This book reveals the status of marriage migrants as an emerging minority with multiple identity affiliations but a doubly marginalized status, both at home and in the host country.

In today’s globalized society, marriage migrations are far more diverse than the simple image of a woman migrating from a poor part of the world to a rich part. Both men and women can be marriage migrants, regardless of how wealthy or impoverished their country of origin. Today, rich and poor countries alike are sending and receiving countries for marriage migration.

Observed in the long term, the trajectories of marriage migrants often involve repeat and circular migrations. Complex and diverse trajectories are found in family dynamics and life-course events.

The essays in this volume present cases in which marriage migrants and their children have suffered due to limited access to mainstream citizenship, either in their home country or host country. These cases show that regardless of whether migrants—men, women, or their children—move from poor to rich, from rich to poor, or between similar neighboring countries, their legal, linguistic, cultural, occupational, or socioeconomic status may be degraded, especially following repeat migrations.

The more migration trajectories are repeated, the more de-territorialized marriage migrants and their children become. However, their access to full citizenship remains limited.

Contents

List of Figures
List of Tables
Foreword
Acknowledgements

Introduction: Marriage Migrants as Multi-marginalized?Transnational Diaspora
Sari K. Ishii

PART I MIGRATION FLOWS BEYOND THE MARRIAGE-SCAPES

Chapter 1: Forging Intimate Ties in Transnational Spaces:?The Life Trajectories of Japanese Women Married?to Pakistani Migrants
Masako Kudo

Chapter 2: Unintentional Cross-cultural Families: The Diverse Community of Japanese Wives in Shanghai
Chie Sakai

Chapter 3: Marriage “During” Work Migration: Lived Experiences?of Filipino Marriage Migrants in Malaysia
Linda A. Lumayag

PART II REVERSED GEOGRAPHIES OF POWER

Chapter 4: “Centre/Periphery” Flow Reversed?: Twenty Years?of Cross-Border Marriages between Philippine?Women and Japanese Men
Ikuya Tokoro

Chapter 5: Child Return Migration from Japan to Thailand
Sari K. Ishii

Chapter 6: Assimilation of the Descendants of Caucasian?Muslims in Sarawak, Malaysia
Caesar Dealwis

PART III MARRIAGE MIGRANTS AS MULTI-MARGINALIZED DIASPORA

Chapter 7: Lives in Limbo: Unsuccessful Marriages in Sino-Vietnamese Borderlands
Caroline Grillot

Chapter 8: Lives of Mixed Vietnamese-Korean Children?in Vietnam
Hien Anh Le

Chapter 9: Born to Be Stateless, Being Stateless: Transnational Marriage, Migration and the Registration of Stateless People in Japan
Lara Chen Tien-shi

Chapter 10: Legal Problems of Marriage between Irregular?Workers from Myanmar and Thai Nationals?in Thailand
Chatchai Chetsumon

Contributors
Index