WATERING THE NEIGHBOUR'S GARDEN: THE GROWING - CICRED

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G. HUGO –NGUYEN THI H. X.
this assistance we have enough money to send our younger
children to vocational school so that they will be able to find a
good job later. We are much happier now” (a father in An
Giang province).
It is clear that Vietnamese brides in Taiwan play an important role
in improving their families’ economy. From this point of view, the
marriages are seen as successful and this has a “demonstration effect”
in inciting other families in the area to encourage their daughters to
consider marriage migration. From an economic perspective then these
marriages have had positive impacts on communities in Vietnam.
These have certainly had an impact on younger girls in the communities
considering having foreign partners when they grow up and this is
supported by their parents. Indeed in focus group discussions some
local people expressed a concern with a local shortage of females at the
marriageable age. A commune, Tan Loc in Thot Not district, Can Tho
province is referred to as “Taiwan Island” because one out of every ten
households have daughters married to Taiwanese men. In Thoai Son
district, An Giang province, it was reported that 50 percent of all
marriages were Vietnam-Taiwan marriages. Young men in these communities
worry about having no chance to find partners and said they
were:
“very sad, all of the girls move out, so we may stay single our
whole life, we are poor and have no money to marry”.
It was said that some girls had strong relationships with local men
before marriage, but left their boyfriends behind to marry Taiwanese
men.
3.3. The experience in Taiwan
While the study did not directly interview many Vietnamese marriage
migrants since it was carried out in the origin area, a great deal of
information was collected about their experience in Taiwan from their
families. Most families kept in regular contact with their daughters,
especially through telephone calls and there was some return movement
of the women to visit their families. 10 From interviews with 51
brides coming back to visit their families in Vietnam we found that
while there are several success stories there are also problems being
experienced by many marriage migrants in Taiwan. It is apparent that
one overriding problem relates to language. In most cases the brides
cannot communicate effectively with their husbands at least in the early
10 One common complaint heard during fieldwork was the great difficulty for Vietnamese
families to get visas to visit their daughters in Taiwan.