Transnational divorces in Singapore: experiences of low-income divorced marriage migrant women

Abstract

ABSTRACT Global economic restructuring saw the dramatic expansion of feminised labour and extensive mobilisation of women from less wealthy to wealthier countries to supply reproductive labour. Some migrant women perform unpaid reproductive labour through marriage migration in their roles as wives, mothers and daughters-in-law. The paper seeks to understand the divorce experiences of low-income marriage migrant women in Singapore after their marriage with Singaporean husband has ended. By engaging theorisations on transnational families, the paper discusses the transnational aspects of the women’s divorce biographies. Using empirical data collected through in-depth interviews, this article examines how the women work out their transnational divorce biographies in these three areas: one, coping with divorce proceedings and obtaining legal representation; two, working out the rights to remain in Singapore and other livelihood issues; and three, negotiate with ex-spouse over post-divorce co-parenting arrangements. To avoid framing the women’s experiences in ‘victim versus agent’ binary terms, the paper examines both their struggles and strategies using a transnational, intersectional feminist framework. This analytical perspective allows the paper to discuss how unequal effects of globalisation and intersection of the women’s social identities shape their divorce trajectories, in terms of the struggles they face and strategies they employ.