Rural-urban migration in Vietnam and China: gendered householding,production of space and the state

The transition from state socialism to market socialism in Vietnam and China has been characterized by unprecedented rural-urban migration. We argue that this migration is integral rather than incidental to the gendered reproduction of state and society. A review of the emerging literature on trans-local householding explores the process whereby the reflexive engagement of the state and the household remakes rural-urban differentiation in ways that are deeply gendered and classed. As such, state regulation and control of migrants are part of a process of reconfiguring state-society relations in which the production of space and the symbolic valuation of ruralness and urbanness have become a central trope.     

Globalisation and the foreignisation of space: seven processes driving the current global land grab

The current global land grab is causing radical changes in the use and ownership of land. The main process driving the land grab, or ‘foreignisation of space’, as highlighted in the media and the emerging literature is the production of food and biofuel for export in the aftermath of recent food and energy crises. However, there are several other processes driving the land rush. In this article I argue that an analytical framework that focuses on only one or two processes that drive the global land grab offers a narrow perspective on this complex process. It will be unable to take into account the full range and extent of agrarian and social changes that occur in light of the land grab and their strategic implications for poor people's livelihoods. An important starting point is to identify the broad processes driving the current land rush, and trace their structural and institutional origins. To do so, I identify and examine seven factors that are giving rise to radical changes in landownership and land use in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Finally, ‘codes of conduct’ as proposed by several quarters in the context of global land grab are unlikely to work in favour of the poor.     

Taiwanizing female immigrant spouses and materializing differential citizenship

Taiwan holds the Asian record for the proportion of families that involve so-called ‘foreign brides’. Marriage migration has brought close to half a million immigrant spouses into the country over the past decades. Most of these women come from Mainland China, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines. This paper discusses how the Taiwanese state and society have actively pursued the integration of immigrant spouses since 2002, with a set of policies that acknowledge the massive migration of ‘foreign brides’ and the impact of this phenomenon on society. It argues that the attempt to integrate new immigrants is fraught with a discourse that serves to further stigmatize these women, discriminate against them, and, therefore, create an ‘Other’ that is used to erect the ideology of nation-building in Taiwan. The paper provides a critical analysis of policies, academic discourse and NGOs fundraising strategies to show how these institutions reinforce the idea that immigrant spouses are problematic and, therefore, need to be ‘Taiwanized’. This results in a system of differential legal and social citizenship in which immigrant spouses are at the bottom of the social hierarchy in Taiwanese society.     

信用卡诈骗犯罪定性研究

信用卡诈骗罪是我国刑法中的一类新型犯罪。对于假借信用卡非法获取财物或财产性利益的行为,是否一概认定为信用卡诈骗犯罪,国内外理论和立法并不统一。以我国信用卡交易的实践及其交易规则为基础,分析我国信用卡诈骗犯罪的行为构造;在借鉴、考察国外相关立法和未来信用卡发展趋势等的基础上,提出:作为一种现代新型犯罪,我国刑法中的信用卡诈骗罪兼有传统诈骗罪和盗窃罪的双重属性。由此,可以有效避免实践中对相关犯罪行为定性上的分歧,并能适应未来信用卡犯罪的发展趋势。     

生育与养育：女性农民工子女随迁的工资惩罚——基于核心家庭样本的分析

在农民工群体规模不断增长且家庭化迁移趋势日益凸显的背景下,妥善解决子女随迁带来的系列问题愈发重要。本研究聚焦子女随迁造成的女性农民工工资收入降低问题,基于母职工资惩罚理论,将女性农民工群体承担母职角色造成的工资惩罚分为生育惩罚与养育惩罚,利用2018年流动人口动态监测数据进行检验。研究发现：生育惩罚会降低女性农民工工资的2.4%,养育惩罚会显著降低女性农民工工资收入的11.0%;在一孩家庭中,幼儿园年龄段的子女随迁对新生代受教育程度较低的女性农民工造成的养育惩罚最为严重;在二孩家庭中,婴幼儿年龄段的子女随迁对新生代受过高等教育的女性农民工造成的养育惩罚最为严重,且二孩家庭婴幼儿年龄段的子女随迁对工资造成的负向影响是独生子女家庭同年龄段子女随迁的4倍多。研究建议,要加强二孩家庭的托育服务供给,如提供在农民工家庭支付能力内的日间照料、托管、家政等服务,进一步释放流动人口带来的劳动力资源,促进劳动力市场的性别平等。     

Rethinking the future-seeking narrative of child migration: the case of Ethiopian adolescent domestic workers in the Middle East

ABSTRACT

Recent research on child migration has largely departed from the early trafficking narrative and has tended to highlight young people’s agency and the ways in which children’s migration can play a key role in their ‘future-seeking’. While we acknowledge that Ethiopian girls migrating to the Middle East in order to undertake domestic work primarily move voluntarily for economic reasons, our research – which used a multi-layered, qualitative research approach with girls and their families in the West Gojjam and North Wollo Zones of the Amhara National Regional State – found that the financial, physical, and psychological costs of such migration can far outweigh the benefits. Indeed, we conclude that the earlier trafficking narrative may, in this case, represent the most appropriate lens through which to view girls’ choices and experiences.     

Meseret’s story: women,work, and betterment in an Ethiopia–Saudi Arabia return labor migration

ABSTRACT

This life-history examines the return migration of Meseret, an Ethiopian woman in her twenties, from Ethiopia to Saudi Arabia as a domestic worker. Meseret's successful labor migration is contextualized in hierarchical local and global economic and political structures as well as her personal goals and familial strategies for betterment or socio-economic improvement. An initial comparison will be made between Meseret's natal family and her affinal Rastafari family (her husband's family) in the Jamaica Safar or Jamaica neighborhood of Shashemene in Ethiopia in terms of livelihood, gender roles, mobility, and status. Meseret's high status as a returnee in urban Ethiopia will be juxtaposed against the low value still accorded to women's paid and unpaid domestic and care work in destination and origin countries. Recognizing structural factors and migrants' subjectivities enriches both qualitative and quantitative analyses, and has the potential to provide the groundwork for equitable migration and labor policies.     

An investigation into the experiences of female victims of trafficking in Ethiopia

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to tell the stories of female victims of human trafficking from Ethiopia. It discusses the causes of trafficking and how it affects the social and emotional well-being of women. The study is conducted using a constructivist framework and involves in-depth interviews with five returnees whose experiences as victims are explored. The goal is to provide insight into the challenges faced by the wider population. Emergent themes in the stories are discussed in line with relevant literature. The study shows lack of job opportunities, limited income, and false promises made by brokers as the major factors drawing women into human trafficking. The findings also show that even after return, the victims experience further difficulties as a result of post-traumatic psychological factors. Looking at the significance of the research outcomes, the gleaned information could be of value for organizations working on migration and countering human trafficking.     

Regularization of Irregular Migrants and Social Policies: Comparative Perspectives

Abstract

This paper examines the social policy implications of the regularization of irregular immigrants. As an act of legal integration regularization arguably is about irregular migrants’ inclusion into mainstream social and legal structures and, as a corollary, has important implications for migrants’ access to social rights. Based on a recent comparative study of regularizations and their impact in seven EU Member-States, the study finds that access to social rights associated with regularizations indeed are reported as the most important impacts of regularization by regularized migrants themselves, next to access to work and related welfare entitlements.     

台湾的印尼客家新娘——海外客家人的社会变迁之二

客家人常说"人往高处走,水往低处流",这句俗语也许可以用来解释客家人为什么喜欢不断地迁徙。客家人到了海外之后,还会不断地迁徙,促使他们不断地迁徙的原因固然很多,追求更加美好的生活应该是其中最重要的动因。在目前的台湾,有大量的印尼客家新娘,她们为什么要像父辈那样,再一次跋山涉水,移民台湾?她们追求什么?她们在台湾的生活状况如何?