From ‘social problems’ to ‘social assets’: geopolitics, discursive shifts in children of Southeast Asian marriage migrants, and mother-child dyadic citizenship in Taiwan

Abstract

In recent years, the discourse surrounding children of Southeast Asian (SEA) marriage migrants in Taiwan has seen a dramatic shift from the discourse of ‘social problems’ to that of ‘social assets’. By integrating perspectives of critical geopolitics and critical discourse analysis, this paper shows that this discursive shift has resulted from the dual impacts of the ‘mother-child dyadic citizenship’ and the geopolitics of the triad of Taiwan, SEA, and China. It is argued that the state formulates laws and policies concerning marriage migration based on the mother-child dyad rather than the individual-state nexus, while SEA is used merely as leverage against China. Moreover, confronted with an increasingly competitive global economy, especially the impending threat of a rising PRC, Taiwan’s immigration laws have become more classist, discriminating against Southeast Asian marriage migrants in contradiction with the current positive discourse, which reveals that the state–citizen relationship has evolved into a corporate-consumer relationship.