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MIGRATION,
DIASPORAS AND
CITIZENSHIP
Engendering
Migration Journey
Identity, Ethnicity and
Gender of Thai Migrant
Women in Hong Kong
Herbary Zhang
Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship
Series Editors
Olga Jubany
Department of Social Anthropology
Universitat de Barcelona
Barcelona, Spain
Saskia Sassen
Department of Sociology and Committee
on Global Thought
Columbia University
New York, NY, USA
For over twenty years, the Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship series has
contributed to cross-disciplinary empirical and theoretical debates on
migration processes, serving as a critical forum for and problematising the
main issues around the global movement and circulation of people.
Grounded in both local and global accounts, the Series firstly focuses on
the conceptualisation and dynamics of complex contemporary national
and transnational drivers behind movements and forced displacements.
Secondly, it explores the nexus of migration, diversity and identity,
incorporating considerations of intersectionality, super-diversity, social
polarization and identification processes to examine migration through
the various intersections of racialized identities, ethnicity, class, gender,
age, disability and other oppressions. Thirdly, the Series critically engages
the emerging challenges presented by reconfigured borders and
boundaries: state politicization of migration, sovereignty, security, trans-
border regulations, human trade and ecology, and other imperatives that
transgress geopolitical territorial borders to raise dilemmas about contem-
porary movements and social drivers.
Editorial Board:
Brenda Yeoh Saw Ai (National University of Singapore, Singapore)
Fabio Perocco (Università Ca’Foscari Venezia, Italy)
Rita Segato (Universidade de Brasília, Brazil)
Carlos Vargas (University of Oxford, UK)
Ajmal Hussain (University of Warwick, UK)
Herbary Zhang
Engendering
Migration Journey
Identity, Ethnicity and Gender of Thai Migrant
Women in Hong Kong
Herbary Zhang
Department of Applied Social Sciences
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Hung Hom, Hong Kong
ISSN 2662-2602 ISSN 2662-2610 (electronic)

Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship
ISBN 978-3-031-15974-9 ISBN 978-3-031-15975-6 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15975-6
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer
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ดวงดาวยังประกายทอแสง จรัสแรงยามมืดมนบนฟ้าไกล (วงสามัญชน, ๒๕๖๓)
The stars still sparkle and shine
Strong and bright in the dark times, in the sky far away
To my parents, for their unconditional love
To late David, whom I would be nowhere near who I am today without
Acknowledgments
The journey of completing this book has been accompanied by many

uncertainties. In bringing it to life, I owed my gratitude to many people
who are the light of my life.
To God, the unseen guide. I am grateful for everything I have been
blessed with in my life.
To all Thai migrant women who participated in the study. They have
enriched my life enormously, and I hope this book does voice their stories.
I have been truly humbled by their willingness to share their lives with me
and the trust they placed in me.
I wish to express my sincere thanks to those whose mentorship has sup-
ported and guided me through my academic journey, Isabella Ng,
Asuncion Fresnoza-Flot, Ben Ku and Annie Chan. Thanks for their
encouragement, support, help and critique.
I thank my family, wherever they are in the world. This book is dedi-
cated to my parents, to R, without their unconditional support and love,
this book would have never been possible.
Last, my deepest gratitude goes to late Dr. David Ip, my lifelong men-
tor. May he rest in peace. I appreciate his wisdom and passion, without
which I would be nowhere near who I am today.
I gratefully acknowledge the permission to reprint material from the
following publications in this book.
Zhang, H. (2020). Identity negotiation of Thai female migrants in
Hong Kong: Under the Gaze of Buddhism. Journal of the Siam Society,
108(1): 113–126. Reproduced with permission of the Siam Society.
ix
x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Ng, I., & Zhang, H. (2021). Navigating the ethnic boundary: From
‘in-between’ to plural ethnicities among Thai middle-class migrant women
in Hong Kong. Journal of Sociology, 58(1): 59–75. Reproduced with per-
mission of The Australian Sociological Association and SAGE Publications.
Zhang, H. (2021). From Thailand to Hong Kong: Reinventing wom-
anhood in the journeys of migrant women. South East Asia Research,
29(2): 231–247. Reproduced with permission of SOAS University of
London and Taylor & Francis Group.
Contents
1 Introduction: Starting the Journey 1
2 Investigating
Migrant Women in Hong Kong: Toward an
Intersectional Analysis Approach 15
3 Establishing
the Ethnographic Study of Thai Migrant
Women in Hong Kong 41
4 Transnational
Migration and Identity Negotiation: Under
the Gaze of Buddhism 67
5 Navigating
the Ethnic Boundary: From “In-Between”
to Plural Ethnicities 91
6 Reinventing
Transnational Womanhood: In the Journeys
of Migrant Women113
7 Conclusion: Moving Beyond135
Index149
xi
List of Figures
Fig. 2.1 Identity negotiation between Thailand and Hong Kong 34

Fig. 3.1 Suprasystem to understand migration and its impacts 42
Fig. 3.2 The impact of migration experience on gender and identity 42
Fig. 3.3 Location of Wat Buddhadhamaram in Yuen Long, Hong Kong.
Source: Google Maps 49
Fig. 3.4 Location of the Thai Regional Alliance in Hong Kong at Wan
Chai, Hong Kong. Source: Google Maps 49
Fig. 3.5 The interview guides 53
Fig. 4.1 The Main Entrance of Wat Buddhadhamaram 71
Fig. 6.1 Logo of Thai Regional Alliance in Hong Kong 117
xiii
CHAPTER 1
Introduction: Starting the Journey
Introduction
My interest in this research was piqued by a chance meeting with Suthida,
a 42-year-old Thai woman and her 16-year-old daughter Grace at the
Royal Thai Consulate-General in Hong Kong in January 2016. A Thai
migrant woman married to a Hong Kong Chinese husband with one
daughter, Suthida has lived in Hong Kong for more than 20 years and
established her trading business between Hong Kong and Thailand. Her
elaboration more or less revealed the marginal status of Thai migrant
women like her in both Hong Kong and Thai society, because the official
at the consulate rejected Grace’s Thai passport application and blamed her
for “not being a good mother to teach Grace to speak Thai, and forget
Thai traditions”, Suthida shared with me how she feels “stuck in-between
Hong Kong and Thailand society”.
There are many migrants from all over the world in Hong Kong, like those
new immigrants from China, ethnic minorities from South Asia, domestic
workers from Southeast Asia… But we are different, many of us moved to
Hong Kong from Thailand for more than two or three generations, we got
married to Hong Kong local husbands, settled our families here, and became
permanent residents of Hong Kong… It is hard to tell others whether we
are Thai or Hong Konger, or both… It depends on the place, depends on
the situation and depends on who I talk to… For me, I think I am an
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1

Switzerland AG 2022
H. Zhang, Engendering Migration Journey, Migration, Diasporas
and Citizenship, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15975-6_1
2 H. ZHANG
verseas Thai and a Hong Konger, because I still feel I belong to Thailand…
o
But for Grace, she always thinks that she is a Hong Konger, and refuses to
learn the Thai language… I don’t know why, but this is her choice…
(Suthida, 42 years, business)
Suthida’s view reflects the identity dilemma which she and other Thai
migrant women have to face. As Frable (1997) defined, identity is the
individual’s psychological relationship to particular social category systems
(p. 139). There are a few studies related to Thai migrant women, mostly
conducted in Western countries. However, there is a dearth of research on
this phenomenon in Hong Kong except for a few focusing on ethnic
minorities from South Asia and domestic workers from Southeast Asia.
With Hong Kong recognized as a city where the East and the West meet,
where the social and cultural contexts are significantly different, this is a
recognized gap to be investigated. Therefore, this book investigates the
complicated identities of Thai migrant women in Hong Kong. More par-
ticularly, it is concerned with providing an understanding of the day-to-
day experience of a specific sociodemographic group—Thai migrant
women, in order to contribute knowledge to understand their identity
negotiation in Hong Kong.
According to Bhugra and Becker (2005), migration has a close link
with identity. Identity, furthermore, can be influenced and changed by
different migration experiences. Therefore, one may not only have a sin-
gle and fixed identity, but also double or multiple identities. When
migrants move from one region or country to another, they are usually
confronted with new national, cultural, and ethnic identity from the host
society. However, migrants also bring their own identity, language, val-
ues, beliefs, and behaviors, which might differ from those of the host
country.
Identity has long been studied and understood by sociologists as a con-
textual phenomenon (Huddy 2002). However, the process of identity
negotiation needs to be understood along with different migratory spaces
(home and host countries) and different time periods (before and after
migration). Through the in-depth study of everyday forms of identity
negotiation, this research aimed to capture sociocultural instances of iden-
tity negotiation and to document how this negotiation process applied to
Thai migrant women in Hong Kong.
1 INTRODUCTION: STARTING THE JOURNEY 3
Background of the Research

In 2016, a total of 584,383 ethnic minorities, constituting 8% of the entire
population were living in Hong Kong. Analyzed by ethnic groups of
Asians (other than Chinese race), the majority are Filipinos (2.5%) and
Indonesians (2.1%) (Census and Statistics Department 2017, p. 18).
Conversely, of the 8879 Thai migrant women living in Hong Kong at that
time, only 1723 were classified as domestic workers, constituting only 1%
of the total population. The migration pattern of Thais moving to Hong
Kong is highly feminized with approximately 87% of Thai migrants in
Hong Kong being female. The term “Thai Migrants” here refers to those
Thai nationals who were born in Thailand, whose first language is Thai,
got married to Hong Kong Chinese husbands, migrated, and lived in
Hong Kong more than seven years with permanent resident status.
According to population by-census, most of these Thai women migrated
through marriage with local Hong Kong Chinese. As a migrant who is
both an ethnic minority and a woman, how they perceive themselves in
Hong Kong society and how they find the way and meaning in their lives
has a great impact on personal, familial, and societal levels. This issue
motivated me to embark on this project to explore the subjective life expe-
riences of Thai migrant women in Hong Kong.
The total number of Thai people in Hong Kong is small when com-
pared to Indonesian and Filipino. Despite an increasing trend of Thai
females migrating to Hong Kong, there are as yet no studies about their
situation. Afore stated, approximately 87% of Thai population in Hong
Kong are female. Recently, there are some studies on common stereotypes
of Southeast Asian women in Hong Kong society related to prostitution,
mail order brides, or the negative images of them as domestic workers. It
is worthwhile for us to investigate how Thai migrant women perceive
themselves in Hong Kong society and how they respond to these common
perceptions and stereotypes against them. It is also important for us to
find out what kind of challenges and strategies that Thai migrant women
use to face or deal with, and understand their identity negotiation along
with their journey of migration.
Another key point of this book is to study Thai migrant women’s participa-
tion in transnational practices and understand how they negotiate their iden-
tity and reinvent their womanhood through these premises in Hong Kong.
This book argues that Thai migrant women should be understood within
“transnational migration” in this globalization era, as their migration experi-
ence has a close relationship to both the home and host countries.
4 H. ZHANG
The Thai migrant women in this research grew up in Thailand, where

Thai traditional cultures and values prevail within a “nation-religion-
monarchy” trinity. However, Hong Kong as a city where the East meets
the West, under the long period of British governance, the local Chinese
culture in Hong Kong has been amalgamated with a lot of western ideolo-
gies like Christianity, democracy, and capitalism (Ho et al. 2003). This
study strengthens our understanding of how the social and cultural dis-
crepancies in Hong Kong affect Thai migrant women’s lives and their
identity negotiation.
The life experience of Thai migrant women in Hong Kong raises the
question of what kind of racial discrimination and stigma they face. In
recent years, there are many studies regarding stigmas of Southeast Asian
women in Hong Kong which related to sex work, human trafficking, mail-
order brides, and fake marriage. These images of Southeast Asian women
are often represented in local and international mass media.
If transnational migrants are to participate fully in the life of the host
society, more needs to be investigated about their subjective experiences.
Particularly, there is a need for us to understand further how they negoti-
ate their identity in the host society and how this identity negotiation
process impacts their womanhood. Through the analysis of the narratives,
this study brings to light not only the complex psychosocial processes
caused by the experience of transnational migration, but also a sense of
their experiences as both women and migrants in Hong Kong.
Since transnational migrants in this age of globalization engage in several
social fields and roles, and maintain their connections in two or more societ-
ies, which are their home and host countries, this book proposed that Thai
migrant women do not simply abandon their national, cultural, and ethnic
values and identity. Instead, they will carry these ideologies and sociocul-
tural practices through their migration journey. Besides, their life experience
in both the home and host countries helps them create a unique transna-
tional social sphere and develop an in-between identity in Hong Kong.
The significance of analyzing contemporary migration under transna-
tionalism recognizes that transnationalities affect migrants’ survival chal-
lenges and strategies and their identity along with migration. Moreover,
this book also investigated the social positions and roles of Thai migrant
women by using “intersectionality” as the approach, to find out how the
different social-cultural contexts shape their identity negotiation and affect
their womanhood in Hong Kong.
Aims and Significance of the Research

There are two main significances of this research. First and foremost, this
study aims at contributing to the field by providing insightful information
concerning transnational migration. The increasing trend of cross-border
marriages and transnational migration affects the demographic structure
in Hong Kong as many migrants in Hong Kong are culturally different
from the current cultural majority. Understanding the motivation for their
migration, their experiences, and related challenges are staples of social
science inquiry (Bernard 2000). Findings from this study also enrich our
understanding of identity negotiation and womanhood reinvention of
Thai migrant women in Hong Kong.
Secondly, this study also contributes to theory building, which is an
essential feature of qualitative research. Blumer (1969) provides effective
strategies for theory development emphasizing the salience of sensitizing
concepts to knowledge building. Identity has been studied and under-
stood by sociologists as a contextual phenomenon. However, the process
of identity negotiation still cannot be generalized and needs to be under-
stood within different spaces and times. Through the in-depth study of
everyday forms of identity negotiation, this research aims to capture socio-
cultural instances of identity negotiation and to document how this nego-
tiation process applies to Thai migrant women in Hong Kong, generating
new knowledge about the process of transnational migration and the pro-
cess of identity negotiation.
Research Questions
In keeping with the aims of this research, the following research questions
were formulated.
1. How do Thai migrant women living in Hong Kong perceive their

national and ethnic identity, and their identity as a woman?
2. How do different generations of Thai migrant women identify
themselves differently in the host community and navigate the eth-
nic boundaries in the host community?
3. How does the sociocultural context of Hong Kong shape Thai
migrant women’s identity negotiation and affect their womanhood?
6 H. ZHANG
Research Focus and Design

This study focused on the identity negotiation of Thai migrant women in
the process of transnational migration. Identity is a way people position
themselves in relation to others and act accordingly (Burkitt 1991).
Identity gives one the idea of who one is and how one relates to others in
the world in which we all live (Woodward 1997). Identity also provides
the link between an individual and the society in which the individual lives,
and gives an individual a sense of belonging to the society and location in
the world. This research raises issues of transnational migration, national-
ism, social and ethnic identities of female migrants, giving voice to Thai
migrant women, enhancing our understanding of their identity negotia-
tion and womanhood reinvention.
A qualitative methodology was employed in this research to collect rich
data and generate insights into the life experiences of Thai migrant women.
A qualitative method has the capacity to value Thai migrant women’s first-
hand experience as a basis for knowledge. Alston and Bowles recognize the
value of this type of research as having the capacity to yield rich data allow-
ing for an examination of complex situations (1998, pp. 185–186). Semi-
structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 40 Thai migrant
women in Hong Kong; two fieldwork sites were studied. One is Wat
Buddhadhamaram, one of the most influential Thai temples in Hong Kong
managed by the Office of National Buddhism, Thailand. The other one is
the Thai Regional Alliance in Hong Kong, which is a nongovernmental
organization (NGO) organized by Thai people in Hong Kong to provide
support for Thai people in Hong Kong. The characteristics of ethnographic
research enhance the interactions between members and outsiders, provide
the means of bringing discovery of new relationships, new meaning, and
understanding of an area that has been little researched (Dwyer and Buckle
2009). In this way, this approach best suited the purposes and aims of
this research, in that it enabled a theoretical reflexivity and allowed for an
inclusive approach to the research task (Bergold and Thomas 2012).
Narratives gained in semi-structured interviews conducted with 40
Thai migrant women were the primary data collection methods, while
participant observation at Wat Buddhadhamaram and Thai Regional
Alliance in Hong Kong being the secondary method. Through the stories
from Thai migrant women, narratives of life experiences involved in the
process of transnational migration were illuminated. The rich data col-
lected provides insights into the life experiences of Thai migrant women
to understand their identity negotiation in Hong Kong.
Overview of the Book

This book focuses on Thai migrant women and their identity negotiation
through their engendering journey of transnational migration to Hong
Kong. As increasing numbers of Southeast Asians are moving into the
middle class, many are becoming mobile as tourists and increasingly as
white-collar workers. The literature on intra-Asian migration to date has
largely focused on working-class or rural women who work as domestic
workers and within related occupations. Therefore, the turn to middle-
class Thai female migration in Hong Kong is very promising, as it allows
us to move beyond standard stories of victimized migrants through the
lives of migrants who may very well come to be identified as such because
of their national backgrounds and associated stereotypes. This book con-
sists of seven chapters. Chapter 1 provides the focus of the book, which is
Thai migrant women and their identity negotiation through the journey
of transnational migration to Hong Kong. Identifying the particular issues
specific to Thai migrant women in Hong Kong established the book’s
foundation.
Chapter 2 reviews the literature on women’s migration in the Asia-
Pacific region, explores the situation of Southeast Asian migrants in Hong
Kong, and provides the background to understand Thai migrant women’s
lives in Hong Kong. This chapter also explicates the rationale for the focus
on female migrants and highlights the gender perspective in migration
studies. Firstly, this chapter will revisit women’s migration in the Asia-
Pacific region. In the era of increasing mobility and globalization, migra-
tion from and within the Asia-Pacific region has assumed a highly feminized
gendered dimension, affecting migration flows, trends, and patterns.
Secondly, this chapter explores the trend, the factor, and the impact of
women’s migration in the Asia-Pacific region, thus providing a back-
ground to understand Thai migrant women nowadays. Secondly, as a mul-
ticultural cosmopolitan, transnational migration has an inseparable
relationship with the socioeconomic development of Hong Kong, the
phenomenon of transnational marriage between Hong Kong men and
Southeast Asian women has become one of the influential factors impact-
ing the family and social structure in this city. I will provide an overall
understanding of Southeast Asian migrants in Hong Kong. Hong Kong
has seen a marked increase in migrant labor since the late 1960s, and in
the past twenty years, Southeast Asian migrant workers have been essential
for Hong Kong’s socioeconomic development. Hong Kong remains an
8 H. ZHANG
immigrant society as 40% of the population in Hong Kong are foreign-

born. Most Southeast Asian migrants who work in Hong Kong come
from the Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand as domestic workers in
middle-class families. However, little is known of the current situation of
professional migrants from Southeast Asia, especially those female migrants
who married and lived in Hong Kong.
The chapter will also explicate the rationale for the focus on female
migrants and highlights the intersectional approach to studying gender
and transnational migration within the mobility frame nowadays.
Intersectionality has become one of the most influential theoretical frame-
works to study women nowadays, especially marginalized women in the
global south context (Collins 2019; Conaghan 2009; Davis 2008; McCall
2005). By applying an intersectional approach to this study, many gender
scholars not only focus on the complex entities of different social catego-
ries, but also highlight how they connect and influence each other by time
and space (Bilge 2013; Phoenix and Pattynama 2006; Yuval-Davis 2006).
To study the identity negotiation and belonging of Thai migrant
women in this specific social demographic group in Hong Kong from an
intersectional approach, we must pay attention to their socioeconomic
background and social class. There are wide, measurable differences in life
chances between social classes. As the social class has a significant influence
on people’s lives, an individual’s social class has a significant impact on his
or her life chances; the chance of obtaining those things defined as desir-
able and avoiding those things defined as undesirable in any society. From
an intersectional perspective, the study on Thai migrant women in Hong
Kong is compelling, and this study will contribute to the migration
study theory.
The purpose of this study is to understand the life experiences of Thai
migrant women in Hong Kong and how Hong Kong’s sociocultural con-
text shapes their identity negotiation. Through the critical perspective and
use of intersectionality analysis, this study adopts a qualitative research
methodology with an ethnographic approach. Semi-structured interviews
were used as the primary data collection method, while participant obser-
vation was the secondary method. The narratives are used to examine the
perceptions and experiences of Thai migrant women. The study enhances
an understanding of the life experiences and migration stories of Thai
migrant women, recognizing that identity is a complex concept, especially
for transnational migrants; their perceptions may be changed by time and
space, by their multiple roles in the home and host countries. A conceptual
framework is needed for us to understand the different aspects of identity

formation over time and space and various perspectives from both the
micro and macro levels. As an ethnographic study, the details of this eth-
nographic method will be elaborated on as well. By using the concept of
“positionality” and “reflexivity”, in Chap. 3, I will discuss my position as
a male researcher in conducting this gender-related research. I will also
contain this kind of reflection to discuss the power relation between “male
researcher” and “female participant” in a gender study, and how this rela-
tionship influences my fieldwork and my writing.
Thai migrant women’s identity negotiation must be understood along
with their journey of transnational migration; although they moved and
settled in Hong Kong, they still keep close relations and maintain social
ties with Thailand. The narratives of the migration stories of Thai migrant
women allow us to analyze their subjective experiences and perception.
Their journey of transnational migration and their life experiences in
Hong Kong brought them to face different problems, such as how they
perceive themselves as Thai women in Hong Kong. What is the meaning
of being a Thai woman in Hong Kong? Chapter 4 will answer these ques-
tions and explore how Thai Buddhism reinforces their Thai identity and
how the sociocultural context in Hong Kong shapes their identity as a
woman. Buddhism has long been a source of identity for Thai people,
rather than a universalistic religion. Thai people living in Hong Kong
maintain their identity through the “nation-religion-monarchy” trinity.
Many Thai migrant women retain strong ties to Thailand, enhancing their
identity of Thainess through various means from Buddhism perspectives.
However, transnational migration has proved to be an opportunity and a
challenge. However, when Thai migrant women arrived in Hong Kong,
their experiences due to a new wave of autonomy and the freedom enjoyed
by women in Hong Kong society empowered them to challenge and ques-
tion the gender inequality that exists in Thai Buddhism, even shaking their
inherent faith in Buddhism. Under these circumstances, the Buddhist faith
becomes a “buffet” for Thai migrant women: they will rationally choose
some parts and reject others. These subtle ideological changes set the way
to negotiate their gender role expectations and reconstruct their woman-
hood as Thai migrant women in Hong Kong.
In Hong Kong society, Southeast Asian women are generally perceived as
members of low status. They felt a sense of exclusion from other residents in
Hong Kong. Some informants noted that they sometimes faced discrimina-
tion because of their “Southeast Asian ethnicity”. For Thai migrant women
10 H. ZHANG
migrating into Hong Kong society, the definition of “ethnicity” refers to

the concept of “ethnic boundary” that defines the group rather than the
race (Barth 1969, p. 68). The ethnicization of recent migrants from
Southeast Asia contributes to their status as a minority group. These female
migrants are caught in an ethnic dilemma in which they struggle to position
themselves between Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Chapter 5 examines
the self-ethnic identification of Thai migrant women in Hong Kong. It
looks into how different generations of Thai migrant women identify them-
selves differently in the host community. In the first part of this chapter, I
will explore the ethnic self-identification of the Thai migrant women in
Hong Kong. Did they perceive themselves as Hong Konger or Thai? Did
they find their sense of belonging in Hong Kong? In the second part, I will
examine the conflict between their self-perception and the perceptions of
others; and the consequences of such conflict. Based on the fieldwork, I
found that Thai migrant women in Hong Kong navigate their ethnic
boundaries and negotiate their identity strategically in order to respond to
the different local perceptions of them. By providing empirical evidence of
how Thai migrant women navigate the ethnic boundary and negotiate their
ethnic identity in Hong Kong, we complement earlier studies of boundary-
crossing by looking at the processes of identity negotiation and the different
strategies of Thai migrant women’s identity work within existing boundaries
in Hong Kong.
The aspiration for a “Hong Kong identity” could be a source of stress for
female migrants. A lot of informants were deterred from identifying them-
selves as a “Hong Konger” because of their perceived lack of cultural and
economic assimilation. For some, they believed that they needed to work
hard to gain the acceptance of the local group before they were entitled to
membership. For others, they gave up the effort to refute the immigrant
stereotypes and became apathetic toward mixing with the majority group.
The mainstream perception of the immigrant women as “the other” and
their own self-perception as “Thai” impacted their identity negotiation, as
well as their integration into the local society.
In Chap. 6, I will examine how assumptions about gender roles learned
by Thai migrant women in Thailand are called into question upon arrival
in Hong Kong along with their journey of transnational migration, and
how these Thai migrant women reinvent their womanhood in Hong
Kong. This chapter explores the identity negotiation of Thai migrant
women in Hong Kong as they are placed in new socioeconomic and socio-
cultural environments, facing multiple social roles, what challenges and
strategies they have to face, and the consequences of these challenges and
strategies for their identity negotiation from an intersectional perspective.
Many Thai migrant women experience and witness significant changes in
their lives in Hong Kong. These changes affect their identity as Thai
women in Hong Kong and lead them into the process of identity negotia-
tion. Through their narrative of their own life experiences, firstly, I revisit
the literature on gender and migrations, and provide an overview of Thai
migration to Hong Kong. Then, I discuss the sociocultural structure of
gender in Thai society, how the sociocultural context in Hong Kong
shapes their gender role and gender expectations, and how they reinvent
their womanhood in Hong Kong. As all the participants in this research
are considered the middle class with well-educated backgrounds com-
pared to domestic workers from Southeast Asia, it is crucial to analyze the
relationship between their social class, gender identity, and womanhood
from an intersectional perspective.
Migrants grow up in a society where socioculturally different from the
host society. From the social perspective, as a migrant, especially female
migrants from the less developing country, they have always been excluded
from the mainstream society and live marginally in the host society. As an
“outsider” in the host country, they are forced to reconsider their identity,
find their reference groups, and establish new interpersonal ties. In the new
social and cultural environment, migrants have to redefine the meaning of
in-group and out-group. From a cultural perspective, migrants have to learn
different languages, cultures, values, and thoughts in the host society to
demonstrate their experiences and feelings. After the migration, they are in
the process of defining, redefining, interpreting, and reinterpreting the
meanings of their life experiences. In this scenario, female migrants will
negotiate their identity, change their gender role expectations and reinvent
their womanhood. After moving from Thailand to Hong Kong, many Thai
migrant women experienced the socioeconomic and sociocultural shock in
Hong Kong, and they found the autonomy and freedom of women con-
ferred by the Hong Kong government and society to be hugely different
from Thailand. They realized that the meaning of “being a woman” is dif-
ferent in Hong Kong society compared to Thailand, and this kind of differ-
ence and shock in the Hong Kong context leads them to negotiate their
gender role and reinvent their womanhood.
My study participants found there are various challenges and strategies
they must face when reinventing their womanhood in Hong Kong. On
the one hand, because of the socioeconomic and sociocultural situations
12 H. ZHANG
in Hong Kong are different from Thailand; on the other hand, from a
daughter in Thailand to becoming a woman with multiple roles—labor in
Hong Kong society, wife, mother, and daughter-in-law in Hong Kong
family. Will Thai migrant women participate differently in the economic
and gender roles in the Hong Kong labor market? Will they expect to be
a good wife to their husband and a daughter to their parents-in-law? Will
their interaction with the new sociocultural environment affect their gen-
der role expectations and gender identity? How do they perceive them-
selves as women now, and how do they reinvent their womanhood? These
questions will be addressed in this chapter.
This book aims to explore the identity negotiation of Thai migrant
women in Hong Kong through their engendering journey of transna-
tional migration by focusing on their life experiences from individual, fam-
ily, community, and social perspectives. The findings of this book revealed
the uniqueness of how these Thai migrant women experienced the trans-
national migration journey from Thailand to Hong Kong when compared
to the other domestic workers from Southeast Asia. In this book, I have
demonstrated that along with identity negotiation between the home
country and the host country, Thai migrant women develop an in-between
identity base on their gender, religion, socioeconomic class, and other fac-
tors. This in-between identity is experienced while they perform multiple
social roles in both the home country and the host country. Categorized
by gender, race/ethnicity, and class, Thai migrant women follow different
paths to lead themselves into the in-between. In Chap. 7, the concluding
chapter, I will introduce the significance of my study by framing it as part
of a broader phenomenon of middle-class/professional migration within
Asia; discuss my contributions to mobility theories building and implica-
tions for social policy and practice in Asia society; I will also discuss the
limitations of my study and provide directions for future research on gen-
der, migration, and mobility.
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CHAPTER 2
Investigating Migrant Women in

Hong Kong: Toward an Intersectional
Analysis Approach
Women’s Migration in the Asia-Pacific Region

In the era of increasing mobility and globalization, migration from and
within the Asia-Pacific region has assumed a gendered dimension being
highly feminized affecting the migration flows, trends, and patterns
(Sijapati 2015). This section explores the trend, the factor, and the impact
of women’s migration in the Asia-Pacific region, thus providing a back-
ground to understand Thai migrant women nowadays.
Generally speaking, the motivations for women’s migration are widely
diversified, including economic and education opportunities, marriage
and family reunification, as well as forced migration. Globally, the propor-
tion of women among all migrants was 48% in 2015 IOM 2015). Due to
the vast size, as well as its social, economic, and cultural diversity and
complexity of the Asia-Pacific region, the discussion of migration patterns
and trends in the Asia-Pacific region is not easy to be generalized. Firstly,
as women’s migration rises in some regions, it declines in others. In line
with global trends, female migrants account for 48% of the total number
of migrants to the Asia-Pacific region, and 44% of migrants from the
region IOM 2015). Secondly, the destinations for female migrants are
heterogeneous, and intra-regional migration is significant. The oil-rich
Gulf countries and the developed countries in East Asia and Southeast
Asia are the main destinations for women’s migration (World Bank 2014).
Thirdly, many female migrants migrate through irregular channels and/or
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 15

Switzerland AG 2022
H. Zhang, Engendering Migration Journey, Migration, Diasporas
and Citizenship, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15975-6_2
16 H. ZHANG
are in irregular status (Shah 2014). The official statistics on women’s

immigration in most countries of this region are considered to be a major
undervaluation because a large number of women migrate through infor-
mal channels and/or are working in irregular and illegal status (UN
Women 2013). Last but not least, female migrants mainly work in female-
dominated occupations. The gendered perception of women migrants has
meant that their demand is primarily in the domestic, hospitality, health
and care, garment, and entertainment sectors (UN Women 2013).
In the past, many scholars believe that women’s migration mainly
occurs in the context of association migration, including family reunifica-
tion and marriage. However, with the increased number of female migrants
who migrate on their own, there has been increased attention on the
determinants of women’s migration (Agrawal 2006). In a broad sense,
political, economic, cultural, and social factors have been identified to
study female migrants in current times. Under these circumstances, the
traditional “push” and “pull” approach in migration studies cannot simply
explain the actual migration of women in the era of globalization. The
complex web of social networks has resulted in circular and cumulative
impacts with women’s migration higher in places where there already are
earlier migrants (Massey et al. 2005).
The existing literature also points out the significant contributions by
female migrants to both home and host countries. Firstly, is the financial
impact. In many sending countries, women’s remittances are among the
largest sources of cash revenue. Even though some women understand-
ably send smaller amounts than men, women remit a higher proportion of
their earnings and do so more frequently (IOM 2010). The combined
effects of these remittances can be significant; contrary to men’s remit-
tances, which are spent overwhelmingly on “productive assets”, women’s
remittances tend to be used for education, health, food, clothing, and
housing (UN Women 2013). Secondly is the social impact. Besides finan-
cial remittances, the social remittances of women migrants regarding
ideas, skills, attitudes, and knowledge can also contribute to socioeco-
nomic development, human rights and gender equality in countries of
origin. While a complete transformation in gender hierarchy and relations
is not evident, migration of women contributes toward reformulating
gender roles and cultural norms (Lopez-Ekra et al. 2011). Further, instead
of replacing native workers, immigrants, especially women migrants, often
take up jobs that native workers are unwilling to do, such as elder care,
which is particularly important in countries with aging populations. For
2 INVESTIGATING MIGRANT WOMEN IN HONG KONG… 17
instance, in Hong Kong, migrant domestic workers, (1) make it possible

for Hong Kong women to go out and work, (2) help fill the existing void
in child-care services, and (3) if English-speaking, serve a dual role as
helper and English language assistant. Without domestic help, a family
member, often the woman, would have to stay at home, resulting in lower
household income (Nagy 2013).
Despite increased women’s migration in the Asia-Pacific region and a
large number of research studies on various aspects of this new phenom-
enon of women’s migration, there is a need to further investigate the cause
and motivation of women’s migration and their life of adaption in the host
country, particularly in Asia and Southeast Asia. Previous and current
studies have been limited to the labor migration and domestic worker
only. Moreover, a lack of literature and academic concern with female
professional and volunteer migrants including female migrants from mid-
dle and upper-class backgrounds in developing countries, leave a vacuum
for understanding the diverse forms of migration among women.
Southeast Asian Migrants in Hong Kong

Hewison (2004) provides an overall understanding of Southeast Asian
migrants in Hong Kong. Hong Kong has seen a marked increase in
migrant labor since the late 1960s, and in the past twenty years, Southeast
Asian migrant workers have been important for Hong Kong’s socioeco-
nomic development. Hong Kong remains an immigrant society as 40% of
the population in Hong Kong are foreign-born. Most of the Southeast
Asian migrants who work in Hong Kong come from the Philippines,
Indonesia, and Thailand as domestic workers in middle-class families.
However, little is known of the current situation of professional migrants
from Southeast Asia, especially those female migrants who married and
live in Hong Kong.
A total of 584,383 ethnic minorities, constituting 8% of the whole pop-
ulation in Hong Kong, were living in Hong Kong in 2016. Analyzed by
ethnic groups of Asians (other than Chinese), the majority of them were
Filipinos (2.5%) and Indonesian (2.1%). The remaining included Indians
(0.5%), Pakistanis (0.3%), Nepalese (0.2%), Japanese (0.1%), and Thais
(0.1%) (Census and Statistics Department 2017, p. 18). With Indonesian
and Filipino migrant workers being the largest of these minority groups,
existing researches have paid inordinate attention to study domestic work-
ers from these two countries in the traditional way, which is using “power”
18 H. ZHANG
to understand the “pull” and “push” factors in transnational migration

between a developing country and developed country. On the other hand,
recent studies and policies in Hong Kong focus on South Asian rather
than Southeast Asian. Under these circumstances, it is more necessary to
study Southeast Asian female migrants, a minority within the minority.
There have been numerous studies of overseas migrant workers in
Hong Kong, but few consider Thais. Also, most recent researches focus
on Thai migrants from the working class but ignore the internal differ-
ences among Thai women. It is therefore worth exploring the different life
stories of different Thai migrants to understand their life experiences in
Hong Kong. From the previous studies, it is clear that Thai workers view
their time in Hong Kong as providing them with an opportunity to sup-
port their families, including parents and younger siblings. There is strong
cultural pressure for Thai women to do this. Women are unable to make
merit by entry into the Buddhist monkhood, so there is often an expecta-
tion that they will “repay” parents in other ways. There are also pressures
for women to demonstrate filial respect, generosity, and family orientation
within villages (Hirai 2002).
Studies of domestic workers in Hong Kong observe that NGOs are
significant in representing the interests of “marginalized” workers, espe-
cially domestic workers (Sim 2002, p. 4). However, NGOs do not loom
large for Thai workers. The international mass media in Hong Kong and
NGO reports highlight the problems faced by migrant workers. There is
no doubt that some migrant workers are subject to gross mistreatment.
Indeed, the Hong Kong experience is similar to that of Thai workers in
other places—the mainly male workers in Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan,
and Japan (Samarn 2000) and those studied earlier in Hong Kong (Ng
and Lee 2000). The dilemmas and opportunities faced by Thai migrants
in Hong Kong are different from other Southeast Asian migrants in Hong
Kong. Also, Thai male migrants and Thai migrant women have different
life experiences in Hong Kong. As migration experiences have a close link
with identity, it is crucial for us to explore their life stories further and
understand their different identity in Hong Kong.
Against the current privileging diasporic identity as the (trans)migrants’
challenge to the normativity of national identity and belonging, Lai’s
(2011) paper takes into account the situation of contract migrant workers
in Hong Kong. This study explores the critical potential of diasporic iden-
tification in challenging hegemonic national discourses outside much-
discussed European and American contexts. While acknowledging contract
migrant workers in Hong Kong maintain the transnational connections

with their home countries, Lai’s paper highlights that it is important for
contract migrant workers to forget their own understanding and represen-
tation of their situation and identity. In light of the common refrain of
forgetting observed among these migrant workers in Hong Kong, this
paper explains the politics of diasporic identification in their situation,
especially the dependence of diasporic identification on consolidating
national identity and allegiance through the mediation of gendered norms
of family duties.
Lai’s paper also discusses about the diasporic identity. Against the
assimilation paradigm of past studies of (im)migration, the current theori-
zation of migrant identities tends to stress and celebrate interconnections
across borders and negotiations of multiple affinities and relationships,
notably in a transnational framework and its related refiguration of dias-
pora (Cohen 1988a, b; Glick Schiller et al. 1995). The increase in cross-
border movements is believed to bring about a destabilization of the link
between place and identity, and a concomitant weakening in the sense of
settlement. Thus, rather than an identity tied to a singular “imagined
community” in which one currently lives, migrants simultaneously main-
tain multiple connections with, and define themselves in relation to, kin,
relatives, and ethnic communities in different places besides the society
they reside. Such lateral, multipolar nexus cultivates an unfixed, moving,
and morphing identity that is a hallmark of contemporary conceptions of
diaspora (Brah 1996; Hall 1990).
From previous studies, we can only know the general situation of
Southeast Asian female migrants in Hong Kong with most studies focus-
ing only on domestic workers. The main constructs of this book take on
another important perspective in transnational migration and identity, that
of how the host society accepts and affects the identity of migrants. In the
era of globalization, immigration and its impact on the changing urban
social landscape exacerbate the social differences between “outsiders” and
“insiders”, affecting the order of social divisions in the host society. This
distinction is based on the differences and similarities between the con-
sciousness of social inclusion and exclusion, involving a social process of
“othering” (Ngan and Chan 2013). Insider-ness and outsider-ness is a
social experience that is not just confined to ethnic groups as it “exists in
all communities and societies, between those who belong, who are part of
“us”, and those who may be experienced as foreign or alien” (Billington
et al., in Crow, Allan, and Summers, 2001, p. 30).
20 H. ZHANG
Ngan and Chan (2013) also mentioned that an outsider is always an

outsider, the dynamics of social inclusion and exclusion is a complex and
multi-dimensional process shaped by institutional frameworks as well as
informal practices. While some of these frameworks are justified by eco-
nomic rationality, migrants with a low socioeconomic background are
often excluded from aspects of labor and social protection, therefore rein-
forcing hegemonic ideas about “insider-ness” and “outsider-ness”.
It highlights how policies veer toward the exclusionary when targeted
toward low-income migrants from Southeast Asia and East Asia, which
manifest racial discrimination against them. The structure of social policies
is an embodiment and expression of the state toward constituent ethnic
aggregates which has reinforcing effects on the insider/outsider dichot-
omy. Policies driven by the state are a mechanism that contributes to the
reinforcement of social divisions between “foreign” migrants and local
citizens. At the same time, the state’s categorization of immigrants is often
based on historically situated social constructions of ethnicity, race, class,
and gender, which are influenced by hegemonic ideas of belongingness
(Glenn 1999).
According to Noels et al. (2010), it is important to examine how
migrants’ feelings of identity align with their perceptions of how other
people see them in the host society, and how these reflected appraisals
from others contribute to migrants’ experience of discrimination and inte-
gration. The majority of research to date on Southeast Asian women in
Hong Kong has focused on those who come as domestic or sex workers
(Constable 2009; Yamanaka and Piper 2005). And the common stereo-
types about Southeast Asian women in Hong Kong are Indonesians are
stupid, dirty, and not respectful of the local culture; while Filipinos are
irresponsible, noisy, and take advantage of their employer; and Thais are
money-grubbers and work as sex workers. In general, these studies’ find-
ings highlight the negative stereotypes many Hong Kong people have
about them without any focus on identity issues of in-group differences
among them.
Wee and Sim (2003, 2005) observe the discursive representation of
Southeast Asian-Hong Kong couples in Hong Kong local mass media.
They found that Southeast Asian-Hong Kong marriages are portrayed in
general as a “social problem”; an intersection of various power structures
such as gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity, and class which mutually consti-
tute “the other” of Southeast Asian-Hong Kong couples. Stereotypes thus
are reinforced through universalized and essentialized images of Southeast
Asian-Hong Kong couples. From their analysis of Hong Kong local mass
media, Wee and Sim found that the relationships between Hong Kong
men and Southeast Asian women are at times presented as unequal and in
different power positions. Hong Kong local mass media also highlights
Southeast Asian women as poor, racialized, oppressed, and sexually devi-
ant from Hong Kong norms and Southeast Asian-Hong Kong couples
were discursively constructed as “the other”.
Apart from domestic and sex workers, there is a sizable population of
middle to upper-class Thai women migrating to Hong Kong through
marriage with Hong Kong local husbands. There is a dearth of literature
focusing on this group of people. This research has sought to address this
gap using social class and social-economic background as indicators to
understand the life experiences and identity of this population in Hong
Kong from an intersectional analysis approach.
Transnational Migration
To analyze Thai migrant women in Hong Kong regarding their identity
construction and negotiation, firstly, the notion of “transnational migra-
tion” is discussed. The concept of transnational migration serves to explain
the recent form of migration in which migrants maintain connections with
their home countries with an engagement in multiple societies and cul-
tures that altogether shape or transform their identities. This section high-
lights women in transnational migration to incorporate gender into the
migration study. Secondly, “intersectionality” is detailed as a theoretical
approach to understanding the experiences of Thai migrant women
through the recognition of various mutually constitutive social categories
such as gender, race, ethnicity, and class. This “intersectionality” approach
enriches an understanding of Thai migrant women’s identity negotiation.
Transnationalism and Migration

In the age of increasing globalization, greater spatial mobility has engen-
dered a host of new migration phenomena across global space, including
new settlement patterns and increased levels of spatial interaction between
the home country and the host country, and among diverse places settled
by global “tribes” (Kotkin 1993). Therefore, the old conceptions of inter-
national migration cannot fully capture the essence of international migra-
tion nowadays.
22 H. ZHANG
Basch et al. (2020) proposed the new concept “transnationalism” to

understand international migration, conceptualized as:
The processes by which immigrants build social fields that link together
their country of origin and their country of settlement. Immigrants who
build such social fields are designated “transmigrants”. Transmigrants
develop and maintain multiple relations—familial, economic, social, organi-
zational, religious, and political that span borders. Transmigrants take
actions, make decisions, feel concerns, and develop identities within social
networks that connect them to two or more societies simultaneously
(pp. 1–2).
In their opinion, the newly introduced term “transnational migrant”

explains a new type of migrant who constructs social fields that connect
their home countries and host countries (Schiller et al. 1992, p. 1). This
definition puts heavy emphasis on the process of creating a “social field”
for transnational migrants and views transnationalism as a dynamic social
process. “Social field” is not precisely defined, but it mentions as a type of
global space in which political, economic, social, and cultural relations for
the group of people from a common place of origin are constituted and
located (Levitt and Schiller 2004).
A set of multiple interlocking networks of social relationships through which

ideas, practices, and resources are unequally exchanged, organized, and
transformed […]. Social fields are multi-dimensional, encompassing struc-
tured interactions of differing forms, depth, and breadth that are differenti-
ated in social theory by the terms organization, institution, and social
movement. National boundaries are not necessarily contiguous with the
boundaries of social fields. (p. 1009)
On the other hand, the concept of “transnational space” has been

defined by Pries (2001, p. 18) as “configurations of social practices, arti-
facts and symbol systems that span different geographic spaces in at least
two nation-states without constituting a new ‘de-territorialized’ nation-
state”. By “transnational spaces”, it means there are relatively stable, last-
ing, and dense sets of ties reaching beyond and across borders of sovereign
states. Transnational spaces comprise combinations of ties and their sub-
stance, positions within networks and organizations, and networks of
organizations that cut across the borders of at least two national states
(Faist 2000).
Fouron and Schiller (2001) defined transnational migration as “a pro-

cess of movement and settlement across international borders in which
individuals maintain or build multiple networks of connection to their
country of origin while at the same time settling in a new country” (p. 60).
More recent studies understand transnational migration as taking place
within fluid social spaces that are constantly reworked through migrants’
simultaneous embeddedness in more than one society (Levitt and Schiller
2004; Pries 2001). Therefore, focusing on transnational migrants as “peo-
ple in transit” reveals that exploring migration is crucial to study their
identity (La Barbera 2013).
Transnational migration has never been a one-way process of assimila-
tion into one society or one country but one in which migrants, to varying
degrees, are simultaneously embedded in the multiple sites and layers of
the transnational social fields in which they live. More and more aspects of
transnational activities take place across borders, even as the political, eco-
nomic and cultural salience of nation-state boundaries remain clear. By
choosing transnational migration as a key concept in this research, it is
important to realize that Thai migrant women’s identities are shaped by
their multiplicity of engagement in different social fields (Hong Kong and
Thailand). Their situations cannot be described as fully engaging to either
the home country or the host country; they must be understood in terms
of being “in-between”. It is meaningful to investigate the reconstitution
and reinforcement of their identities as de-territorialization occurs.
Incorporating Gender into Transnational Migration

In their review of migration theories, Boyd and Grieco (2003) remark that
“there has been little concerted effort… to incorporate gender into theo-
ries of international migration. In fact, migration theory to date has not
had much to say on the issue of gender (p. 10)”. To appreciate why women
and gender were traditionally absent from migration scholarship, one has
to chronicle various historical assumptions about research on the migra-
tion process. From the 1950s to the 1970s, scholarship on migration
focused almost exclusively on men as the “birds of passage” while women,
children, and the elderly were seen as following their paths (Handlin 1951;
Simon and Brettell 1986). These earlier researches assumed that males
were more inclined and able to take risks to journey far away in search of
better job opportunities, whereas women if they migrated at all, were
depicted as emotional caretakers who accompanied men to ensure family
and community stability.
24 H. ZHANG
In the 1970s and 1980s, scholars and policy makers began to focus on
women in the migration process, in part because of the dramatic growth
in feminist scholarship and women’s studies programs, as well as demo-
graphic reports showing that more women than men were migrating to
the United States of America (Hondagneu-Sotelo 1992; Houstoun et al.
1984). By the late 1990s, numerous migration scholars included women
in their research, resulting in important articles and books focusing on
women and the migration process.
Hondagneu-Sotelo (1994) was a pioneer theorist who urged scholars
to examine immigrant families and social networks as gendered institu-
tions. In her study of undocumented Mexican migrants’ settlement pat-
terns, she urged that “we must question and investigate the gender-based
character of immigrant social networks in order to understand immigrant
patterns” (Hondagneu-Sotelo 1994, p. 7). Others joined Hondagneu-
Sotelo in questioning the absence of gender in migration research, and,
over the 1990s, a lively body of literature that treated gender as a central
theoretical concept in migration patterns was added to the few previous
works (Tienda and Booth 1991).
Recent writing focused on women and gender, however, continues to
highlight labor as the fundamental dimension of migration, and as the
principal arena in which gender relations are reconfigured. For example,
the abundant scholarship on female migrant domestic workers across the
globe considers women’s labor as the central determinant of gender rela-
tions in migrant families (Hondagneu-Sotelo 2001; Parrenas 2001). This
labor emphasis is perhaps a concerted strategy to avoid framing women as
“passive followers” in migration flows.
Feminists have also called attention to gender issues in relation to
migration (Fresnoza-Flot 2021; Sutton 1992). Sutton proposed that the
rethinking of migration from a gendered perspective must go beyond con-
sideration of how the experiences of migrants differ for women and men.
She suggested that we also need to know more about how women’s and
men’s roles in the global economy differ in both the sending and receiving
countries; what their gender-specific roles are in sustaining and transmit-
ting cultural traditions; and to explore more fully the work and caretaking
experiences of immigrant women (Sutton 1992).
Understanding gender as a “social construction” is critical in the migra-
tion context. Gender is deeply embedded in transnational migration
enabling an understanding of the sensitive issues related to migrants, such
as their sense of belonging, identity, dilemmas, and trauma (Boyd 2006).
The rethinking of migration from a gendered perspective must go beyond

consideration of how the experiences of migrants differ for women and
men. We need to know more about the gender-specific roles regarding
sustaining and transmitting cultural traditions and explore more fully the
work and family experiences of different socio-class migrant women in the
host country.
Regarding identity negotiation, many scholars suggest that identity
negotiation processes need to avoid gender-blindness and instead pay
heed to the fact that the diasporic experiences of men and women are dif-
ferent and are shaped by gender politics (Yeoh and Huang 2000). Female
migrants’ experiences are particularly relevant in revealing the (in)ability
of transnational migrants to contest and shape new identities for them-
selves in the diaspora. Female migrants actively (re)negotiate their identi-
ties in the context of their positionality within the family, the home
country, and the host country. According to such assertions, it can also be
assumed that Thai migrant women in Hong Kong would struggle with
different sets of gender norms in Thailand and Hong Kong along with
their transnational migration. Therefore, their fight with various contest-
ing hegemonic discourses of gender should also be examined because this
may contribute to the negotiation of their identities.
Toward an Intersectional Analysis of Migration

In recent years, the traditional explanations, such as push-pull factors based
on neo-classical economic theory from Lee (1966) are criticized by schol-
ars for being no longer sufficient for understanding migration in the con-
text of globalization. As suggested by Anthias (2012), transnational
migration studies should be framed within a contextual, dynamic, and pro-
cessual analysis that recognizes the interconnectedness of different identi-
ties and hierarchical structures relating to gender, ethnicity, race, class, and
other social divisions at local, national, transnational, and global levels.
As mentioned earlier, it is proposed that identities are constructed
through various cross-cutting social categories, and many scholars call for
“intersectionality” to be used in the analysis of migrants’ experiences and
identities. Intersectionality was introduced by Kimberlé Crenshaw (1991)
to analyze black women’s experiences in the US. The term became popu-
lar in feminist writings as it addresses the intermeshing and mutual con-
struction of social categories which shape people’s experiences. This
concept argues that “identity politics” is problematic because it tends to
26 H. ZHANG
shed light on each social category such as gender, class, and race sepa-
rately. Rather, what shapes the individuals’ lives are the cross-cutting and
mutually constitutive social divisions.
An intersectional approach emphasizes the importance of attending to
the multiple social structures and processes that intertwine to produce
specific social positions and identities. From this perspective, we need to
simultaneously attend to processes of ethnicity, gender, and class to grasp
the complexities of the social world and the multifaceted nature of social
identities and advantage/disadvantage. What is common to the approach
is that it posits that each division involves an intersection with the others
(Anthias and Yuval-Davis 1992; Crenshaw 1991).
It is crucial to understand various analytical issues involved in concep-
tualizing the interrelationships of gender, class, ethnicity, and other social
divisions, and the different analytical levels at which social divisions need
to be studied, because their ontological base and their relations to each
other (Yuval-Davis 2006b). Also, the ontological basis of each of these
divisions is autonomous, and each prioritizes different spheres of social
relations (Anthias and Yuval-Davis 1983, 1992). Different social divisions,
such as gender, class, race, and ethnicity, tend to have certain parameters
in common. They tend to be “naturalized”, to be seen as resulting from
biological destiny linked to differential genetic pools of intelligence and
personal characteristics (Cohen 1988a, b). For example, gender should be
understood not only as a “constructed” social difference between men
and women, but also as a mode of discourse that relates to groups of sub-
jects whose social roles are defined by their sexual/biological difference, as
opposed to their economic positions or their membership in ethnic col-
lectivities (Yuval-Davis 2006a, p. 201). “Class” divisions are based on the
economic processes of production and consumption that produce inequal-
ity in society (Yuval-Davis 2006b). However, class cannot be merely
understood as related to economy. The formation of classes, class struggle,
or processes are prevalent within the sphere of production, and are histori-
cally constructed in relation to the division of gender and ethnicity
(Anthias and Yuval-Davis 1992, p. 17). Ethnic and racial divisions relate
to discourses of collectivities constructed around exclusionary/inclusion-
ary boundaries (Barth 1969) that can be constructed as permeable and
mutable to different extents and that divide people into “us” and “them”.
Although it is useful to understand social issues, intersectionality is
questioned in many ways. Knapp (2005) argued that intersectionality
often becomes a nomenclature without being concretized “a formula
merely to be mentioned, being largely stripped of the baggage of concre-

tion, of context and history” and a “fast traveling concept” (p. 255). Nash
(2008, p. 2) cites McCall’s (2005, p. 1771) claim that intersectionality is
“the most important” theoretical contribution made by women’s and
related studies. She further asserts it is “the “gold standard” multidisci-
plinary approach for analyzing subjects’ experiences of both identity and
oppression”. However, Nash (2008) contends that the question of
whether all or only multiple marginalized identities are intersectional is
ambiguous: “This unresolved theoretical dispute makes it unclear whether
intersectionality is a theory of marginalized subjectivity or a generalized
theory of identity” (Nash 2008, pp. 9–10). It is an essential argument
when applying to this study, there are assumptions that female migrants
from the developing country to the developed country confront exclusion
or discrimination in the host society. But in this study, from an intersec-
tional perspective and given the specific sociodemographic and socioeco-
nomic backgrounds of Thai migrant women, we should still be open to
the possibility that some of them might be in privileged positions in Hong
Kong society; some of them may be enjoying economic privileges while
facing discrimination based on gender or race.
To study identity negotiation of Thai migrant women in this specific
social demographic group in Hong Kong from an intersectional approach,
we must pay attention to their socioeconomic background and social class.
There are wide, measurable differences in life chances between social
classes. As the social class has an essential influence on people’s lives, an
individual’s social class has a significant impact on his or her life chances;
the chance of obtaining those things defined as desirable and avoiding
those things defined as undesirable in any society (Kelly 2012).
In relation to transnational migration study, class can usefully be
regarded as a multidimensional phenomenon that manifests itself as social
position, process, performance, and politics, and understanding class as
subjectively constructed provides an important means of discerning its
role in the lives of transnational migrants (Kelly 2012). As all the partici-
pants in this research are considered as the middle-upper class with well-
educated backgrounds when compared to domestic workers from
Southeast Asia, it is important to analyze the relationship between their
social class and their in-between identity. Meanwhile, transnationalism
also requires a careful consideration of the multiple spaces and scales in
which social class and identities are constituted.
28 H. ZHANG
“Transnational migration” is chosen as one of the theoretical frame-

works, highlighting the “intersectional approach” in this study to enable
an understanding of the complex process of Thai migrant women’s iden-
tity negotiation in Hong Kong. It is essential to realize that their identities
are shaped by both the home country and the host country, by many
intersected factors, such as gender, class, ethnicity, class, education,
and age.
Contemporary Identity Theories

This section first reviews three contemporary theories of identity. Firstly,
national identity theory which elaborates one’s identity or sense of belong-
ing to one state or one nation (Bechhofer and Mccrone 2009; Connor
1978). Secondly, ethnic identity theory which explores one’s sense of
belonging to an ethnic group and one’s thinking, perceptions, feelings,
and behavior that is due to ethnic group membership (Phinney 1996;
Smith 1991; Verkuyten 2005). Lastly, gender identity theory which can be
affected by, and is different from one society to another depending on the
way the members of society evaluate the role of females and males (Connell
1987, 1996, 2003; Markus et al. 1982; West and Zimmerman 1987).
National Identity
The beginning of this review is Antony Smith’s (1991) national identity
theory, which posits that national identity is one of the most basic social
identities. He defines national identity as “the continuous reproduction
and reinterpretation of the pattern of values, symbols memories myths and
traditions that compose the distinctive heritage of nations, and the identi-
fications of individuals with the pattern and heritage and with its cultural
elements” (p. 18). Connor (1978, 1993) suggested the essence of national
identity is the irrational and psychological bond that binds fellow nationals
together. This psychological bond is usually termed “a sense of belong-
ing” (Connor 1978) or “a fellow feeling” (Geertz 1963). Such expres-
sions point to the close link established between the individual and the
collective self, namely the nation.
Bechhofer and Mccrone (2009, p. 5), from the theoretical perspective,
explained that “national identity is taken as ‘natural’, as essential, but it is
also seen as actively constructed by the state. It’s taken-for-granted quality
may serve the state well, but it has to be continually manufactured and
sustained. National identity is not a once-and-for-all process, but is some-

thing of a con-trick, worked by the state and its institutions to make the
citizenry malleable, and willing to do its bidding”. National identity also
involves many social, political, and economic issues. These include the
legitimacy of public policies, matters of social inclusion and exclusion,
prejudice and discrimination, whether we judge the actions of organiza-
tions to be in the “national” interest, that is, the interest of the collective
“we”, and whether we are willing or not to move away from “us” and live
among “them” (Bechhofer and Mccrone 2009, p. 15). Therefore, national
identity helps individuals to locate their sense of belonging and creates the
difference between “we” and the “other”.
Ethnic Identity
Ethnic groups are groups that have the characteristics of “a collective
name, a common myth of descent, a shared history, a distinctive shared
culture, an association with a specific territory of a sense of solidarity”
(Smith 1991, p. 32). The term ethnic group is generally understood in
anthropological literature as a group of people whose members identify
with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a com-
mon language, a common culture, including a shared religion, and an
ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy (Seidner 1982).
While ethnic identity refers to one’s sense of belonging to an ethnic group
and the part of one’s thinking, perceptions, feelings, and behavior that is
due to ethnic group membership, the ethnic group tends to be one in
which the individual claims heritage (Phinney 1996). Ethnic identity is
separate from one’s personal identity as an individual, although the two
may reciprocally influence each other. There are four major components
of ethnic identity, which are:
Ethnic awareness (understanding of one’s own and other groups)

Ethnic self-identification (label used for one’s own group)
Ethnic attitudes (feelings about own and other groups)
Ethnic behaviors (behavior patterns specific to an ethnic group).
(pp. 145–148)
Verkuyten’s (2005) model posits that ethnic identity comprises four

dimensions of being, feeling, doing and knowing. “Being” relates to an
individual’s origins—their ethnicity, their family, and homeland. “Feeling”
30 H. ZHANG
refers to the importance and commitment individuals place on their roots.

“Doing” relates to an individual’s socialization within his/her group and
participation in group activities. Finally, “knowing” refers to a person’s
understanding of group beliefs and cultural mores and norms (p. 118).
In many of the definitions and conceptualization of ethnic identity, the
central emphasis is on the sharing of a common culture (Hutnik 1991).
Barth (1969) points out the limitations of such an approach, suggesting
that the focus of investigation should shift from the cultural components
to the process of creation and maintenance of ethnic boundaries and the
“continuing dichotomization between members and outsiders”. An ade-
quate understanding of ethnic identity, and of its redefinition and transfor-
mation during an individual’s or group’s cultural transition, should take
into account both the boundaries of group membership and the group’s
cultural aspects as perceived by its members (Ferdman 1992).
National identity and ethnic identity overlap in a lot of ways. However,
we can clarify that national identity is one’s identity or sense of belonging to
one state or to one nation (Smith 1991), while one’s sense of belonging to
an ethnic group is part of one’s thinking, perceptions, feelings, and behavior
that is due to ethnic group membership (Phinney 1996). Ethnic group for-
mation involves processes that make people identify as an imagined com-
munity in a nation-state. Indeed, the processes that create ethnic and
national identities are part and parcel of the same historical processes. It is
also necessary to relate national identity to ethnicity, as national identity is
imagined differently by different ethnic groups in a nation-state (Tan 2010).
It is a complex and critical issue to discuss the national identity and
ethnic identity within the Thai context; as the “nation-religion-monarchy”
trinity in Thailand has a vital impact on national and ethnic identity in
Thailand. Chapter 5 elaborates the concept of “Thainess”, which is com-
posed of both the national and ethnic identity to clarify what characteris-
tics Thai people should have in order to “be a Thai”.
Gender Identity
Self-schemas are knowledge structures developed to understand, inte-
grate, or explain one’s behavior in a particular domain, and gender identi-
ties have been conceived as gender self-schemas in the cognitive tradition
(Markus et al. 1982) or as constructed achievements in the interactionist
tradition (West and Zimmerman 1987). Therefore, gender is a social cat-
egory, and thus gender identity is about more than personality.
Connell (2006) has described gender as “above all, a pattern of social

relations in which the positions of women and men are defined, the cultural
meanings of being a man or woman are negotiated, and their trajectories
throughout life are mapped out” (p. 839). From this perspective, gender is
a social construction; “the set of practices that bring reproductive distinc-
tions between bodies into social process” (Connell 2002, p. 11). In other
words, “gender concerns the way human society deals with human bodies
and their continuity, and the many consequences of that ‘dealing’ in our
personal lives and our collective fate” (Connell 2009, p. 11).
The social conception of gender used in this study involves an attempt
to avoid the traps of biological determinism that dominate popular under-
standings of gender relations, including many feminist accounts. Connell
(1987) describes biological determinism as a recurrent problem in femi-
nist accounts of gender, suggesting that in contemporary Western culture
“the notion of natural sex difference forms a limit beyond which thought
cannot go” (p. 66). In her work Gender and Power (1987), Connell
advances a systematic social theory of gender which is further developed in
her later work. In this theory, Connell (1996) proposes, “Gender is a way
in which social practice is ordered. In gender processes, the everyday con-
duct of life is organized in relation to a reproductive arena, defined by the
bodily structures and processes of human reproduction” (p. 159). In the
study of identity negotiation of Thai migrant women in this book, gender
is explored as a social practice, or as a socially constructed phenomenon.
The concept of identity has become widespread within the migration
studies in recent years. All individuals claim particular identities given their
roles in society, groups they belong to, and characteristics that describe
themselves. To explore identity negotiation of Thai migrant women in
Hong Kong, an examination of the dynamics of their national identity,
ethnic identity, and identity as a woman in their daily experiences from an
intersectional perspective is needed.
Identity Negotiation
“Identity” as perceived in the present is derived mainly from the work of
psychologist Erik Erikson in the 1950s. Generally, the concept “identity”
can be described as a set or as individuals who hold a common social iden-
tification or view themselves as members of the same social category.
Properly speaking, it is the person’s sense of belonging to a particular
group that shares not only ethnicity and common cultural practices, but
32 H. ZHANG
the person’s thoughts, perceptions, feelings, and behaviors are also consis-
tent with those of other members of the ethnic group.
Turner’s social identity theory posits that a person has not one “per-
sonal self”, but rather several selves that correspond to widening circles of
group membership. Different social contexts may trigger an individual to
think, feel and act on the basis of his personal, family, or national “level of
self” (Turner et al. 1987). Apart from the “level of self”, an individual has
multiple “social identities”. Social identity is the individual’s self-concept
derived from perceived membership of social groups (Hogg and Vaughan
2002). In other words, it is an individual-based perception of what defines
the “us” associated with any internalized group membership.
Through a social comparison process, persons who are similar to the
self are categorized with the self and are labeled the in-group; while per-
sons who differ from the self are categorized as the out-group (Stets and
Burke 2000).
The process of identity negotiation has many different components,
one of which includes those self-presentation processes people perform in
the service of establishing who they are. Identity negotiation cannot be
equated with self-presentation; however, self-presentational activity repre-
sents a collection of behavioral tactics designed to achieve various interac-
tion goals (Jones and Pittman 1982). In contrast, the process of identity
negotiation refers to a much broader set of processes through which peo-
ple strike a balance between achieving their interaction goals and satisfying
their identity-related goals, such as the need for agency, communion, and
psychological coherence (Swann Jr. and Bosson 2010).
Swann Jr. and Bosson (2008) also mentioned people negotiate their
identities to increase the probability of coherence with others. Identity
negotiation processes define relationships and make them viable as a foun-
dation for socialization. It is true that we constantly affirm, adapt, and
disconfirm aspects of our identities, and identity negotiation is indeed a
concept addressing an implicit, informal, open-ended, overlearned, auto-
matic and unconscious phenomenon.
The study by Chiou (2003) further explores the relationship between
migration and identity negotiation. Migration and identity have an insepa-
rable relationship as migration experiences may affect one’s identity.
Migrants may (trans)format, (re)construct, and negotiate their identity
during migration processes. Thus, identity may be varied by the different
migratory places, by time, and space along with the journey of transna-
tional migration. Migrants may not have a distinct identity; it may be
double or multiple. Therefore, in the separate spaces, time, and contexts,

new forms of identity may be constructed. When ethnic minority groups
or migrants move to the new country or region, they may negotiate their
identities between the original identity and new identity from the host
society in order to better integrate into the mainstream society.
Moreover, Chiou (2003) encouraged the thinking about anti-
essentialism in the study of migrants’ identity. It can be said that according
to postmodernism, which emphasizes uncertain, broken, and borderless
concepts, essentialism probably provides a clear criterion for understand-
ing migrant’s identity. Therefore, the concept of postmodernism can be
incorporated into the discourse of migrants’ identity, as well as other issues
relating to the construction of identity in different spaces and places.
Simultaneously, identity is no longer fixed on a single boundary. The con-
cept of identity is transgressive, double, and even plural, through the
negotiation process between the original identity and the host identity. In
Identity and Ethnic Relations in Southeast Asia, Tong (2010) explores the
plural identity of migrants, analyzing the different time and contexts of
how the home society (China) and the host society (Southeast Asia) take
effect to construct Chinese diasporas’ subjectivity or their new form of
identity.
Apart from the above, migrants’ identities may change by different
time, space, ages, and personal background. When migrants move to the
host society, how do they confront identity negotiation between their
original identity and host identity? What are migrants’ identity attach-
ments and what form of identity do they tend to present? Some studies
have explained these phenomena. Ngan and Chan (2012) described that a
person could have multiple identities, and the diverse cultures and social
elements can form such multiple identities. She narrated that she has a
multicultural self because she regards herself as an Australian Chinese.
However, she also defines her “Chinese” as more likely the “Hong
Konger” style of Chinese. This is complicated since she has experienced
many migrations in her life. That is to say, she was born and grew up in
Hong Kong, then moved to Australia, and finally settled down in
Hong Kong.
How might we use the above framework to comprehend how complex
and conflictual is the identity formation of Thai migrant women in Hong
Kong? I explored their identity negotiation which is affected by behaviors,
emotions, and belongings from both the host society and home society
and applied the migrants’ identity negotiation coordinate (see Fig. 2.1),
34 H. ZHANG
Fig. 2.1 Identity negotiation between Thailand and Hong Kong
by examining migrants’ identity based on the way they feel, think and act,
which are reflected in their daily life, work, and social interaction. The
coordinate below is composed of two major axes; they are the home soci-
ety/host society; and the division of the psychological and behavioral con-
flicts of being close and being away. This coordinate helps to clarify and to
see a clear picture of how their complex identity is negotiated as well as
examining the interplay of their identity between “Thai” and “Hong
Konger”.
In this coordinate, the host society refers to Hong Kong, and the home
society refers to Thailand. Behaviors of being close refer to the part they
share in the sense of being or belonging to a part of one society, and
behaviors of being away, meaning the aspect in which they feel disliked or
psychologically needy for being distant from that society. The coordinate
is used in this study to show four dimensions of information collected
from in-depth interviews with 40 study participants relating to their feel-
ings, beliefs, thoughts, and behaviors. These arise because of the negotia-
tion between their home and host societies. From these four dimensions
composed in the coordinate, it can be concluded that migrants will keep
different distances (psychologically and behaviorally) from their home
society and host society; and have different strategies to be close or distant
to their original identity and host identity. Furthermore, migrants may not
prefer one side to another; that is, they are not totally integrated into the
host society, and not totally inherited from their home society. They will
assimilate the identities from two cultures and societies into one and
regard the home society and host society’s culture as a tool for living, that
enables them to have a better life. Simultaneously, they will keep the same
degree of distance from both cultures and societies, not choosing one to
give up on another.
Conclusion
This chapter has explored the fundamental concepts of this research
through the contemporary literature and theories of transnational migra-
tion and identity. It is important to think about transnationalism as a pro-
cess and strategy as migrants negotiate their complex identity through this
process. Identity is indeed essentially comparative in nature and must be
understood as originally connected to inclusion/exclusion dynamics.
Identity is intended and best described as a relational and contextual pro-
cess that refers to how individuals and groups consider, construct, and
position themselves in relation to others according to social categories
such as gender, race, nation, age, class, culture, and occupation. Identity
negotiation is the outcome of two main processes: self-representations and
social categorization. The combination of these two processes results in
the feeling of differentiation from others, the recognition of one’s differ-
ence, the sense of belonging, and consequent mechanisms of inclusion
and exclusion in both home and host countries. In this way, a foundation
has been laid to understand Thai migrant women’s national, ethnic, and
gender identity and the process of their identity negotiation in Hong
Kong. This foundation guides the formulation of a conceptual framework
and research methodology that will enable the researcher to answer the
research questions.
References
Agrawal, A. (2006). Women and Migration in Asia: Migrant Women and Work.
Sage Publications, New Delhi.
Anthias, F. (2012). Transnational Mobilities, Migration Research and
Intersectionality, Nordic Journal of Migration Research, 2 (2), 102–110.
Anthias, F., and Yuval-Davis, N. (1983). Contextualizing feminism—gender, eth-
nic and class divisions. Feminist Review, 15(1), 62–75.
Anthias, F., and Yuval-Davis, N. (1992). Racialized Boundaries: Race, Nation,
Gender, Colour and Class and the Anti-Racist Struggle, London, Routledge.
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Tropical American region, 233
Trout, 644
Trubu, 660
Trumpeter, 412
Trumpet-fish, 509
Trunk, 39
Trygon, 343
Trygonidæ, 342
Trygonorhina, 338
Trypauchen, 489
Tunny, 458
Turbinal, 57, 91
Turbot, 555
Twaite Shad, 659
Tyellina, 326
Tylognathus, 596
Typhlichthys, 618
Typhlonus, 548
Uaru, 536
Ulna, 59
Umbra, 429, 619
Umbrina, 428
Umbrine, 429
Undina, 365
Upeneichthys, 404
Upeneoides, 404
Upeneus, 404
Upokororo, 652
Uraleptus, 543
Uranoscopus, 462
Urinary organs, 155
Urocampus, 681
Urocentrus, 498
Uroconger, 674
Urogymnus, 343
Urohyal, 58, 91
Urolophus, 343
Uronectes, 538
Uronemus, 360
Urosphen, 507
Urosthenes, 370
Useful fishes, 189
Vaillant, 31
Valenciennes, 18
Vandellia, 581
Velifer, 397
Vendace, 649
Ventral fins, 42
Vertebral column, 51
Vertical fins, 40
Villiform teeth, 126
Viviparous Blenny, 497
Vogt, 32
Vomer (bone), 56, 89
Vomer (gen.), 441
Vulsus, 489
Wallago, 566
Wardichthys, 370
Weever, 464
Wels, 565
Whiff, 555
White-bait, 658
White-fish, 599, 648
Whiting, 541
Whiting-pout, 541
Willughby, 8
Wrasses, 525
Xenocephalus, 553
Xenocharax, 612
Xenocypris, 598
Xenodermichthys, 664
Xenomystus, 576
Xenopterus, 688
Xiphias, 431
Xiphidion, 496
Xiphiidæ, 431
Xiphochilus, 530
Xiphopterus, 434
Xiphorhampus, 611
Xiphostoma, 611
Yarrell, 27
Yellow-tail, 444
Zanchus, 449
Zaniolepis, 491
Zärthe, 603
Zebra-Shark, 327
Zeus, 451
Zoarces, 497
Zope, 603
Zuzuki, 378
Zygaena, 318
Zygapophyses, 52
Zygobatis, 346
THE END.
Printed by R. & R. Clark, Edinburgh.

FOOTNOTES:
[1] From ιχθυς, fish, and λογος, doctrine or treatise.
[2] Down to this period the history of Ichthyology is fully
treated in the first volume of Cuvier and Valenciennes “Hist. nat.
d. Poiss.”
[3] Description of Ceratodus. “Phil. Trans.,” 1871, ii.
[4] In the formula generally preceding the description of a fish,
“L. lat. 40,” would express that the scales between the head and
caudal fin are arranged in 40 transverse series; and probably, that
the lateral line is composed of the same number of scales. “L.
transv. 8/5” would express that there are eight longitudinal series
of scales between the median line of the back and the lateral line,
and five between the lateral line and the middle of the abdomen.
[5] Pterotic of Parker.
[6] C. Hasse has studied the modifications of the texture of the
vertebræ and the structure of the Chondropterygian skeleton
generally, and shown that they correspond in the main to the
natural groups of the system, and, consequently, that they offer a
valuable guide in the determination of fossil remains.
[7] The Ganoids formed at former epochs the largest and most
important order of fishes, many of the fossil forms being known
from very imperfect remains only. It is quite possible that not a few
of the latter, in which nothing whatever of the (probably very soft)
endoskeleton has been preserved, should have to be assigned to
some other order lower in the scale of organisation than the
Ganoids (for instance, the Cephalaspidæ).
[8] As first proposed by Huxley.
[9] Stannius (pp. 60, 65) doubts the pure origin of these two
bones from membranous tissue, and is inclined to consider them
as “the extreme end of the abortive axial system.”
[10] Parker’s nomenclature is adopted here.
[11] According to Langerhans “Untersuchungen über
Petromyzon planeri” (Freiburg, 1873) an optic chiasma exists in
that species.
[12] This nerve is not shown in the figure of the brain of the
Perch (Fig. 41), as reproduced above from Cuvier.
[13] Müller considers a nerve rising jointly with the Vagus in
Petromyzon to be this nerve (Fig. 45, hy).
[14] On the development and structure of the dentition of
Scarina, see Boas, “Die Zähne der Scaroiden,” in Zeitschr. f.
Wiss. Zoolog. xxxii. (1878).
[15] This applies to individuals only growing up under normal
conditions. Dr. H. A. Meyer has made observations on young
Herrings. Individuals living in the sea had attained at the end of
the third month a length of 45 to 50 millimetres, whilst those
reared from artificially-impregnated ova were only from 30 to 35
millimetres long. When the latter had been supplied with more
abundant food, they grew proportionally more rapidly in the
following months, so that at the end of the fifth month they had
reached the same length as their brethren in the sea, viz. a length
of 65 to 70 millimetres.
[16] Ray Lankester considers it to be a portion of the long
denticulated cornua of a genus Eukeraspis allied to Cephalaspis.
[17] Ekström, Fische in den Scheeren von Mörkö.
[18] Will probably be found.
[19] We distinguish these sub-regions, because their
distinction is justified by other classes of animals; as regards
freshwater fishes their distinctness is even less than that between
Europe and Northern Asia.
[20] Martens (Preuss. Exped. Ostas. Zool. i. p. 356), has
already drawn attention that a Barbel, said to have been obtained
by Ida Pfeiffer in Amboyna (Günth. Fish. vii. p. 123), cannot have
come from that locality.
[21] In the following and succeeding lists, those forms which
are peculiar to and exclusively characteristic of, the region, are
printed in italics; the other regions, in which the non-peculiar
forms occur, are mentioned within brackets [].
[22] Lates calcarifer in India as well as Australia.
[23] One species (Arius thalassinus) found in Indian and
African rivers.
[24] This species extends from India into East Africa.
[25] We have left out from these considerations the Ariina and
Cyprinodonts, which can pass with impunity through salt water,
and are spread over much larger areas.
[26] Cope has discovered in a tertiary freshwater-deposit at
Idaho an extinct genus of this group, Diastichus. He considers
this interesting fact to be strongly suggestive of continuity of
territory of Asia and North America.—“Proc. Am. Phil. Soc. 1873,”
p. 55.
[27] Leidy describes a Siluroid (Pimelodus) from tertiary
deposits of Wyoming Territory. “Contrib. to the Extinct Vert. Fauna
of the Western Territ. 1873,” p. 193.
[28] The genera peculiar to the Equatorial zone are printed in
italics.
[29] Number of species uncertain.
[30] See p. 151, Fig. 67.
[31] See p. 128, Fig. 55.
[32] See p. 104.
[33] See p. 167, Figs. 79, 81.
[34] See p. 136, Fig. 58.
[35] See p. 167, Fig. 78.
[36] The cartilaginous jaws of Sharks shrink at least a third in
drying, and, therefore, cannot be kept at full stretch without
tearing.
[37] This exception is a Ray obtained during the “Challenger”
expedition, and said to have been dredged in 565 fathoms.
[38] See pp. 73 and 74, Figs. 35 and 36.
[39] For other illustrations see p. 73, Fig. 35 (palatal view of
head); p. 74, Fig. 36 (pectoral skeleton); p. 141, Fig. 60 (gills); p.
148, Fig. 65 (lung); p. 151, Fig. 67 (heart); p. 134, Fig. 57
(intestine); p. 165, Fig. 77 (ovary).
[40] See p. 97, Fig. 41; and p. 152, Fig. 68.
[41] The Acanthopterygians do not form a perfectly natural
group, some heterogeneous elements being mixed up with it.
Neither are the characters, by which it is circumscribed,
absolutely distinctive. In some forms (certain Blennioids) the
structure of the fins is almost the same as in Anacanths; there are
some Acanthopterygians, as Gerres, Pogonias, which possess
coalesced pharyngeals; and, finally, the presence or absence of a
pneumatic duct loses much of its value as a taxonomic character
when we consider that probably in all fishes a communication
between pharynx and air-bladder exists at an early stage of
development.
[42] In this instance, one may entertain reasonable doubts as
to the usefulness of the Pilot to the Shark.
[43] Mackerel, like other marine fishes, birds, and mammals of
prey, follow the shoals of young and adult Clupeoids in their
periodical migrations; on the British coasts it is principally the fry
of the Pilchard and Sprat which wanders from the open sea
towards the coast, and guides the movements of the Mackerel.
[44] The systematic affinities of these extinct genera are very
obscure. Cope places them, with others (for instance
Protosphyræna, which has a sword-like prolongation of the
ethmoid), in a distinct family, Saurodontidæ: see “Vertebrata of
the Cretaceous Formations of the West,” 1875.
[45] For specific characters and detailed descriptions we refer
to Günther, “Catal. of Fishes,” vol. vi.
[46] The names “Bull-trout” and “Peal” are not attributable to
definite species. We have examined specimens of S. salar, S.
trutta, and S. cambricus and S. fario, to which the name “Bull-
trout” had been given; and that of “Peal” is given indiscriminately
to Salmon-grilse and to S. cambricus.
[47] Fig. 317 is taken from a specimen in which the horny
covers of the dentition were lost, hence it does not represent
accurately the shape of the teeth.
[48] This name is two years older than Amphioxus.
Transcriber’s Notes:
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silently.
2. Where hyphenation is in doubt, it has been retained as in the original.

3. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have
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Engendering Migration Journey Identity Ethnicity and Gender of Thai Migrant Women in Hong Kong Herbary Zhang Full Chapter

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Engendering Migration Journey:

Identity, Ethnicity and Gender of Thai

ISSN 2662-2602 ISSN 2662-2610 (electronic)

Cover illustration: © Aleksandr Matveev/Alamy Stock Photo

The journey of completing this book has been accompanied by many

1 Introduction: Starting the Journey 1

7 Conclusion: Moving Beyond135

Fig. 2.1 Identity negotiation between Thailand and Hong Kong 34

Introduction: Starting the Journey

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 1

Background of the Research

The Thai migrant women in this research grew up in Thailand, where

Aims and Significance of the Research

1. How do Thai migrant women living in Hong Kong perceive their

Research Focus and Design

Overview of the Book

immigrant society as 40% of the population in Hong Kong are foreign-­

framework is needed for us to understand the different aspects of identity

migrating into Hong Kong society, the definition of “ethnicity” refers to

Bernard, H. R. (2000). Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative

Investigating Migrant Women in

Women’s Migration in the Asia-Pacific Region

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature 15

are in irregular status (Shah 2014). The official statistics on women’s

instance, in Hong Kong, migrant domestic workers, (1) make it possible

Southeast Asian Migrants in Hong Kong

to understand the “pull” and “push” factors in transnational migration

migrant workers in Hong Kong maintain the transnational connections

Ngan and Chan (2013) also mentioned that an outsider is always an

Transnationalism and Migration

Basch et al. (2020) proposed the new concept “transnationalism” to

In their opinion, the newly introduced term “transnational migrant”

A set of multiple interlocking networks of social relationships through which

On the other hand, the concept of “transnational space” has been

Fouron and Schiller (2001) defined transnational migration as “a pro-

Incorporating Gender into Transnational Migration

The rethinking of migration from a gendered perspective must go beyond

Toward an Intersectional Analysis of Migration

merely to be mentioned, being largely stripped of the baggage of concre-

“Transnational migration” is chosen as one of the theoretical frame-

Contemporary Identity Theories

sustained. National identity is not a once-and-for-all process, but is some-

Ethnic awareness (understanding of one’s own and other groups)

Verkuyten’s (2005) model posits that ethnic identity comprises four

refers to the importance and commitment individuals place on their roots.

Connell (2006) has described gender as “above all, a pattern of social

double or multiple. Therefore, in the separate spaces, time, and contexts,

Fig. 2.1 Identity negotiation between Thailand and Hong Kong

Printed by R. & R. Clark, Edinburgh.

1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been corrected

2. Where hyphenation is in doubt, it has been retained as in the original.

Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions

Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S.

START: FULL LICENSE

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1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is

1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project

1 Introduction: Starting the Journey 1

7 Conclusion: Moving Beyond135

Fig. 2.1 Identity negotiation between Thailand and Hong Kong 34

immigrant society as 40% of the population in Hong Kong are foreign-