Dealing with Double Marginalization: Three Generations of Nepalese Women in Hong Kong

Abstract

This paper examines the situation of Nepalese women in Hong Kong as members of the smallest ethnic minority in the territory. Tracing the changing social and cultural conditions of three generations of women migrants, it looks at the interface of gender and ethnic minority identity as articulated within the context of transnational mobility and the women's marginalized existence, both within their own community and in mainstream Chinese society. While Nepalese women migrants in Hong Kong have been assigned a passive mother-wife role, they are important building blocks of a transnational network and today, increasingly, as agents of change. These changes are further examined in light of the recently passed Racial Discrimination Ordinance. By juxtaposing how social marginalization is dealt with at the government, family, and individual levels, the study shows that an in-depth and gender-aware understanding of the lived experience of ethnic minorities is the key to the formulation of an efficacious multicultural policy.