Chinese migrant wives in Taiwan: claiming entitlements, resisting inequality, and rejecting citizenship

ABSTRACT

A considerable number of Chinese women have migrated to Taiwan through marriage over the last two decades. Although the demographics of these marriage migrants have transformed over the years, a misunderstanding still exists as migrant wives are seen as commodities and gaining citizen status is seen as their ultimate goal. Using in-depth interviews, this research takes a bottom-up approach by allowing Chinese migrant women in Taiwan to define and interpret their own citizenship. It explains how they negotiate the politics of citizenship as they confront harsher immigration restrictions than immigrants of other origins because of their Chinese identity. This paper suggests that immigrants’ intersectional identities shape their conceptualization of Taiwanese citizenship, although their agency is limited. My findings illustrate that some Chinese migrant wives embrace citizenship entitlements while others’ experiences with citizenship differ depending on their positionality in both the private and the public. My findings also show that some migrant wives actively reject Taiwanese citizenship, challenging the myth that all Chinese immigrants desire Taiwanese citizenship. This study contributes to citizenship and migration studies using a feminist, intersectional approach and raises implications for the degree to which migrant wives have agency in constructing their citizenship.

KEYWORDS:

• Migration
• citizenship
• marriage intersectionality
• Taiwan
• China

Acknowledgments

I thank the women who generously offered their time to share their experiences and insights with me. Their presence and openness made this research possible. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the annual meetings of the International Feminist Journal of Politics, the National Women's Studies Association and the American Political Science Association; I thank the participants for their feedback. I also thank the editors and reviewers for their helpful comments. I am particularly grateful for the encouragement and suggestions from Katharine Wright, Nick Randall, Michael Barr, Kyle Grayson, and members of the PSU Gender and Politics reading group, NU Gender and Politics Research Symposium, and NU Governance & Political Organisations cluster.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Shan-Jan Sarah Liu is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) of Gender and Politics at the University of Edinburgh. Her research focuses on the cross-national comparison of gender and politics, specifically the ways in which contexts – immigration, women's political representation, and women's movements – shape the gender gap in political behavior and opinion.

ORCID

Shan-Jan Sarah Liu http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7997-1827

Notes

1 Ninety-three percent of cross-strait marriages are between a Taiwanese man and a Chinese woman, whereas only 7 percent are between a Chinese man and a Taiwanese woman (Foreign Spouses Statistics 2017). Thus, this article approaches the conceptualization of citizenship from the migrant wives’ perspective.

2 For example, on March 18, 2014, a coalition of students and civic groups began the Sunflower Movement during which they occupied the Taiwan Legislative Yuan for 24 days. The discourse quickly transformed from raising awareness of the Kuomintang’s undemocratic passage of the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement into promoting an anti-China sentiment. The latter discourse illustrates the concerns about the increasing presence of Chinese immigrants (Ho 2015). What native citizens consider alarming is naturalized immigrants’ impact on Taiwan’s domestic politics and national identity through their participation in elections and support of political parties and candidates who favor unification (Zhong 2016). This anxiety indicates a trajectory of belief regarding Chinese immigrants’ desire for Taiwanese citizenship.

3 Prior to 2009, Chinese immigrants had to wait two years to apply for residency before they could be legally employed.

4 Instrumental citizenship captures the flexibility that immigrants receive when evaluating the monetary benefits, but immigrants may also reject citizenship based on instrumental reasons. Pragmatic citizenship focuses on the voting rights that immigrants receive, which, as my findings illustrate, is not how some Chinese migrant women view Taiwanese citizenship.

5 Cross-strait marriages arranged by commercialized agencies or certified not-for-profit operations involve a fee. The fee can be fixed, charged by match-making operations to cover the costs for databases of Chinese women, flights, accommodation, food, documentation, and so on. The wife-to-be receives the remaining fee after deducting the cost of operation. Alternatively, the fee and wedding expenses can also be negotiated between the wives-to-be and the Taiwanese men. In addition to the fees, women can also negotiate the bride price – from a groom to the parents of the bride-to-be – which is a custom in Taiwan.

6 Government employment is another matter, which I discuss in the next section.

7 Interview with author, Taipei, Taiwan, May 17, 2015.

8 Interview with author, Taipei, Taiwan, May 19, 2015.

9 Interview with author, Taipei, Taiwan, May 29, 2015.

10 While increasing numbers of Taiwanese women are marrying Chinese men, it is still likely that Taiwanese women reside in China with their Chinese spouses, suggesting the gendered aspect of the differentiated citizenship although it also applies to men.

11 Interview with author, Taipei, Taiwan, May 17, 2015.

12 Ming has forged links with other migrant wives via government-sponsored workshops and programs. Conversely, most migrant husbands in Taiwan are less likely to develop a social circle because these programs are specifically tailored for migrant wives, leaving an insufficient community for migrant husbands.

13 Interview with author, Taipei, Taiwan, May 17, 2015.

14 Interview with author, Taipei, Taiwan, May 15, 2015.

15 Interview with author, Taipei, Taiwan, May 21, 2015.

16 Interview with author, Taipei, Taiwan, May 28, 2015.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the PiCP Award for International Research, granted by the Department of Political Science of the Pennsylvania State University.