Thai women in Sweden : Victims or participants?

• Migration from Thailand to Sweden is a rapidly growing phenomenon with a threefold increase over thelast ten years, with the majority of migrants being female marriage migrants. In Nordic media andpopular culture, stereotyping of Thai-Swedish couples is commonplace, focusing on unequal powerrelations, sex tourism and other social problems which often position Thai women “as both materialistrural women and ignorant victims” (Sunanta, 2013, p. 193). Our paper positions and explores thestatus of this unique group of migrants through a power and agency lens and by adopting a multimethodsapproach. Using register data, we give a detailed picture of the migration and sociodemographicfeatures of Thais in Sweden, while in-depth interviews with Thai women provide nuancedunderstandings of Thai-Sweden migration. We find a complex narrative of migration, where Thaiwomen are active agents in their migration process but still face many inequalities in Sweden. Adiversified picture of these women is revealed suggesting that power and agency are situated spatiallyand temporally.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Social och ekonomisk geografi -- Kulturgeografi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Social and Economic Geography -- Human Geography (hsv//eng)

Keyword

gender

power

agency

migration

mixed methods

Geography with Emphasis on Human Geography

geografi med kulturgeografisk inriktning

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)