New Book by Hung Cam Thai

FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE:
Vietnamese International Marriages in the New Global Economy
Hung Cam Thai

(Rutgers University Press, 2008)

Marriage is currently the number one reason people migrate to the United
States, and women constitute the majority of newcomers joining husbands
who already reside here. But little is known about these marriage and
migration streams beyond the highly publicized and often sensationalized
phenomena of mail-order and military brides. Less common knowledge
actually shows that most international couples are immigrants of the
same ethnicity.

In For Better or For Worse, Hung Cam Thai takes a closer look at
marriage and migration, with a specific focus on the unions between
Vietnamese men living in the United States and the women who marry them.
Weaving together a series of personal stories, he underscores the
ironies and challenges that these unions face. He includes the voices of
working-class immigrant men dealing with marginalization in their
adopted country. These men speak about wanting “traditional” wives who
they hope will recognize their gendered authority. Meanwhile, young
Vietnamese college-educated women, undesirable to bachelors in their own
country who are seeking subservient wives, express a preference for men
of the same ethnicity but with a more liberal outlook on gender-men they
imagine they will find in the United States. A sense of foreboding
pervades the book as Thai captures the contrasting viewpoints of the
couples who appear to be separated not only geographically but
ideologically.

Professor Hung Cam Thai is an assistant professor of Asian American
Studies and Sociology at Pomona College. His general areas of interests
are race and ethnicity, gender, immigration, and the family. Thai is an
ethnographic sociologist and his research is motivated by questions of
how state policies (such as immigration laws) intrude on what we often
view as the realm of the private, which is to say the family and
intimate relations. His research employs interviews and participant
observations and aligns with feminist and race theories. He has
conducted research in Vietnam and in the United States with a special
focus on Vietnamese transpacific marriages.

The Intercollegiate Department of Asian American Studies (IDAAS) was
established in 1998 and currently has a core of thirteen faculty who
teach and research in Asian American Studies. At the heart of its
program, IDAAS offers an array of classes each academic year that
addresses Asian Pacific American issues and populations. The
department’s curriculum in the humanities and social sciences includes
courses in the arts, ethnic studies, history, literature, psychology,
sociology, and a number of interdisciplinary areas of study. For more
information, please visit the website at http://www.idaas.org.