Mainstream theoretical approaches to migration and reproduction in Asia and
elsewhere separate questions relating to reproduction from exploration of
economic migration, leading to limitations in current understandings. The
tendency to see migratory livelihoods in largely productive terms and to
conceptualise the reproductive in terms of consequence or constraint neglects
the complex inter-linkages between migration and reproduction in the search for
a ‘better life’. Addressing these ‘missing links’ involves taking a broader approach
to reproductive behaviour that factors in not only sexual relations and
reproductive management but also social reproduction, gender relations between
men and women and wider well-being. The transitional economies of Vietnam
and China have experienced rapid growth in new forms of migration, in
particular rural-urban migration that challenge existing presumptions about
migration and reproduction. Not only does marriage migration in this context
have strong economic dimensions, economic migration also has clear
reproductive dimensions. Prevailing policy and popular stereotypes about how
migration intersects with reproduction are being undermined by an increasing
diversity of migrant strategies for building and sustaining their own families.
Moreover existing institutional and policy constraints mean that these strategies
often involve difficult and unpalatable trade-offs for individual and family wellbeing.
In both countries the remaining household registration system and the
related structuring of social entitlements lead to social exclusion of migrants and
their families in urban areas, and perpetuate rural-urban inequalities, with
outcomes detrimental to the well-being of current and future generations of the
migrants who are trying to build livelihoods and meaningful lives.