Wife or Worker?

This volume challenges the dominant discourse that perceives Asian women as either 'mail-order' brides or overseas workers. Providing the first sustained critique of the artificial analytical division between brides and workers, the book demonstrates women's transition from brides to workers and from workers to brides. Focusing on how women workers use marriage as a strategy to gain citizenship and how migrants for marriage become workers, the authors present these modern Asian women in their multidimensional roles as wives, workers, mothers, and citizens. The case studies explore a wide gamut of experiences, including Filipino caregivers in Canada, Thai sex workers in Germany, Filipino brides in Australia, Singaporean expatriates in Shanghai, Taiwanese families split between Taiwan and California, Asian migrants for marriage in Japan, and Filipino domestic helpers in Spain and Italy. All of these show the multiplicity of roles women maintain and emphasize the point that marriage, work, and migration are inextricably linked.

Nicola Piper is a senior researcher at the Regulatory Institutions Network, The Australian National University. Mina Roces teaches in the School of History, The University of New South Wales.