Mi Migrant Bri rides es St Strategisi sing Within Within - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

PRESENT PR NTATION ON 3: Mi Migrant Bri rides es St Strategisi sing Within Within Family amily, Mar arket, t, and and State Amanda Chong Ama Deputy Public Prosecutor / State Counsel Criminal Justice Division Attorney-General’s Chambers

WE ARE ALL LIVING IN A WORLD DESIGNED BY SOMEONE ELSE

BUT WE ARE ACTIVELY LIVING WITHIN ITS STRICTURES.

We are not just We do not have a compelled by simple economic structural factors rationale for action WE ARE ALL AGENTS We make meaningful We have complex choices based on our and layered own values and motivations expectations

MIGRANT BRIDES AS VICTIMS?

MIGRANT BRIDES AS AGENTS

DISSECTING INEQUALITY

IF THE SAME RULES APPLY TO US, 
 WHY IS THE IMPACT UNEQUAL?

FOREGROUND RULES Filtered through BACKGROUND BACKGROUND BACKGROUND RULES RULES RULES DIFFERENT DISTRIBUTIONAL OUTCOMES

FAMILY LAW Filtered through IMMIGRATION LABOUR LAW WELFARE LAW LAW DIFFERENT DISTRIBUTIONAL OUTCOMES FOR MIGRANT BRIDES

BACKGROUND RULES INFORMAL FORMAL 
 NORMS: 
 NORMS: 
 How law is understood Actual legislation and interacted with in practice ➤ Create bargaining endowments ➤ Vulnerability and advantages which have limiting and enabling e ff ects on agency ➤ May limit alternatives to the bargaining situation ➤ Translates to higher/lower breaking points

STRATEGISING ➤ Background rules create high levels of dependence on their husbands as the default position for Migrant Brides ➤ Migrant Brides are strategising away from this dependence ➤ May involve creating more alternatives to the bargaining situation or increasing their bargaining power ➤ Use of their own social networks ➤ Use of the State programmes to build their own resources

CASE STUDY: FAUZIAH Age: 38, married at age 21 Children: 2 Singaporean children - daughter (age 16) and son (age 14) Husband: Odd job worker (age 62), earns $1500 a month Immigration status: Long Term Visit Pass Housing: One room rental flat in the name of her husband Employment status: No work permit as she is HIV+ (through husband) CONFLICT: Husband decides not to support the family. He uses his own income for himself but continues drawing from their joint bank account and spending it on prostitutes. Husband also beats her. Uses Increase Seeks help husband’s Volunteers legal Works a from MP/ STRATEGIES legal regularly awareness total of five FSC with her obligations to husband’s/ with FSC through jobs force him to children’s and school social take ICs networks responsibility

CONCLUSION ➤ Bargaining takes place in the shadow of the background rules. FOREGROUND RULES SMALL CHANGES IN BACKGROUND BACKGROUND BACKGROUND RULES RULES RULES = significant increments in bargaining power of actors LARGE DISTRIBUTIONAL CONSEQUENCES ➤ Can limit the distortions in the foreground rules

Focus on building How do we increase the power capacity and actors wield as they strategise, diminishing so they can move into their own desired outcomes? vulnerability A NEW THEORY OF SOCIAL CHANGE: IF WE ARE ALL AGENTS … Fostering greater Intervention that Breaking down legal awareness + engages the “stereotypes of Laws in plain whole community. suffering”. English.

ONE LEVER THAT CAN BE CHANGED ➤ Requirement of a Singaporean sponsor for LTVP ➤ Di ffi cult for women whose husbands have passed away or are in long-term incarceration. ➤ Some women have prostituted themselves, or enter into transactional relationships with men. ➤ Requirement that only your husband may sponsor you if you are married. ➤ Di ffi cult for women in domestic violence situations whose husbands refuse to divorce them.

THANK YOU.