WATERING THE NEIGHBOUR'S GARDEN: THE GROWING - CICRED

MARRIAGE MIGRATION BETWEEN VIETNAM AND TAIWAN…
the biggest investors in Vietnam. In 1993 Vietnam accounted for 36.5
percent of Taiwan’s investment in South-East Asia (Table 3).
Table 3 Taiwan investment in Vietnam, 1993-1998
Amount Investment from Taiwan as %
Year
(million USD) of total from South-East Asia
1993 1583.96 36.5
1994 1083.78 27.2
1995 1081.46 33.1
1996 1004.76 17.1
1997 854.14 13.3
1998 1000.78 21.4
Source: Phan, 2005.
In 2000 there were around 2,000 Taiwanese companies working in
Vietnam (Phan, 2005) and the number of Taiwanese people going to
Vietnam for business and holidays has increased over time. In the last
half of 1998 around 27,500 Taiwanese came to Vietnam. There are
linkages between marriage migration and the strengthening economic
relationship between the two countries.
In addition to changes within Taiwan, changes in the role and attitudes
of women have been influential. It is apparent that contemporary
young Taiwanese women are less willing than their mothers were, to
enter into marriages whereby they are constrained by traditional patriarchal
structures to remain at home, have children, look after aged
parents-in-law and to give up many of the freedoms they enjoyed as
educated young single women. This is particularly true in rural communities
and is exacerbated by heavy out-migration of young women
to cities. Dowry prices have also risen sharply in Taiwan. As a result,
Eyton (2003) points out…
“… rural poorly educated males in lacklustre jobs, possibly with
unsociable hours and conservative views on what marriage
should be … are looking to Mainland China and South-East
Asia for their prospective spouses. ”
3. The National University of Ho Chi Minh City study
In 2004, the Department of Sociology in the School of Social Sciences
and Humanities at the National University of Ho Chi Minh City
initiated a study of Vietnamese marriage migration to Taiwan (This is
raw, unpublished data obtained from the department and does not
need to be included in the references) with the following objectives: (1)
To provide an overview of marriage migration from Vietnam to Tai-
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