Suchergebnisse

Le présent article examine les pratiques transnationales mobilisées pour « faire famille » par des hommes belges vivant en Thaïlande, la plupart étant en couple avec une ou un partenaire thaïlandais. Certains de ces hommes ont encore en Belgique des membres de leur famille de naissance et/ou de la famille nucléaire qu'ils ont fondée lors d'une précédente union. Le matériau empirique collecté auprès de 19 hommes belges (grâce à des entretiens approfondis réalisés à plusieurs reprises entre 2018 et 2023) montre que ces hommes, notamment les plus jeunes, restent en contact avec certains membres de leur famille en Belgique par le biais de communications à distance, de visites en Belgique ou de visites de leurs proches en Thaïlande, ainsi que par l'envoi de biens matériels. Ces pratiques transnationales sont façonnées à la fois par des facteurs micro-individuels (capital économique des enquêtés, qualité de leurs relations familiales, situation socioéconomique plus ou moins stable de leurs enfants) et macro-structurels (décalage horaire, détention ou non d'un passeport facilitant la mobilité, etc.).

The Thai migration to Belgium is numerically a woman-led phenomenon, which has captured social attention for the last decades. This attention entails stereotypes about Thai migrant women as 'workers' in the intimate industry and/or 'exotic wives' of Belgian men. To challenge these stereotypes, the present paper explores the often-ignored dimension of Thai women's sociality. Specifically, it examines the transmission dynamics occurring in their Buddhist social spaces, which shape and reinforce their sense of belonging. To do so, it draws from ethnographic fieldwork with Thai migrant women and key social actors within the Thai population in the country. Data analysis unveils that these women engage in multiform modes of transmission in their Buddhist social spaces. First, they transmit good deeds from the material world to the spiritual realm through merit-making practices and by seeking spiritual guidance in the temple. Second, they pass their socio-cultural ways of belonging to their children by engaging in different socializing activities. And third, they involve themselves in sharing religious faith, material symbols, and tastes described as part of Thai culture. Through this multiform transmission, Thai migrant women confront in subtle ways the common-held views about them at the intersection of their various identities as spouses, mothers, citizens, and Buddhist devotees. (ASEAS/GIGA)

The Thai migration to Belgium is numerically a woman-led phenomenon, which has captured social attention for the last decades. This attention entails stereotypes about Thai migrant women as 'workers' in the intimate industry and/or 'exotic wives' of Belgian men. To challenge these stereotypes, the present paper explores the often-ignored dimension of Thai women's sociality. Specifically, it examines the transmission dynamics occurring in their Buddhist social spaces, which shape and reinforce their sense of belonging. To do so, it draws from ethnographic fieldwork with Thai migrant women and key social actors within the Thai population in the country. Data analysis unveils that these women engage in multiform modes of transmission in their Buddhist social spaces. First, they transmit good deeds from the material world to the spiritual realm through merit-making practices and by seeking spiritual guidance in the temple. Second, they pass their socio-cultural ways of belonging to their children by engaging in different socializing activities. And third, they involve themselves in sharing religious faith, material symbols, and tastes described as part of Thai culture. Through this multiform transmission, Thai migrant women confront in subtle ways the common-held views about them at the intersection of their various identities as spouses, mothers, citizens, and Buddhist devotees.

Studies on "mixed" couples focus mainly on women's perspectives, which results in the neglect of the viewpoints of men. Addressing this empirical gap, this research note investigates the case of Belgian and Dutch men in (former) relationship with Filipino women, and Filipino men (currently or previously) married to Belgian/Dutch women. Ethnographic data analysis unveils the importance of the traditional division of household chores to these men. Belgian and Dutch informants maintain a gendered division of labor in their respective households, whereas Filipino informants, whose Belgian/Dutch spouses pursue gender equality, adopt various strategies to regain their masculine self.

Marriages between partners with different nationalities and/or ethnicities are continuously attracting the controlling gaze of many states at the global level. Studies have demonstrated how states govern the intimate lives of 'mixed' couples through migration and social policies as well as family laws. When 'mixed' couples break up, the way states regulate their conjugal dissolution remains largely unexplored. Using a feminist perspective on social citizenship, the present paper addresses this scholarly gap by examining if, how, and why migrant spouses claim their social rights in their receiving country during and/or after marital breakdown. Analysing interviews with Filipino migrant women in the Netherlands and Belgium shows that divorce does not always result in migrant women's reliance on legal and social aids in their receiving country, that is, their practice of social citizenship. Filipino women's decision whether to claim or not their social rights stems not only from micro- and meso-level factors(their resources, their awareness of available social services, and their social capital), but also from macro-level ones such as the presence of negative stereotypes about them in their receiving country and the socio-legal service structures available there. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/published

As states increasingly regulate 'mixed' family formation, self-positioning has become central to the lives of migrant spouses, including women. To understand this process, the present article investigates the mothering techniques of Filipino and Thai migrant women in Belgium, that is, the decisions, actions and ways of being they consciously enact in response to state policies 'here' and/or 'there' to secure the mother–child bond in space and time. Interviews and observations reveal these women's main techniques: obtaining Belgian nationality for themselves, prioritising a single nationality (Belgian) for their children and staying at home (in the case of Filipino migrant women) or working (in the case of Thai women). This self-positioning sets these women's own path and prepare their children's route towards full, active membership in the nation. Mothering appears therefore as a fertile site of citizenship, which from afar echoes the public–private divide but in close-up reveals the porosity of such dichotomy. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/published