Abstract
This study sought an insightful understanding of the effects of social meritocratic capital—an inevitable phenomenon/mechanism whereby individuals receive social recognition, respect, and other benefits due to their monetary achievement—on Southeast Asian migrant workers’ behaviours and their ingrained perceptions through investigating their life stories and inner voices reflecting the factors inducing them to participate in the prostitution world. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was employed to scrutinise the qualitative data collected from a series of in-depth interviews with four Southeast Asian migrant women in Taiwan. This study led to the following conclusions: (1) These migrant workers moved overseas due to their pure and simple intention of pursuing better lives for themselves and their family; (2) The internal factors (family reputation and wellbeing) and external ones (unexpected events and a meritocratic society) simultaneously pulled and pushed them, eventually turning them out of their normal careers; (3) They were stuck in the very depths of an extravagant but vicious world by the shock, even attraction, of “big money” characterising a meritocratic capitalist order; and (4) Innocence and ‘purity’ get lost easily, even unconsciously, in the social context of meritocratic capitalism and wishful rationalisation of questionable behaviours, flouting convention and morality, with self-sacrifice and compensation, and self-rationalisation.
Highlights
I am so happy to know my sister used my remittance to buy a house with a big yard for my family
In line with the research purpose, this study focused on the following major questions: From entering the world of prostitution to the their current life, how did their life stories develop? How do they perceive themselves and their responsibility to their family and adjust themselves to a society with meritocratic moneyism?
The four participants shared their life stories about their pathways to prostitution, the factors causing their career change, and the consequent lifestyles they experienced in a society of meritocratic moneyism
Summary
I am so happy to know my sister used my remittance to buy a house with a big yard for my family. - from the interview with Nina (pseudonym), a former caregiver who had immigrated from a Southeast Asian country to Taiwan and who became a prostitute after unexpected miseries in her career This is the inner voice, true but hopeless, of Nina, who changed her career from a caregiver into an overseas prostitute to support her family better financially. As the breadwinner of their families and as one of the many Southeast Asian female migrant workers in Taiwan, women like Nina, initially come to Taiwan legally as elderly caregivers or factory labourers. These women have more advantages over men in seeking a job in the social welfare sectors because, in Taiwan, the aging population has a higher demand for household helpers or caregivers (Liang, 2011)
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