Book review: Ethnic dissent and empowerment: Economic migration between Vietnam and Malaysia

Abstract

to fulfil their aspirations, the author shows the complexity of migration as a phenomenon and process and highlights the importance of understanding the role of aspirations and emotions in migration-related research. With careful analyses of the interaction between the actors and factors at micro, meso and macro levels, the author gives voice to these conventionally-defined lowskilled, undereducated, and often socially disadvantaged and invisible migrant women and theorizes their lived experiences. Nonetheless, heterogeneity exists among Taiwanese-Chinese couples. There is a growing number of Taiwanese-Chinese couples who are highly educated and have different marital, employment, and migration experiences from those of the researched women. Thus, the empirical findings in this book represent the experiences of a portion, rather than the entire population of Chinese women who marry Taiwanese men. Unfortunately, the author does not provide an overview of the changing patterns in marriages across the Taiwan Strait. Nor does she discuss how the changing marriage patterns influence the reader’s interpretation of her findings or the implications of these changing patterns for research on migration across the Chinese border. In sum, this book is theoretically and empirically engaging despite the weaknesses mentioned above. I would recommend it to researchers in the field of migration studies, particularly those focusing on Asia. It is also a good read for non-academic readers interested in contemporary China and marriage migration in East Asia.