WATERING THE NEIGHBOUR'S GARDEN: THE GROWING - CICRED

TRANSNATIONAL MIGRATION, MARRIAGE AND TRAFFICKING…
once abused and deceived, actively worked towards their return and
rescue. While the drama lived by some women victims of trafficking
needs to be told, it is equally important to acknowledge that the desire
to have a better life is often a pre-condition for ending up being trafficked
by traffickers. While the continuum and alliance between migration
and traffic seem logical conceptually, studies in most developing
countries fail to consider them in tandem. The separation of migration
and trafficking can only lead to unsuccessful policies and interventions.
Secondly, our objective was to document the reasons motivating
women to go to China. An important proportion of women aimed at
getting a husband and having a child. This finding shifts the focus
from purely economic reasons for migration to more complex sets of
reasons including family, marriage, work and poverty.
The deficit of women on the Chinese side of the China-Vietnam
border is apparently creating a market for Vietnamese women. However,
the context of the migration of Vietnamese women to China is
more complex. Given the Chinese’s men desire to marry down, it is
legitimate to ask whether the opening of the border without a female
deficit might have produced the same result. We feel that given the
general preference for marrying a woman or a man of one’s own country
in Vietnam and in China, the female deficit is putting additional
pressure by contributing to the phenomenon. These cross-border
marriages are the last resort for both Chinese men and Vietnamese
women.
Regardless of the underlying factors, the respective governments
should be honest about the situation and deal with these migratory and
trafficking flows as soon as possible. Currently, migrants and trafficked
persons have no rights in China and loose their rights upon their return
to Vietnam. The fact that most of these migrants and trafficked persons
are poor women who illegally crossed the border in the hope of a
better life or as victims of traffic, speaks to the gendered nature of the
whole issue. On the one side of the border, female are missing due to
discrimination. On the other side, some women try to take advantage
of this need for Chinese women by migrating to China, but, in the end,
Vietnamese women are also discriminated against. This unacceptable
situation calls for further research, including on the Chinese side of the
border.
423