International marriage of Vietnamese women

The external reasons for international marriage comes both from sending communities and migrants’ destinations. Furthermore, the external reasons mainly based on economic and social factors.

In the sending communities of Vietnamese brides, the external reason always associated with the economic disadvantages of Vietnamese brides’ original families. In the cases which Vietnamese brides are lack of the language skill of communicating with their foreign husbands, these Vietnamese women are often asked to marry foreign men by their parents due to the economic difficulties in their original families. Moreover, most of these Vietnamese brides will send remittance to their parents in Vietnam to support their original families.[4]

In migrants’ destinations, economic consideration also leads to the shortage of local women who are willing to marry local men. For example, the local women in rural areas in Korea are not willing to marry local men, because they have to carry the family burden both from their own families and their husbands’ families after marriage. Most of these local women tend to marry men in urban area where they can find jobs rather than farming. Thus, the willingness to ‘marry up’ (note: ‘marry up’ means people marry partners whose living conditions is better than themselves; for example, women from rural areas choose to marry men in urban areas who have better occupations than men in rural areas.) leads to the imbalance of marriage market in rural areas in migrants’ destinations, which causes the rising of international marriage between local men and Vietnamese women.

Marriage squeeze happens both in sending communities and migrants’ destinations, but the marriage squeeze which leads to the rising of international marriage of Vietnamese women mainly happens in migrants’ destinations. The marriage squeeze is a prominent phenomenon in Chinese rural areas. The main characteristic of marriage squeeze is the imbalanced sex ratio. Caused by the preference to sons in Chinese rural areas, the sex ratio in the rural areas in Guangxi province is 114.02 and 109.45 (100 = female) based on the statistics in 2000 and 2010.[19][20] Other than the imbalanced sex ratio, many local Chinese women choose to marry men from other parts in China. More and more women from rural areas in the west part of China come to the developed eastern part of China to find jobs and get married. This factor also leads to the deficit of women in rural areas and the severe marriage squeeze in border areas.[21] The situation of marriage squeeze in China leads to the rising of finding wives from adjacent areas including Vietnam.

Following with the trends of globalization and the opening of Vietnamese to global market, more and more Vietnamese, especially those who live in border areas increasingly involved in border trade with China. The prosperity of border trades attracts some Vietnamese women to seek for the opportunities to earn a better life. The most convenient way of being legally involved in border trades is marrying Chinese men in border areas. In some research, the business success of these Vietnamese women in China is proved. For example, Vietnamese brides in Chinese border areas often engaged in the occupations such as being factory workers, running exotic restaurants and organizing transnational transportation. In fact, Vietnamese women comprehensively participate in the local life of these borderlands.[22] According to the survey about the satisfaction of Vietnamese women's international marriage, the results show that 83.6% of them are happy with their marriage mainly because the improvement of material conditions of their lives.[23]

In the original families of Vietnamese brides, their status is often lower than their brothers due to the preference of sons in Vietnam. These Vietnamese brides choose to marry foreign men because they can earn more money than staying in their hometowns, after earning money they will send remittances back to their parents to show that they can also support the families like sons do. The sending of remittances not only maintain the link between Vietnamese brides and their original families, but also change their status in the original families. For these Vietnamese women, sending remittances does not only means being a responsible daughter but also being a semi-parent in birth family. In fact, marrying foreign men are always associated with earning more money in migrants’ destinations, which shows the agency of Vietnamese brides to be more supportive in their birth families. Instead of being viewed as the brides who are pushed by their parents to marry foreign men, some of them choose to marry internationally to support their birth families based on their own willing. By supporting their birth families, these Vietnamese brides also have the intentions about improving their status in birth families.

Apart from the internal reasons mentioned above, the factor of love is also important in some cases. According to the survey in Sino-Vietnam border areas, some Sino-Vietnam spouses know each other at a very young age because they live close to each other since childhood. These spouses get married after grown up, they can communicate smoothly with each other, and they usually have the same background with each other.[24] In other cases, due to globalization, more and more Vietnamese women become migrant labors in other countries and marry local men based on the love between them. There are some Vietnamese meet with their foreign husbands in Vietnam and emigrate to their husbands’ countries after getting married.[23]

The intermediary agents from Vietnam and migrants’ destinations rises following with the trends of international marriage between Vietnamese women and foreign men. The intermediary agents in Vietnam are often considered as illegal agents which involved in deceiving and human trafficking. (See also this video about how Vietnamese women were deceived and trafficked to China.) There were cases about Vietnamese agents being caught by police when holding the meeting between Vietnamese women and foreign men.[7] To adapt to the matchmaking market in South Korea, some Korean agents also involved in sending Vietnamese women to South Korea.[5]

Social networks in Vietnam also help Vietnamese women marry foreign men. In the cases of Vietnamese women marry overseas Vietnamese men, social network in Vietnam plays the most important role in the process of international marriage. Overseas Vietnamese men often ask their relatives in Vietnamese to find proper women for them.[1] Social network also influence the international marriage in border areas where Vietnamese have close connections with Chinese.[24] In other cases, Vietnamese women who marry foreign men also introduce their relatives in Vietnam to marry foreign men.

In some cases, Vietnamese women are trafficked or deceived to marry Chinese men. These cases always happen in the rural border area between China and north Vietnam. In these cases, Vietnamese women faced the situation of de facto marriage which means their marriage rights cannot be protected by the law of China.[21] The living conditions of these Vietnamese women are often negative, they are under the control of their husbands. Thus, their involvement in social life is slight, even their human rights are abused under some circumstances.

In other cases which Vietnamese women have their agency to marry foreign men, the living conditions are different. These Vietnamese women can find their own jobs though sometimes the wage is low. Moreover, language is an obstacle for Vietnamese brides in the process of adapting to new society. According to the survey in Taiwan and South Korea, some Vietnamese women indicates that they often face the difficulty of language, and their husbands do not allow them to attend language class. Due to the difficulty of language and the lack of education, some Vietnamese women face problems after becoming mothers.[25]

In recent research result which focuses on Vietnamese brides in China, the living conditions of them are different. In the border area between China and Vietnam, more and more Vietnamese wives actively participate in local economic life by running restaurants with their husbands. However, the restaurants always registered under the name of their husbands while the real manager are Vietnamese women.[22]

Generally, the status of Vietnamese women in traditional households is to be subordinate to their husbands. This is because the traditions in East Asian communities, the concept about how women should be obedient to their husbands is prevalent in rural areas where most Vietnamese women reside with their foreign husbands in Korea and mainland China.[5][22] Thus, Vietnamese women are usually considered to be housewives who support their husbands by doing housework and raising children. Decisions are typically made by the husbands.[22]

The images of Vietnamese brides are portrayed both by Vietnamese mainstream media and local people. The images of Vietnamese brides are constructed differently by different subjects.

To summarize the images of Vietnamese brides constructed by mainstream media, the results are always associated with ‘innocent, trafficked, deceived and traitorous’. The dilemma faced by Vietnam society and Vietnamese single men caused this kind of perceptions.[26] Though most of Vietnamese brides send their remittance back to their original families in sending villages, local parents still face the problem of their sons who cannot marry on time because most village girls marry abroad. The dilemma of single men's marriage caused by international marriage leads to the broad complaint across the country,[26] which influences the way how Vietnamese mainstream media write the reports about international marriage and the way how they ‘label’ Vietnamese brides.

Among local people in sending communities, especially those who have daughters married internationally. The images of Vietnamese brides are ‘responsible, reliable and supportive’. Due to the large amount of remittance sent by Vietnamese brides, the household of their birth families improved prominently. According to the survey conducted in 2010, the living standard of the birth families of Vietnamese brides changed a lot after the migration of their daughters. For example, the proportion of poor families has fallen three times compared with the situation before migration. The proportion of upper-middle income families increases ten times from the situation before migration.[23] The activities of Vietnamese brides in supporting their birth families help them gain the positive perceptions from their parents and local people.

In migrants’ destinations, the images of Vietnamese brides have changed over time. For example, initially, the perceptions of Vietnamese female from Chinese male are mainly stereotypes caused from the occupations, tourism propaganda and status in family of Vietnamese women. The images of Vietnamese brides in migrant country are negatively portrayed by officials and natives due to the exaggeration of problematic issues and unchanged stereotypes.

The Vietnamese brides, however, have different perspectives. Based on the sociological fieldwork conducted by Huang in Sino-Vietnam borderland during 2011 to 2012,[22] Vietnamese women successfully engaging in household and formal occupations. Due to their ability of making money and maintaining household, they gain mostly positive comments and perceptions from their husbands and local employers. The economic ability of Vietnamese women not only make them easily dispose family affairs in their new families, but also allow them to give remittance to their original families which then prove to their parents and the traditions of preferring boys to girls in Vietnam that daughters can do better than sons. All these positive factors show how Vietnamese women marry abroad to earn money for their parents and pursue their happiness. In contrary to what has been demonstrated in the previous research, Huang's research proves that Vietnamese women should not be solely taken as victims and ignorant girls in their international marriage. At least in China, the previous situations have changed a lot due their broadly participation in economic life.