Date of Award

1994

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Edith Cowan University

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts Honours

Faculty

Faculty of Arts

First Supervisor

Dr Anne Atkinson

Abstract

Bride migration which includes unpaid labour migration is a new development in international labour migration. The factors which have contributed to recent increases in bride migration from developing counties in the South East Asian region to post-industrialised countries include changes in the international economic system and the international division of labour, and popular stereotypes of Filipino and Thai women, and conservative notions of women1s domestic roles which are prevalent in Australia. This study focuses on Filipino and Thai bride migration to Western Australian within the context of international labour migration. Most of the literature on Filipino and Thai female migration has concentrated on their participation in temporary migration patterns as contract domestic labour. Australian studies have generally focused on settlement issues and problems of these women as bride migrants. To date there has been little written on Filipino and Thai bride migration within the context of international labour migration. As well, there have been no studies of Thai brides immigrating to Western Australia. This thesis provides a survey of the entry of Filipino and Thai brides to Western Australia in the past decade. It argues that, because of current immigration laws which prevent the entry of contract domestic labour under the skilled labour category, Filipino and Thai brides who enter under the family re-union category as fiances or wives of Australian residents, can be seen as participating in international domestic labour migration as unpaid labour. The evidence on which this argument is based is drawn from a range of secondary sources, unpublished and published data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics , a quantitative survey of9 Filipino and 16 Thai women and qualitative interviews with 5 Filipino and 5 Thai women. Because of the limitations of the Western Australian data, this thesis can be seen as a pilot study which raises questions and provides directions for future research. Overall, the results of the pilot study concur with the literature reviewed. Both Filipino and Thai bride migration incorporate unpaid domestic labour migration and is therefore part of the global feminisation of migration.

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