An Intersectional Analysis Of Marriage Immigrants In The Border Area Of Yunnan Province

An intersectionality framework,the knowledgeable product from the interaction between gender study and immigration study,was adopted in this study to the cross-border marriage immigrants in Yunnan border area.Based on 12 months of field-work in Tianbao Town in Ma Lipo County connecting with Vietnam,and three towns in Mangshi city,connecting with Myanmar,findings and analyses show that the marriage immigration in Yunnan border area is one pattern of the female immigration in Asia produced under the transnational unequal development structure,through which women immigrate in the bottom sphere of the accept society.The dissertation is structured as follows.A first group of chapters(1-2)provides the theoretical and historical background necessary to understand contemporary trend of global migration,the feminization of immigration and the marriage immigration in the region of Asia.Chapter 2 focuses on the complex social location of immigrants arising from the diversities of gender,ethnic,class and nationality,introducing the signification of intersectionality both as the theory and methodology to study the gendered migration trend,especially in contemporary China.With the intersectionality framework,a second group of chapters(2-5)provides descriptive accounts and data on the marriage immigration in Yunnan border area.Chapter 4 provides a better overview of the process of marriage migration from emergence in the historical Zomia region to the explosion in the regionalization and globalization.Chapter 5 is concerned with the stigmatization of marriage immigrants through the “illegalized” identity and marriage,and the resulting stereotypes driven by the mass media,restoring the social role of marriage immigrants as intimate and productive labor in the border area.Chapter 6 examines the agency of marriage immigrants in a limited context,with the descriptions of their life stories.Chapter 6 analyses the dilemmas of governance to marriage immigrants in Yunnan border area faced by the central and local government of China.Through comparing the different policies to marriage immigration in other four Asian countries and Taiwan,the study considers all the marriage immigrants in Yunnan border area as a “virtual group” embodied in the similar intersecting disadvantage structure,advocating that the government should adopt the “local governance model” to solve the naturalization of marriage immigrants,and protect the rights of marriage immigrants and their family.