of redefining social bonds in the community as kinship relations.

Gender, Technology and Development, Vol. 12, No. 3, 365-388 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/097185240901200305


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?