Chapter 1 Introduction
1.4 Research Methods and Procedures
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immigrants from their spouses and the native females to find out the situation immigrants are in and further to explore the effects they bring to family, society and nation from economic perspective. In addition, another emphasis of this study is laid on the description of relative data of three other nations and discussion of executed and draft policies associated with marriage immigrants so as to elicit potential policies.
Moreover, the women marriage migration trend is to explain by means of different migration theories and to which extent the women marriage immigrant increase in Taiwan is affected by the shifting international and domestic environments.
Aside from analyzing the status quo of women marriage immigrants in Taiwan from economic perspective, the cases of other destination countries of women marriage immigrants are taken as examples to compare and analyze. Through comparing among countries, some practical suggestion may be proposed for our government.
1.4 Research Methods and Procedures
In this research, secondary data analysis is utilized. In addition, the vertically and parallel comparative analysis is also used as a tool to make conclusion and to discover suggestions.
Moreover, two kinds of analysis methods are also used to demonstrate the status of marriage migrants and to analyze the cause and effect of marriage migrants’
participating in labor market; which are Ikishikawa Diagram and SWOT analytic methods (i.e. strength, weakness, opportunity, and threat).
While conducting this study, it is essential to search and select relative statistics, research papers and documents adhering to the topic of this research from diversified resources. Thus, the following data review, categorizing, and analysis may complete according to the theme of the specific chapter including in this paper. Finally, the
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process approaches to the stages of comparison and conclusion from that the suggestions may derive.
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Chapter2
Literature ReviewPopulation movements are closely related to variety of socio-economic, demographic and political dimensions (United Nations, 2006). Migration, of a long history of development, is a concern to manage through different period of human history. Recorded human history is dotted with “ages of migration.” From the Greek colonies and Roman military conquests through the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, and from the European colorizations to the great migrations of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, migration has been consequential to civilizations as few other large social phenomena have. Yet considering that the process is as old as humankind, crucial to human progress, and integral to the rise and decline of organized political entities, it is remarkable that virtually no society seems capable of managing it particularly effectively (Parademetriou, 2003).
McKay (2003) stated that women migrate for many reasons, including offers of permanent jobs or labor contrast, anticipated improvements in their conditions of self-employment and trade, offers of marriage, and as participants in broader, household moves.
Prior to stepping on the stage of research on the economic predicaments of women marriage immigrants in Taiwan, it is quite essential to collect and describe relative research papers, data, documents and statistics with immigrants, especially marriage migrants in economic domain in order to obtain sufficient background knowledge for constructing a integral and overall configuration of marriage migrants in Taiwan and further in the globe. As we know migration has been a common human behavior through historic development in various continents; especially, international migration is a prominent universal trend in recent decades; however, what the triggers and what the main direction are for unceasing human migration, especially for
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marriage migration. Therefore, the detailed description and explanation of international migration trend and the motive and incentives for arousing migration based on respective migration theories are the backbone of this chapter.
2.1 Theoretical Foundation
In this section, a brief description about migration theories, marriage migration theory and marriage models are providing to obtain sufficient background as a foundation to back-up the research theory basis.
Moreover, regarding migration selection and decision, the key theories associated with migration and incentives to attract immigrants are discussed, either from a micro perspective of individual decision-making or a macro aspect of structural determinants. For example, the first theory about migration, perhaps the most influential, was the theory of migration that emanates from neoclassical economics. Secondly, probably the most migration-specific of all, the new economics of labor migration lends attention to income distribution, contrary to the neoclassical explanation (Arango, 2004).
2.1.1 Migration Theory from Economic Aspect
Arango (2004) ever stated that migration is too diverse and multifaceted to be explained by a single theory. Apparently, referring to migration theories, there is no single theory provide perfect and exact explanation for human’s internal and international movement both in sending and receiving countries compassing political, economic, racial aspects and etc. And each theory may generally explain the migration in a specific time period and a respective nation, region or continent.
Keely (2000) indicated that theories about the initiation of international migration are categorized into four sorts of economic explanation and one political
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economy approach known as world systems theory. The following are their brief definition and explanation for migration respectively.
Moreover, neoclassical macroeconomic theory explains migration flows as the result of wage differentials and the probability of obtaining a job in the form of unemployment rates. Neoclassical microeconomic theory focuses on the corresponding individual choice facing potential migrants in places with different wages and probabilities of finding work. Neoclassical economics focuses on differentials in wages and employment conditions between countries, and on migration costs; it generally conceives of movement as an individual decision for income maximization.
In addition, dual labor market theory switches the focus from an individuals or household decision-making level to the institutional context of economic structure and needs. Migration is the result of needs of industrial economies but not push factors in sending countries. The need in industrial economies result from structural inflation, motivation problems stemming from the social meaning and mobility prospects connected with various occupations, economic dualism related to capital and labor costs in market economies, and the demography of labor supply (Keely, 2000).
Aside from the above mentioned theories, the typical push-pull theory, world system theory and system approach are taken as the foundation of analysis on the cause-and–effect relation and the trend of increasing marriage immigrants in Taiwan.
2.1.2 Migration Theory from Political Aspect
As for world system theory, it is a variety of political economy theory that proposes bifurcation of the world economy related to capitalist penetration from richer, industrial, market (capitalist) economies to poorer nations or the periphery. The search for land, raw materials, new markets, and the labor upsets traditional economies and
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mobilizes labor for migration internally and internationally to meet the needs of core capitalist countries. Network theories postulate that the existence of family, friends, and acquaintances in a receiving country reduces the costs and risks of migration by related people in the sending country. `
Moreover, the relationship between international migration and economic development in the migrant origin country has been traditionally explained from two contrasting theoretical approaches: the convergence point of view and the divergence point of view. The convergence school, rooted in neo-liberal economic theory, states that sending areas obtain major benefits from out-migration for their development process. This approach primarily posits that emigration leads to an improvement in resource, availability, and income distribution in origin areas. On the other hand, the divergence school argues that out-migration hinders development of the sending regions because it perpetuates a state of economic dependency that undermines prospects for development. Apart from these two perspectives, there also exists a third approach referred to as the “time perspective”. According to this perspective, in the short term, negative factors dominate the impact of migration, while in the long term positive factors come to stimulate development. Different types of migration have different impacts on the process of development in sending countries, and therefore should be examined in a disaggregated manner in order to understand the role that each specific type of migration actually plays in the process of development (Rahman, 2009).
2.1.3 Marriage Theory
With regards to marriage theory, Çelikaksoy et al., (2003) sketch a theoretical framework describing the marriage decision of immigrants. In the context of immigrants in a host country, the marriage decision consists of two simultaneous
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choices. As in standard marriage decisions, the individuals decide whom to marry in terms of observed characteristics/qualifications.
In addition, they decide from which country the spouse should come, that is the source country or host country. The decision to marry and the decision to import a marriage migrant are assumed to be simultaneous decisions that depend upon the characteristics that are brought into a marriage by the spouses. The characteristics of the spouses are summarized in marital capital, which includes for instance physical capital, financial capital (such as bride price or dowry) and human capital (such as health or education).
Çelikaksoy et al., (2003) indicated that the theoretical background for our empirical model for marriage migration is to be found in the Becker model. It builds on the assumption that marriage markets in the source country and in the host country are competitive. The decision to marry is considered as a decision taken by the household of the young individual. An immigrant household considering marriage has to choose between two alternative marriage markets. When a household chooses to enter another marriage market than the local marriage market, this reflects that the utility of a match in that marriage market is higher than the utility of a match with a person from the local marriage market (or any other relevant alternative). For marriage migration actually to take place, this must be the case for both households.
2.2 International and Domestic Research on Migration
From historical point of view, migration continually occur in every period of historical development due to various reasons in political, economic and cultural respects such as war or work etc, and by means of diverse channels like asylum, human-trafficking, education and marriage. Here is the description about the past and the present phenomena of migration.
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2.2.1 International Migration in the Globe Jordan and Duvell (2003) postulated that the twenty years after the Second World
War saw huge movements of population, some for economic and some for political reasons. Other massive migratory flows have comprised both these elements. The exodus of population from Europe to North America and Australia in the second half of the nineteenth century was proportionately larger than any movement in the twentieth. These flows, for the sake of both economic opportunity and political freedom, were welcomed as congruent with the transnational political economy of the major powers in that period (movements of capital and the opening up of markets).
Hatton and Williamson (2005) also claimed that world migration grew and its scope expanded in both eras (i.e. prior the First World War and post the Second World War). The richer parts of the world were the magnets for long-distance migration from the poorer (but not too poor) parts in both eras. The shifts that destination nation turned to source nation such as those in South and Central America and sending place become receiving place like Europe are consistent with the economic and demographic fundamentals that drive mass migrations.
At the dawn of the twenty –first century, international migration touches the lives of more people, and looms larger in the politics and economics of more states, than at any other time in the modern era. With more than 160 million people estimated to be living outside their country of birth, almost no country is untouched by international migration or is immune to its effects (Parademetriou, 2003). Tsai and Hsiao (2006) indicated that there were more than 175 million people who migrated to another country in 2000.8
As Siddiqui (2008) stated over the past 25 years, the number of international
8 See United Nations, International Migration Report 2006: A Global Assessment. The United Nations estimated that the total number of international migrants in the world stood at 175 million in 2000 and 191 million in 2005 which was 3 percent of the world population.
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migrants has almost doubled. In 1980, 99 million of people were living outside their countries of origin. In 2005, it became 190 million. Between 1960 and 2005 the number of international migrants in the world doubled, and in 2005 about 190 million people-roughly 3 percent of the world’s population-lived outside their country of birth
(United Nations, 2006; Morrison et al., 2008; Pfeiffer et al., 2008).
In addition, with regard to the regional migrant density in terms of the development differential of states, almost one in every 10 persons living in more developed regions is a migrant (migrant as 9.6 percentage of population) compared to one of every 70 persons (migrant as 1.5 percentage of population) in less developed regions (Table 2-1).9
In addition, sixty percent of the world’s migrants currently reside in more developed regions. Also, most of the world’s migrants live in Europe (64 million), followed by Asia (53 million) and North America (45 million). Three-quarter of all international migrants are concentrated in just 28 countries and one in every three international migrants lived in Europe and one in every four lived in the United States of America in 2005 (United Nations, 2006). That reflects most migrants flow into Europe followed by Asia and North America and the global migratory tendency is region-oriented and selection-concentrated. Especially, the United States of America as a single country accepts global migrants to great extent.
International migration has become an integral and inevitable feature of globalization. In Asia and the Pacific, it has become a structural and permanent element of societies and economies. The movement of people across borders in search of better economic opportunities or safety is a long-standing characteristic of societies
9 According to the definition of major areas and regions of International Migration Stock of United Nations, the more developed regions refer to Australia, Europe, Japan, New Zealand, and North America; and the less developed regions comprise Africa, Asia (excluding Japan), Latin America, the Caribbean, and etc.
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Table 2-1: International Migrants as a Percentage of the Population — 2005
Region Persons
Latin America and the
Caribbean 1.2
Asia 1.4 Africa 1.9 Europe 8.8
North America 13.6
Oceania 16.4 World 3.0
Source: United Nations (2009), International Migration Stock: The 2008 Revision.
in the region. However, more countries are now significantly affected by international migration than that at any time in history (United Nations, 2008).
International migration is being propelled in the region by various push and pull factors, including persistent inter-country disparities in development, increased integration of the regional economy and divergent demographic dynamics. Labor market transformations, technological progress and economic interlinkages are creating new demands for both skilled and less skilled migrant labor (United Nations, 2008). An increasing number of countries in this region are participating in the migration process as either sending, transit, or receiving countries.
With regard to the employment of the immigrants, Hatton and Williamson (2005) raised two different views: one is optimistic that immigrants entered rapidly growing high-wage employment, thereby easing short-run labor supply bottlenecks in leading industries and the other is pessimistic that immigrants crowded into slow-growing, low-wage employment in industries undergoing relative decline, thereby crowding out unskilled natives. It is confirmed that immigrants found employment more frequently in unskilled jobs, compared with natives. More to the point, immigrants are located in
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slow-growth sectors, not fast-growth sectors. Moreover, it is evident that immigrants flowed disproportionately into the slowest-growing parts of the economy.
2.2.2 Women Migration in the Globe
Although there has been a long tradition of female cross-border migration in the Asia Pacific region, women are increasingly dominating migration flows and they do so in a variety of forms. With these women migrating either as single, independent workers as a stage in their lives when marriages seen as appropriate, if not obligatory, or as wives (and mothers), the issue of marriage, or marital relationships, becomes closely intertwined with international migration (Piper and Roces, 2003).
It is ever indicated that gender-sensitive or female perspectives of migration recently have begun to contribute new insights by pointing to noneconomic incentives to migration. In these studies, the family, or households, emerges as important units of analysis, but migration’s impact on marriage or marital relationships as such has not been explored in their multiple dimensions and forms (Piper and Roces, 2003).
The interaction of marriage and migration was related to sex imbalance, which female migrants “follow” male pioneers. Researchers ever noted that in the specific contexts of Asian women’s experiences, works on the so-called “picture brides” fall into this category. Furthermore, scholars concerned with women’s migratory patterns seem to be more comfortable discussing women as either migrants for marriage or as overseas contracted workers (OCWs) (the woman as worker), especially women as unskilled laborers, domestic helpers and careers in particular. Historically inclined studies on the phenomenon of “marriage migration” also include those discussing
“war brides”. Other studies focus on how these brides are represented by the host countries. Yet in this discussion of marriage migration, little attention is paid to the women’s subsequent entrance into the labor market. Other studies discussing marriage
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and migration are those typical by sociologists and geographers on “mail-order brides” (Piper and Roces, 2003).
Piper （ 2003 ） manifested that scholars concerned with women’s migratory patterns typically discuss women as either migrants for marriage or as overseas contract workers (OCWs) (i.e. the woman as worker or as ‘bride’), especially in studies on women as domestic helpers and carers —– which, together with
“entertainment” related work, are the main jobs that such migrant women are employed in. Such depictions, however, totally ignore the fact that these women’s roles can, and often do, shift, such as when the ‘migrant for marriage’ engages in paid employment or when the “labor migrant” marries a “local” citizen.
Significant share of women in international migration has been noted since 1960s. According to estimated numbers categorized by regions, Asia stands as the second largest in the world. In 2005, the total number of Asian migrants was 55 million followed by North America of 45 million, only surpassed by Europe which had 64 million (United Nations, 2009).10 It also displayed that women constituted close to half (49.2%) of all international migrants in 2005.
Moreover, Piper (2005) claimed that global estimates by sex confirm that for more than 40 years since 1960, female migrants reached almost the same numbers as male migrants. Since then, the share of female emigrants among all international migrants of the world has been rising steadily.
Based on the data of United Nations (2009), female migrants constitute roughly 50 percent (all the number showed on the table is over 49 percent since 1990) of the international migrants in the past two decades (Table 2-2). Moreover, by 2005, there was another astonishing fact that the female migrants constituted more than 51 percents of all the migrants in the more developed regions and about 46 percent of all
10 Except for the less number of total migrants than Asia in 1990, Europe has long been the leading
10 Except for the less number of total migrants than Asia in 1990, Europe has long been the leading