Convenor
Sirijit Sunanta
Mahidol University
Abstract
This panel focuses on theoretical and empirical analyses of gendered mobilities of population from, to, and within Southeast Asia. From the import and export of domestic labor, to marriage migration, and to privileged lifestyle and medical tourism, cross-border movements of bodies respond to and encourage the reconfiguration of care, family and reproduction. We aim to explore micro-scale negotiation of gender relations within the family and to highlight aspirations and personal experiences of gendered mobile subjects and those who perform gendered work. These will be analyzed against regional and global inequality manifested in the transnational outsourcing of care and reproductive duties to less affluent places. We examine the roles of the state and corporate agencies in mediating and facilitating gendered mobilities. Collectively, we seek to explore various ways in which forms of cross-border population mobilities challenges and/or reinforces dominant gender ideologies and practices.