ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes a 'two-step social integration model' to identify key characteristics of successful social integration among Vietnamese marriage migrants (VMMs). It provides some rationales of why comparing Vietnamese in Taiwan and Korea serves as unique and interesting case study. The chapter introduces research methods, including fieldwork arrangements and sample characteristics. It provides an overview on how several structural forces – globalization, demographic transitions, and regional economic inequalities – generate gendered migration flows from Vietnam to Taiwan and Korea. Transnational marriage migration from less-developed Asian countries to East Asia is highly gendered social phenomenon. The pre- and post-migration processes of transnational marriage migration are distinctively different from other types of family-related migration. For many marriage migrants and their natal families, transnational marriage can offer social and economic mobility and benefit natal and extended families, as well as future generations. The chapter ends with a discussion on extent to which acquired marital citizenship facilitates VMMs' social integration throughout their life courses.
