Negotiating (In)dependency: Social Journeys of Vietnamese Women to Cambodia (original) (raw)
Related papers
Get Into, Get By and Get Out of Trafficking; Uncovering the Agency of Rural Women in Vietnam
2008
Human trafficking is an alarming issue that has been discussed by many scholars and policy makers from different fields. It has been argued that poverty is one of the root causes of trafficking, making people to take any risks to improve life. The severe exploitation that occurs during trafficking experience has put victims of trafficking in a difficult situation where they are often seen as objects rather than subjects. This thesis was designed to give voice to those who have been in trafficking situation and uncover hidden aspects of it. The ambition of this thesis was thus in line with some scholars who insisted on the importance of putting humanity and agency of poor people into trafficking discourse. By looking at poverty from a broader sense, I discovered that agency is indeed a fundamental issue for trafficking experience. The case of trafficking experience among rural women in Vietnam showed that agency was exercised in many ways, starting from the time they got in to trafficking trap, got by with everyday deprivation, and got out of it. The agency demonstrated the "power to act" among individuals when experiencing trafficking, which had often been ignored. Vietnam. I dedicate this thesis to them, with high admiration for their strength and braveness in going through challenges of life.
The overall situation in Cambodia for human trafficking and sexual exploitation of women and children is dire: rather than decreasing it appears to be on the increase. Although there is recent attention to addressing various aspects of the issue/s, even for the Khmer majority population there are numerous ‘push factors’ (such as widespread poverty, high unemployment, low levels of literacy, and few income earning opportunities for women) that make sale of children for labour and prostitution serious considerations for many families. There are relatively few resources available for victim support, a weak and not well understood or enforced legal framework for prosecution of perpetrators, and many cultural traits that conspire to sanction trafficking and commercial sex. The situation for Vietnamese living in urban Cambodia vis-à-vis trafficking and sexual exploitation is even more difficult than for Khmer, as the Vietnamese are a marginalised minority. Some services area available for victims of trafficking, regardless of age or ethnicity; however these are not always well-equipped to accommodate Vietnamese. The concept of ‘poverty’ emerges quickly in any discussion about “why families would sell their children” as one variable, and not necessarily even the primary consideration. It is always the result of a combination of factors. This research did not identify one clear, single, or overriding ‘tipping’ point. Findings from this research corroborate previous research publications on vulnerability factors that influence the sale of children into commercial sex. One difference in this research is the weight of particular variables exacerbated by the fact of being Vietnamese in Cambodia, which is itself a vulnerability factor. The major risk factors (named as such because they surfaced most frequently in conversation with respondents) among the Vietnamese communities surveyed in this research—the presence of which will make the sale of a child more likely—appear to be as follows: crisis/extra-ordinary expenses; debt; the phenomenon of ‘normalisation’; materialism; family honour; cultural perceptions of the value/place of women. All must be considered to occur within the context of general poverty and the psychological burden of uncertainty and insecurity accompanying it; as well as with recognition for the political uncertainty that characterises the lives of the Vietnamese minority in urban Cambodia. The research considers too the extent to which the social context may bear some responsibility for the ‘epidemic’ of sale of children for sexual exploitation. The research suggests that nearly half of families do sell a girlchild (a ‘best estimate’ is 30-40 percent) for sex; and that more families consider this as an option than actually follow-through with the sale. It appears that under-age girls are more likely to be sold for virginity (then return home), than sold into longer-term prostitution/brothel work. Longer-term decisions seem to be the purview of older girls/women. Community perceptions of prostitution as a viable income source seem to be grounded in a certain pragmatism and resignation, rather than wholehearted acceptance of the work as legitimate, constructive, or desirable. There is a very high level of awareness among children and adults about the presence of trafficking (sale of girl-children for sex), and prostitution more generally. Many children expressed that they felt themselves in danger of being sold or otherwise forced into involvement in the sex trade: a few said if someone did try to force them they would ‘fight’ but the majority said they would not like it, but would be resigned to going.
This paper, based on 18 months’ fieldwork in the Mekong Delta, addresses the issue of women’s cross-border mobility for the aim of prostitution between Southern Vietnam and Cambodia. The goal is to update existing research carried out in Cambodia in the late 1990s by Western researchers commissioned by aid organizations, and to bring a Vietnamese perspective into the picture. Research had explained mobility from Vietnam in the late 1990s in terms of the easy money female migrant prostitutes could earn in Cambodia. According to my findings, the situation has changed and this paper explores why. Although illegal migration for prostitution from Vietnam to Phnom Penh remains an easy alternative, it appears less attractive than in the late 1990s and early 2000s in the context of increasing globalization and inter-connections in Asia. First, the paper examines the situation on the ground in the late 1990s: cross-border mobility and routes in the Mekong Delta, and Vietnamese prostitution in Phnom Penh, especially in the Vietnamese enclave of Svay Pak. Brothel owners from this red light district recruited thousands of Vietnamese migrant sex workers by offering them a payday advance that they had to reimburse by providing sexual services. Moreover, among the causes that motivated cross-mobility for the purpose of sexual commerce, indebtedness occupied a prime place. Second, the paper explores the reasons underlying the obvious change of perception by potential unskilled migrants who no longer perceive Cambodia as some sort El Dorado and therefore an appealing destination. Various reasons explain this change, like increased awareness of the risks of deception, debt bondage and exploitation thanks to campaigns against human trafficking. Another factor is the increased availability of more attractive professional options, such as internal migration for prostitution to provinces along the Mekong Delta, to Ho Chi Minh City and its suburban provinces undergoing rapid industrialization and economic growth. This paper demonstrates that nowadays mobility from An Giang province to Cambodia is no longer relevant.
Over the past few years, Lao PDR has been facing a strong seasonal and illegal migration movement to Thailand, attracting a rising number of female migrants. In the near future, due to its unique geographical situation at the crossroads of the GMS, Lao PDR will likely to tackle an explosion of labor migration flows resulting from the ongoing regionalization processes, generating demand for sexual and labor exploitation as well. Yet, there exists some significant gaps in the available information about the nature and extent of the link/overlap between migration and trafficking. Can patterns be identified to distinguish trafficking from illegal migration? If so, are these patterns linked to vulnerability factors, to awareness levels, to routes taken, to connections? Finding answers to such questions calls for an innovative investigation that can inform us on how migration turns into trafficking and, more generally, on how trafficking operates, thus allowing GMS policy makers to govern migration for both national development and regional integration. We hypothesize that an identifiable distinction exists between illegal migration and trafficking and that certain individuals or groups of people are more vulnerable to exploitation than others. Through an Action Research carried out with AFESIP, an international NGO, based on a narrative analysis of life story material from residents of its Rehabilitation Centre, this paper intends to open the way to new approaches to migration discourse, building evidence base for debates, policies and interventions in the Mekong region.
Labor Migration and Trafficking among Vietnamese Migrants in Asia
Asia is known as a continent where human trafficking is particularly prevalent. Departing from the bulk of research on trafficking in Asia that focuses on illegal migration and prostitution, this article examines the embeddedness of human trafficking in legal temporary migration flows. This analysis uses survey and interview data to document the experiences of Vietnamese migrants who worked in East Asian countries. It identifies a continuum of trafficking, abuse, exploitation, and forced labor, and examines how exploitation begins at the recruitment stage with the creation of bonded labor. Guest-worker programs in destination countries put migrants in particularly precarious situations, which do, in some cases, qualify as trafficking. I argue that temporary migration programs may create the conditions that lead to extreme forms of exploitation among many legal migrant workers in the region.
Brides, Maids, and Prostitutes: Reflections on the Study of 'Trafficked' Women
Portal: journal of multidisciplinary international studies, 2006
My sincere thanks to Devleena Ghosh and Barbara Leigh for inviting me, Joseph Alter and Kevin Ming for their comments, S. Carole Vance for inspiring me to think about trafficking, and to the migrant women whose experiences have deeply influenced my view of the world. 2 There are a growing number of recent studies that criticize popular notions of trafficking, that do not blur boundaries or that do so in productive ways (e.g., Cheng 2002; and contributors to Piper & Roces 2003). Constable Brides, Maids and Prostitutes of a common phenomenon, one that can most simply be glossed as 'trafficked women.' My second and related concern has been-especially in the case of correspondence marriages-that some authors have focused on, or reproduced in their own work, simplistic stereotypes or an imagined fantasy of 'mail order brides' with relatively little attention paid to the variations in the circumstances, forms of introduction, and actual experiences of couples who have met through correspondence and eventually married. Therefore, before considering productive comparisons, it is important to carefully consider the variations within each 'category' of migrant woman, and the limitations of defining them as a category in the first place. My aim here is to reconsider some of the scholarly and popular depictions of so-called 'mail order brides' as 'trafficked' women; to question what I consider the warranted and unwarranted blurs that subtly or explicitly enter some of the scholarly and activist literature on 'mail order brides'; and to highlight heterogeneity in the experiences, circumstances, and expressions of agency of women who meet men through correspondence. The literature on sex workers has influenced my thinking about correspondence marriage, not because brides and sex workers are fundamentally alike, but because they are both subjects of the wider discourse on trafficking, women's agency, and women's victimization. I aim to highlight the weaknesses of a trafficking framework from an ethnographic perspective, and point to some of the ways that theoretical issues raised in the sex worker literature might apply to the study of correspondence marriages. 3 Despite important theoretical insights that can come from a combined discussion of sex workers, domestic workers, and foreign brides, and despite many similarly structured patterns of inequality, I urge caution. Women's emigration to rich countries Because migrant sex workers, maids, and correspondence brides often (but not always) 3 This essay draws from research I began in 1998 among women and men who met through correspondence and from research conducted among Filipina domestic workers in Hong Kong in the early 1990s. Constable Brides, Maids and Prostitutes
The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 2011
Trafficking literature often mentions underage prostitution, where paedophilia and virginity sale are considered particularly appalling examples of sex trafficking. At the same time it is ubiquitously assumed that underage prostitution, epitomised by the sale of virgins as elite commodities within sex trafficking, results in considerable profits for traffickers and exploiters. I argue that such views reflect a tacit projection of classic economic theory onto migration and sex commerce. This confuses more than explains how virginity sale operates within a commercial sex market as well as how social actors within this market understand such social practices. Drawing on detailed ethnographic accounts of how the trade in virgins is taking place along the Thai-Lao border, I elucidate how recruitment, value and exchange are socially and culturally embedded practices.
Time & Society, 2019
Structural conditions shape the temporalities that govern the lives of street sex workers operating in Châu-D ^ oc, a small town in Southern Vietnam. These women live each day as they come and make decisions based on quick returns and the management of daily needs, prioritizing short-term solutions over planning for the future. The ethnographic study of the multiple temporalities that govern street sex work, family care, gambling and debt-juggling practices shows that these women live in a frantic present-oriented temporality that is filled with pressing tasks and routines. This leads to an uncertain future that engenders various forms of hopeful and speculative behaviour, but precludes systematic planning. As a result, these women are treading water: putting effort into keep themselves afloat but never furthering their status and lives or catching up with the currents of development and progress. Overall, this article argues that this day-today lifestyle goes hand in hand with the linear and future-oriented time of capitalism and wage-labour that has infiltrated everyday life in post-reform Vietnam.