Vietnamese Immigrant Wives in Taiwan: Transnational Identities and the Complexity of Happiness

This thesis addresses the phenomenon of intercultural marriage immigration within Asia, with a specific focus on Taiwan. It aimed to investigate the transnational identity and subjective wellbeing of immigrant Vietnamese women who come to Taiwan as marriage partners for Taiwanese men. Such women are commonly stigmatised as ‘mail-order brides’ because these unions sometimes involve marriage brokerage. The study employed a mixed methods research design to collect quantitative and qualitative data. Some 29 respondents completed a confidential questionnaire and six of these women volunteered to participate in one hour-long in-depth interviews supplemented by participant observation. Geographical cluster sampling was employed to recruit survey respondents from five areas of Taiwan: North, East, Central, South, and Outer Islands. Respondent-assisted and snowball sampling techniques were used to recruit interview participants with the assistance of personnel from grass-roots NGOs and local service agencies for immigrants. The quantitative data were analysed using tools provided on the FluidSurvey website. The qualitative data were analysed inductively to connect with the intersubjective relationship between Vietnamese background immigrants and non-immigrants. Previous research has examined Vietnamese marriage emigration in relation to motivations for Vietnamese spouses’ relocation to Taiwan and the positive and negative consequences of this movement for the Vietnamese women and both societies. This thesis can be read as a case study of the Vietnamese diaspora in the context of Taiwan. It also provides insight into the national, social and gender identities of marriage immigrants among Vietnamese women in Taiwan and, in particular, into the practice of commercialised marriage that is relocating large numbers of people, mainly women. The study’s findings not only provide new understanding of the transnational marriage experiences of Vietnamese spouses themselves, but might also inform the development of policies and services for newly naturalised citizens of Taiwan