WATERING THE NEIGHBOUR'S GARDEN: THE GROWING - CICRED

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G. HUGO –NGUYEN THI H. X.
dominated in most migrations up to the early post-war years. Hence, a
marriage squeeze can operate as a “pull” factor to marriage migrants.
However, also an excess of one gender can also provide potential for a
“push” of emigration as well. To what extent are such imbalances
evident in Taiwan and Vietnam?
Goodkind (1997) has demonstrated that the Vietnamese are experiencing
a “double marriage squeeze”. On the one hand, Vietnam
females, due to impacts of war and male dominated emigration, outnumber
males. On the other, the Viet Khu 9 based overseas are dominated
by males and have a shortage of females. Of relevance here is the
shortage of males in Vietnam evident in the age-sex pyramid (Figure 3)
Figure 3 Age-sex structure, Vietnam, 2000
Age
80+
75-79
70-74
65-69
60-64
55-59
50-54
45-49
40-44
35-39
30-34
25-29
20-24
15-19
10-14
5-9
0-4
Source: International Data Base, International Programs Center, U.S. Bureau of the Census.
Females outnumber males in all ages over 30. In the ages 30-49,
the sex ratio is 93.5 while overall sex ratio is 97.5. It is apparent, however,
that this factor is of less significance than in the past since in all
ages under 30 in Vietnam, males now outnumber females. On the
other hand, in Taiwan there is a larger number of males than females in
all age groups under 55 (Figure 4). Hence, there are some marriage
squeeze effects in Taiwan which would be of relevance to helping to
understand why Taiwanese males would seek brides internationally.
9 Overseas Vietnamese.
Males Females
6,0 4,0 2,0 0,0 2,0 4,0 6,0
Percent