Contested mobilities: gendered migration pressures among Cambodian youth

This article was downloaded by: [Maryann Bylander] On: 20 August 2014, At: 13:24 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/cgpc20 Contested mobilities: gendered migration pressures among Cambodian youth a Maryann Bylander a Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Lewis and Clark College, Portland, OR, USA Published online: 14 Aug 2014. To cite this article: Maryann Bylander (2014): Contested mobilities: gendered migration pressures among Cambodian youth, Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography, DOI: 10.1080/0966369X.2014.939154 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2014.939154 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. 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Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms- and-conditions Gender, Place and Culture, 2014 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2014.939154 Contested mobilities: gendered migration pressures among Cambodian youth Maryann Bylander* Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Lewis and Clark College, Portland, OR, USA (Received 2 May 2013; accepted 7 May 2014) This paper explores how gender norms and expectations shape the migration decision- making processes of Cambodian young people, in a community characterized by high levels of migration to Thailand. Based on qualitative fieldwork with migrant and nonmigrant youth, I examine how young people make sense of migration and its local Downloaded by [Maryann Bylander] at 13:24 20 August 2014 alternatives, and highlight the various gendered pressures that young people, and particularly men, experience for migration. Given the lack of local life-making alternatives that neatly conform to hegemonic masculine ideals, young men experience strong pressures for migration and encounter negative social judgments where they seek to stay put. In contrast, young women experience less forceful migration pressures, perceive meaningful alternative life-making projects in the village, and feel more free to actively resist migration. More generally, my findings highlight the importance of interrogating gendered processes of migration not only in terms of how they affect women and those who choose to migrate but also with consideration to how they affect men, and those who choose – or would prefer – to stay home. Keywords: gender; migration; Cambodia; masculinity; youth Introduction A wealth of literature documents the ways that socially constructed gender roles, expectations, and responsibilities shape migration decision-making and ability (Chant 1992; Pessar and Mahler 2003; Carling 2005). However, this literature tends to neglect two important aspects of the migration – gender relationship. First, most work in the field still focuses on women, noting how gendered expectations and norms mediate women’s migration decision-making, but less often interrogating ignoring how gender relates to men’s migration experiences (Carling 2005; Hibbins and Pease 2009). Second, the field tends to focus on movement, neglecting to recognize that nonmigrants may be actively constructing their choice to stay, and that these staying choices are made with reference to the same gendered social expectations, economic desires, and individual aspirations that frame the decision-making processes of those who leave (Jo´nsson 2011). In light of these gaps, this paper explores how gender plays into migration decision- making processes of Cambodian youth, with a specific focus on men and the potential they perceive to remain at home. In doing so, I draw on recent theoretical work arguing for the importance of accounting for the ways that would-be migrants negotiate between their gendered individual aspirations for migration and the gendered expectations of household members (Paul 2013). This approach recognizes that just as there are particular gendered meanings that would-be migrants attach to migration or to its alternative (i.e., staying home), there are also gendered household pressures placed on would-be migrants by *Email:

q 2014 Taylor & Francis 2 M. Bylander household members and peers. Where individual and household ideals conflict, migrants work through a process of negotiation, seeking to make their individual aspirations possible in a context of gendered household resistance. Based on her work with Filipina migrants in several destination countries, Paul (2013) describes this ‘negotiated migration’ model as primarily playing out where women’s individual aspirations for migration must be negotiated to mediate the concerns of family members who would like them to stay home. Building on Paul’s conceptual framework, my work describes a case where similarly gendered negotiations take place in opposite ways: young men seeking to stay both experience and work to negotiate various household pressures to leave. In focusing on the pressures that orient young people, but particularly men, toward migration, I highlight the gendered nature of both mobility and immobility among youth in Cambodia. Such an analysis offers insight into the constraints and pressures that would-be stayers face, and the agency they express as they negotiate migration/staying decisions. This paper proceeds as follows: first, I discuss mobility/immobility in more detail, Downloaded by [Maryann Bylander] at 13:24 20 August 2014 noting how a negotiated model building on Paul’s work might usefully expand our understanding of gender, masculinity, and mobility. Next, I describe the data and contextual background for this study, introducing the Cambodian community where my fieldwork was located. Finally, I discuss the ways that both individual and household desires for migration are gendered, focusing on the way in which young men and women negotiate conflicting individual and household gendered migration pressures. Mobility, immobility, and migrant negotiations This study focuses on the experiences of young people (defined here as those aged 16– 25 years) in a community characterized by a strong tradition of migration. Over the past two decades, a growing literature has highlighted the important ways that dominant traditions or ‘cultures of migration’ can influence youth decision-making and generate migration aspirations (e.g., Massey et al. 1993; Kandel and Massey 2002). Such studies highlight that where migration has grown in prevalence or has a long-standing history within a community, it may influence and shift value systems in dramatic ways, becoming a ‘referential behavior repertoire,’ orienting value systems and motivating new perspectives and choices (Massey et al. 1993; Horvath 2008, 773). This may be particularly compelling for youth, where migration becomes perceived as a critical step in the transition to adulthood (Kandel and Massey 2002). Such literature commonly notes that in some contexts, migration can come to be seen as a ‘rite of passage’ for young people (Ali 2007; Horvath 2008), or an ideal strategy for ‘life-making’ – the term Carling aptly uses to describe young people’s quest to secure a future (2002, 18). Yet, even in areas characterized by incredibly high levels of out-migration, where migration is associated with status, transitions to adulthood, and economic improvement, some young people often chose to (or desire to) stay. Very little research interrogates these choices, leading to a gap in our understandings of how nonmigrants make sense of, and negotiate nonmigration. Where scholars do speak about nonmigration, they often regard nonmigrants/stayers as ‘those left behind,’ implying that there is little agency behind staying choices. In this general discourse, those who stay are presumed to be unable to migrate: the sick, the elderly, children, and those who have caring responsibilities for the above groups. Jo´nsson (2011), for example, notes that much research in the field describes stayers as falling into one of three particular categories: those who provide care (and in doing so, effectively allow others to leave), lower classes who may not have access to resources necessary for migration, and those who are part of the migration industry. Gender, Place and Culture 3 Beyond this mainstream depiction, nonmigrants have also been theorized as responding to a ‘natural’ sedentary preferences (Malmberg 1997), or rational calculations that seek to minimize risk and/or maintain forms of status that might be location-specific (Carling 2002). However, these various perspectives do not account for stayers in a context where migration is normative, as it is in many communities in the Global South. In such communities, immobility may be regarded as more exceptional, aberrant, or intentional than movement. Thus, increasingly, scholars have noted that terms such as ‘left-behind’ may oversimplify the active decision-making processes, and complex social and household dynamics that are related to choices to stay, particularly in areas where leaving is normative (Jo´nsson 2011; Hujismans 2014). For example, evidence from rural Laos suggests that young people often ‘actively negotiate their position as “stayers,”’ and that such negotiations are situated within broader intergenerational obligations (Hujismans 2014, 298). Such ‘staying’ negotiations have been understudied to date, but may be productively Downloaded by [Maryann Bylander] at 13:24 20 August 2014 informed by recent theoretical work highlighting how migration decisions are negotiated within households (Paul 2013). Based on qualitative work with Filipina migrants, Paul argues that individuals may experience a variety of household or social pressures relating to mobility, some of which might conflict with their own individual preferences. Among her respondents, Paul found that women seeking to overcome resistance to their migrations often emphasized their gendered roles of spouse, mother, or daughter, ‘framing their migration aspiration as an exclusive act of intrafamilial loyalty and self- sacrifice’ and pointing out the particular benefits that would come to the family through their migrations (2003, 21). They also glossed over, or failed to describe the individual motivations they had beyond such roles (including desires for greater independence, or career advancement). By drawing on gender-appropriate scripts and linking those outcomes to migration, women could be successful at enabling movements that aligned with their individual preferences and ran contrary to household pressures or concerns. While Paul’s work elucidates the various gendered strategies that migrant and would- be migrant women use to enable their mobility, it also offers a broader framework to understand how staying decisions may be contested and negotiated in contexts where migration is normative. The remaining sections of this paper build on this framework to explore the gendered dynamics of pressures for migration in Cambodia, with a specific focus on young men and how masculinity plays into both social/household pressures and the negotiations of those seeking to stay put. Prior to doing so, I describe the various ways that masculinity has been associated with mobility and explore the meanings of masculinity in the Cambodian context. Engendering mobility among men Currently, there are few studies that interrogate masculinities in the Cambodian context, and none that focus on how gender plays into men’s migration patterns and processes. However, recent work in other Asian contexts offers some suggestion of the various ways that gender may be important in terms of men’s migration decision-making and experiences (Yeoh and Willis 2004; Osella and Osella 2003; Elmhirst 2007; Gardner 2007; Jo´nsson 2007; McKay 2007; Parren˜as 2008). We might expect gender to play into men’s migration opportunities and experiences in multilevel ways; organizing gender- specific demands for workers in various sectors, shaping the organization of work, and impacting ideals, identities, and practices (Lutz 2010). Put more simply, masculinities and 4 M. Bylander gendered practices are embedded in the contexts of not only sending and receiving households and societies but also labor markets. In many parts of the Global South, norms around masculinity have been shown to prescribe and encourage migration. In Bangladesh, Gardner notes that young men from Sylhet link international migration to the ‘construction of an active, adult malehood’ in ways that strongly encourage migration (2007, 15). In Hyderabad, what Ali calls ‘migrant heroes’ are seen as more desirable for marriage partners, ‘challenging and even displacing other ascribed status identities’ (2007, 54). Similar findings have been noted among Filipino seafarers, for whom migration provides not only a dominant, hypermasculine identity but also a potential to be seen as a good marriage partner, embodying ideals of ‘fatherhood, economic provision, sacrifice for one’s family, and the “machismo of manual work”’ (McKay 2007, 630). Often the way that migration has been linked to hegemonic ideals of masculinity centers on the potential for wage labor to provide cash, a source of male-specific dignity Downloaded by [Maryann Bylander] at 13:24 20 August 2014 and status (e.g., Osella and Osella 2003). Wage labor as a means of obtaining self-respect, masculinity, and status has been documented by a number of studies that note this as a particular response to women’s increasing opportunities for paid work and/or migration (Gamburd 2000; Parren˜as 2005; Elmhirst 2007; Broughton 2008). Particularly in contexts where neoliberal dislocations have made it more difficult for men to fulfill traditional roles of breadwinners, or providers, migration has become a critical way to achieve gendered objectives among men (Broughton 2008). This can also result in the feminization of nonmigrants, particularly in places with strong migration traditions or few opportunities to earn money locally. For example, in Kerala, Osella and Osella suggest ‘accumulation and spending set performance hierarchies of manliness, and the feminization of those who are not playing the game or, far worse, lose’ (2003, 121). In Mali, Jo´nsson noted that ideal of movement was ‘highly problematic to young men who could not (or would not) migrate, as they were considered immature, lazy, and cowardly by their surrounding community – in short, not real men’ (2011, 11) Taken as a whole, these examples suggest that gendered pressures may be highly influential in mediating ‘staying’ choices in areas where migration is normative. Until recently very little research focused on the social construction and meaning of masculinities in Cambodia, with a handful of key exceptions focusing on domestic violence, prostitution, alcohol abuse, and housework (Tuot 2006; Brickell 2008; Brickell 2011a). This literature portrays masculinity as being associated with having multiple sex partners, drinking, violence, and not doing ‘female’ tasks such as household chores. More recently, Jacobsen’s (2012) work offers a more complex and historically informed analysis of what it means to be a man in contemporary Cambodia. While Jacobsen recognizes the various ways that masculinity is defined in opposition to currently feminized tasks (i.e., housework), she also highlights the contradictory ways that men are pulled to be both ‘traditionally good’ and ‘successful/modern’ – ideals that conflict in important respects. The traditionally ‘good’ man is embodied by the teacher, or civil servant. He is expected to protect his family and ensure its well-being, work hard, speak kindly, and offer to help others, and might be identified by his good education, his moral character (doing only legal jobs), and his simple and modest dress (Jacobsen 2012). In contrast, the successful man (who, Jacobsen notes, most male informants would prefer over the ‘“good” alternative’) is associated with having a smart appearance/ clothing, particular kinds of consumer goods (notably, mobile phones), and wealth. Successful men may not be well educated, but would be interested in learning about the world, and would evidence their ambition through striving, overcoming adversity. Gender, Place and Culture 5 Jacobsen’s articulation of the ‘successful’ man resonates strongly with other recent depictions of Khmer masculinity, as being associated with ideals of struggle, employment, leadership, self-management, and responsibility (Tuot 2006), and clearly links to migration experiences, which include high levels of risk and struggle, and the ability to be part of a ‘modern’ world of wage labor, consumption, and independence. Context: Chanleas Dai This work is based on observations, interviews, and focus groups with former migrants, current migrants, and nonmigrants from Chanleas Dai, a rural commune (a third-tier administrative unit) in northwest Cambodia. Chanleas Dai is located in Kralanh District, Siem Reap Province, and has a population of approximately 1700 families. I have been visiting Chanleas Dai since 2005, and worked with a nongovernmental organization (NGO) managing education projects in the area between 2007 and 2010. Between 2009 Downloaded by [Maryann Bylander] at 13:24 20 August 2014 and 2010, I conducted 82 semistructured interviews with current and former migrants, nonmigrants, and the family members of migrants. By current migrants here I refer to individuals who recently returned from Thailand and had plans to return within a short period of time. All interviews took place in Cambodia. Of these interviews, 20 were specifically with youth migrants – defined as former or current migrants who were under the age of 25 at the time of interview (12 men and 8 women), and 5 were with youth nonmigrants (2 men, 3 women). I also conducted two focus groups with migrant and nonmigrant youth, and returned in 2011 to do an additional focus group with nonmigrant young people pursuing education. All focus groups had equal numbers of men and women and had between six and eight participants. Interviews and focus groups were conducted in Khmer. Although I speak and can understand Khmer to a highly functional level, a research assistant was present to assist with translation and clarification where needed. Where respondents agreed, and in nearly all cases, interviews were recorded, translated, and transcribed. In focus groups, and where respondents were uncomfortable with audio recording, I relied on handwritten notes. In addition, I stayed for extended periods of time in the community between 2007 and 2010, and regularly spent roughly half my weeks there over this period of time. In 2011, 2012, and 2013 I returned for follow-up trips. As a result, this analysis draws not only on the interviews I collected but also on an array of observations, informal conversations, and experiences over this period of time. Chanleas Dai is one of many Cambodian communities experiencing a growing pattern of international migration, in this case, to neighboring Thailand. In the context of few employment opportunities, a growing youth population, chronic rural poverty, increasing numbers of land-poor and landless households, few employment opportunities, and relatively high wages across neighboring borders, international migration has become a significant household diversification strategy in many areas of the country. Thailand is the largest destination country for Cambodian migrants, and their numbers have increased dramatically over the past decade (Revenga et al. 2006; Maltoni 2010). Migration is a particular draw for young people, and many Cambodian migrants to Thailand experience their first migration before the age of 18 (ILO 2005). At the time of my fieldwork, local officials estimated that more than 70% of households in Chanleas Dai had one or more family members working abroad in Thailand. While high, these estimates are not out of line with estimates drawn from interviews and household surveys in neighboring areas (see Hing, Lun, and Phann 2011). Migrations were primarily cyclical, with those in the working age population leaving for a period of months or years and returning regularly for visits home. Young people were 6 M. Bylander particularly drawn to work abroad, and it was not uncommon for children as young as 14 or 15 to migrate independently, or with relatives. Though these migration patterns began only in the late 1990s, by the mid-2000s migration was considered to be a normative household strategy. Migration is regularly a part of everyday conversations, a majority of households are involved in migration in some way, and many children grow up with one or both parents abroad for periods of time. It is common for parents to orient their children to the fact that they will likely work abroad one day as well. In a particularly compelling example from my fieldwork, one nursing mother, a 19-year-old former migrant, shared that she rocked her daughter to sleep by singing lullabies about Thailand and how her daughter will see it one day. As a result of these kinds of routine practices and discourses, young people in Chanleas Dai grow up oriented toward Thailand, often with a sense that working abroad is a likely (if not inevitable) future for them once they reach a certain age. The growth of international migration out of rural Siem Reap is linked to broader Downloaded by [Maryann Bylander] at 13:24 20 August 2014 socioeconomic transformations occurring throughout Cambodia. Over the past decade Cambodia has experienced dramatic and sustained economic growth, with GDP per capita more than doubling between 1997 and 2007 (Chem et al. 2011). However, the bulk of this growth is driven by sectors with weak links to the rest of the Cambodian economy. As a result, the economic benefits of growth have not been inclusive, and have extended to a relatively small proportion of the population, mainly in urban areas (Chem et al. 2011). Meanwhile, the incidence of rural poverty has remained high, social safety nets remain weak, and inequality has increased (Chem et al. 2011). Thus, while urban areas such as Siem Reap and Phnom Penh highlight the success of a rapidly transitioning economy, rural farmers continue to struggle with environmental shocks/insecurity, low productivity, lacking infrastructure, and poor access to markets. Both development and the inequality that accompanies it are keenly recognized in Chanleas Dai, and underpin desires for migration. Local officials suggest that while it used to be the case that everyone in the village was poor, now there is a clear sense of distinction and with it an increasing desire for social mobility. Such mobility is perceived as impossible to achieve through land- based livelihood strategies. Migration meanings and individual aspirations Young people characterize their migrations as responding both to individual desires and to household pressures. Those who sought out migration described it as being a way to ‘be as rich as others,’ ‘avoid being looked down on,’ ‘have cool things,’ ‘show off,’ ‘buy expensive things,’ ‘build a big house,’ and ‘have as much as others have.’ Migration desires were clearly gendered, though for both men and women a key driver for migration was the ability to consume, and access the range of consumer goods that were associated with status, wealth, and idealized expressions of both masculinity and femininity. This is perhaps unsurprising, given that a wealth of research has documented the power of migration to providing a sense of identity, empowerment, and status to young people (e.g., Osella and Osella 2003; Ali 2007; Punch 2007; Broughton 2008). For young men from Chanleas Dai, motorbikes, trendy Thai haircuts, cell phones, stylish clothing, jewelry, piercings, and at times large tattoos, were indicators of success and status, and often drivers for migration. Characteristically, a 25-year-old migrant explained his continued choice to work abroad by noting, ‘I don’t want to only have food to eat, I also want to be like those who have money.’ Similarly, a woman described how her two teenage sons migrated in order to purchase a new motorbike: Gender, Place and Culture 7 They want to drive around the village. They see that other people have motos and they don’t and they feel ashamed. They have been riding behind others for a long time, on the back of other people’s motos. Now they want to drive themselves. In contrast, where young women discussed the material benefits of migration, they described the ability to buy beauty products and nicer clothing. Here Phia, 16, describes her first impressions of Thailand: It was so exciting that I almost forgot Cambodia. There were big supermarkets like I’ve never seen. We had a job, so we always had money in our pockets. I always had 1,000 baht each time I went to the markets. I sometimes spent all the money in one day. I saw beautiful clothes and foods, so I bought things. In the past I had no money for expensive stuff such as jewellery to wear, but now I have many things. Women also describe the idealized working environment of migrants in Thailand, who would often spend days indoors or in the shade, leading to whiter skin. Pale or light skin color is often associated with beauty in Cambodian culture. Downloaded by [Maryann Bylander] at 13:24 20 August 2014 These migration aspirations and desires for consumption notwithstanding, many young people also characterized their migrations as undesirable burdens, noting that they ‘had to go,’ that there was ‘nothing for me here,’ that ‘poverty’ or ‘my family’s situation’ ‘made me go.’ Here, migration was seen as an act of sacrifice that one made on behalf of other household members, or in rare cases, an act explicitly tied to the ability to meet basic needs. Often, regardless of their household’s economic situation, youth reported of parental pressures for migration (a pattern I discuss in more detail below) and noted that they felt they were doing what they ‘should’ by offering to work abroad and support the household economy. By all accounts, it was normative for young people to leave, often as soon as they were old (or in some cases big) enough to work. Yet, some young people actively sought to remain in the village. Most often, those who resisted migration were doing so because of an asserted desire to complete their education. Young people with a preference for continuing their education saw it as a long-term (albeit costly and slow) way to a better future. A 24-year-old nonmigrant woman put it this way: [migration] is cool, but just for a short time. When we study, it’s for a long time. When we finally get to do something, it is really something. It’s like a plant. The ones who go to Thailand is like planting morning glory, or spinach where we get a quick result but it’s finished quickly. For the ones who study, it’s like planting a mango tree. When it grows up, it becomes fruitful. Even if we don’t water it, it still provides. Often these young people also resisted the idea of working illegally, and noted a desire to develop their local community through community projects and services. Most, though not all, of these young people were heavily influenced by area NGOs promoting education, and its benefits. Although both upper and lower secondary completion rates in the area were low at the time of my fieldwork, completing high school was increasingly seen as desirable in the community. In 2009 a new lower secondary school built in the commune significantly increased access to education, and throughout the past decade there had been increasing scholarships and education improvements made both by the government and through local NGOs. Similarly, those who had completed school and sought to work in professional jobs or as civil servants also often actively desired to remain in the village. Others expressed a desire to remain so that they could be near family members, or because they liked the security of being in their home village. Young people who had heard the first-hand experiences of family members being deported, abused, raped, hurt, or cheated were also often reluctant to migrate. 8 M. Bylander Gendered household pressures Such individual desires to stay put often conflicted with parental preferences for young people to contribute to the household economy. The next section of this paper focuses on the various household pressures that oriented young people, and particularly young men, toward migration. The most explicit pressures young people faced for migration came from parents and household members, and were situated around the expectations that all young people should be contributing to the household economy once they reach an appropriate ‘working age.’ In Cambodia, most children are involved in productive work from the age of 10 or less (World Bank 2005; UCW 2006), and within households there is a tacit understanding that children have a responsibility to help their parents make ends meet. In Chanleas Dai, ‘making ends meet’ is believed to necessarily involve migration. As a result, it was not uncommon for parents to exert pressure on children, either explicitly or tacitly, to support both stability and social mobility for the family. As Vean, the parent of a young migrant, Downloaded by [Maryann Bylander] at 13:24 20 August 2014 noted, parents often ‘wish their children grew up faster’ so that they could start contributing to the household economy sooner. Though youth were often hesitant to directly express to me that their own migrations were the result of parental pressure, when I asked about the reasons that other young people migrated, the most common response referenced parents’ desires. For example, in a focus group with stayers, the most common reasons they described for the widespread migration of their peers were parental pressures around contributing to the household economy. These pressures were particularly relevant and forceful when parents were indebted. Many youth migrants I spoke with said that household debt played a role in their migration in some way, whether spurring their initial migration, or serving to sustain it later on. Parents often encouraged children to migrate to repay household debts, sometimes subtly, at other times more explicitly. One young migrant mentioned that even being at home for a short break made him anxious, knowing the debts of his mother continued to rack up interest while he spent time at home without a wage: ‘I can’t sleep well here. I always have a headache when I think of [our debt].’ For their part, parents admittedly encouraged migration, though this was not perceived as exerting undue influence or power, but rather an acknowledgment of the household’s situation, and young people’s responsibilities within it. Some parents were explicit about their expectation that after a certain age, children should leave school and work abroad. As one youth migrant parent noted, ‘going to school here is never going to help put food on the table.’ As a result of these discourses, most youth migrants reported some kind of perceived family pressure to migrate, though often indirect. In contrast, many young people who stayed reported their parents explicitly not allowing them to migrate. Where parents exerted influence, in either direction, they were typically successful, a reflection on the traditional family hierarchy still present in most of rural Cambodia. Most social structures in Cambodia have strong and well-understood hierarchies built into them, with power dynamics and expectations being a direct reflection of one’s position in family, institutional, or social hierarchies (Jacobsen 2008). Pressures to contribute to the household economy were present for both young women and men; however, this pressure is gendered in several important ways. First, pressure for children to contribute to the household economy through out-of-home labor is stronger, and begins earlier, for young men than it does for young women. This builds on differences in what are characterized as traditionally ‘feminine’ and ‘masculine’ tasks in Cambodia, with the former being more associated with home-, service-, and caring-based tasks, and the latter more associated with work away, agriculture, and wage labor. While Gender, Place and Culture 9 such distinctions are not always borne out in daily practice (i.e., women are often involved in agriculture and wage labor in significant ways), from early ages parents orient children to support the household in gender-specific ways. The act of leaving the household for periods of time to seek work elsewhere has been a traditionally male role in Cambodia. In contrast, women have traditionally been encouraged to stay close to home, restricted in their long-distance movement, and/or encouraged to work away only when they have close social/family networks in their destination. Certainly, such norms are neither fixed nor uncontested. Over the past decades Phnom Penh has seen a rise in the number of women from rural areas seeking work in the garment and service sectors (Derks 2008). These migrations have been found increasing social acceptance as a result of the multiple and often conflicting expressions of ideal femininity. While Khmer tradition dictates that staying close to home is most appropriate for young women prior to marriage, it is also expected that young women will contribute to the household economy (Derks 2008). In the current context, where migration is a powerful Downloaded by [Maryann Bylander] at 13:24 20 August 2014 way for women to support their families, financial contribution often trumps remaining at home. Such observations are reminiscent of Mills’ depiction of urban migration in Thailand in the 1990’s, where she observed that while women’s mobility was increasingly acceptable for ‘dutiful daughters’ because of the potential to support the household financially, such movements also ‘raised tensions that [were] absent or much less problematic in the case of migrant sons’ (1995, 258). In Cambodia, there is a similar lack of tension with regard to men’s mobility, which in turn means that social and parental pressure for such movements remain largely uncontested. As a result, young men and boys experience stronger pressures for international migration than young women, and such pressure often begins much earlier. An additional source of gendered household pressure for migration relates to marriage traditions in Cambodia. Customary marriage in Cambodia is still a nearly universal norm, and both young men and women in Chanleas Dai assert that their ideal is to get married in their early 20s. Rather than a dowry system like South Asia, Cambodian use a bride-price model, meaning that the families of young men must pay to the families of their would-be brides. Typical sums offered range from several hundred US dollars to 1000 or 2000 dollars, and often require significant investment and savings on the part of young men’s families. Given this, many men report that a part of their migration motivation is to save for marriage. Similarly, parents shared that one reason they encouraged their sons to migrate was that their sons needed to earn enough for marriage. Finally, the gendered nature of the labor market in Thailand also contributes to stronger pressures for male migration. Male migrants earn more than their female counterparts in nearly all labor sectors in Thailand. For example, women in the construction sector earn 50 – 70 baht per day less than their male counterparts, even where they are doing similar work. Thai employers justify this on the basis of productivity and the difficulty of tasks assigned, a justification that many women argue is not borne out in reality. In other sectors women and men are assigned different tasks, with women being offered the less well-compensated roles. Similarly, women may be offered day-rate wages while men have monthly salaries. In all cases what this amounts to are differential compensation packages based on the same number of hours of work. Families are well aware of these distinctions, and recognize that the earning power of young men is greater than the earning power of young women. As a result, young men were more clearly encouraged to migrate since families associate their migrations with larger earnings (and therefore potential remittances). 10 M. Bylander Thus, household pressures for migration are particularly strong for young men, who are not only pressured to be providers for their families but also expected to develop resources to marry and provide for a new family. Because they have greater earning power in Thailand, and are seen to be harder workers and safer in transit and in destination, parents often exert more pressure on men to migrate. Staying put: judgment and justification Household pressures for migration often aligned with young people’s individual aspirations. Where this was the case, young people could successfully meet parental expectations and also gain a desired independence, status, and gender-specific approval among their peers. However in other cases young people’s desires for migration conflicted with parental expectations. Though parental disapproval for migration was rare, in situations where young people wanted to migrate but did not have parental support, they Downloaded by [Maryann Bylander] at 13:24 20 August 2014 often left for Thailand regardless. More commonly, young people had interests to stay that did not align with household expectations for them to earn abroad, leading to spaces of considerable tension within households. In such cases young people struggled to negotiate the intertwined social and economic pressures exerted by peers and family members. Critically, men and women noted different social responses to staying put. Young men who remained in the village to pursue their education, or because they did not want to migrate any longer routinely reported being embarrassed when their peers returned for visits, and regularly felt judged by others: as being unwilling to take risks, as being unwise, as being poor, as being unsupportive of their families, and as being scared. These kinds of judgments, coming from both peers and parents, facilitated feelings of embarrassment and, in some cases, shame for young men stayers. Importantly, young men felt that social judgments of being lazy, passive, or scared reflected not only on them but also on their households. In contrast, young women stayers primarily described feeling ‘left out’ from a more modern, wealth-generating experience when they stayed at home, yet they did not report feeling negatively judged by their peers for doing so. Importantly, these young women were actively contributing to caring and home-based tasks that were widely deemed as valuable, carried meaning and status, and were perceived as ‘valid’ reasons to stay at home. Women also felt able to express fear, a lack of desire for migration, or an interest in staying close to home with less retribution, as these discourses did not threaten dominant ideals of femininity. In a compelling example, during the course of my fieldwork several male school teachers left their jobs for work abroad, describing their migration choices with reference to the judgments they felt from others. One of those men, Phally, spoke with frustration about how migration has changed his community; in what he perceived as negative ways. Status, he noted, used to be about power in the village, measured either through one’s position of authority or through landholdings. As a teacher, Phally felt that he used to hold an elevated position in the village, as teachers were relatively respected both by students and families. However, more recently, he began to feel that even as a teacher he was looked down upon, a result of his low salary. Today, he argued, status is no longer about power within the village, but rather earning power – how much money you can bring in. He noted that his students regularly teased him for his choice to remain in the village, teaching everyday but receiving only a low government salary, far less than what they could, and often will, make abroad. They look down on me – some say things like ‘you work as a teacher for a year and we can just work for a month [and make the same amount of money]’. These days, some students Gender, Place and Culture 11 listen to me with respect, but the others say ‘don’t listen to him. If he was great, he would have a gold necklace and bracelet.’ When we first spoke about this in 2009, the issue clearly bothered Phally. Not only did this type of disrespect (whether perceived or real) inhibit his teaching, it also evoked emotional responses: disappointment, anger, and at times even, admittedly, jealousy. When I returned to the field on a follow-up visit two years later, Phally had left to work in Thailand, despite his assertions that he would never do so and the fact that he had a stable, paid job. While it is true that teachers could potentially make more money in Thailand, these choices were not only economic but also related to desires and aspirations for a particularly gendered form of status and respect through cash and assets. Vanna, another former teacher who left his job to go to Thailand, noted that while he was interested in earning money abroad, much of what encouraged his migration was pressure from his peers. Vanna was one of the only ones in his circle of friends who had not migrated in his Downloaded by [Maryann Bylander] at 13:24 20 August 2014 early teens. He constantly heard stories from his friends, and watched them come back with high-tech phones, money to buy a motorbike, and new hairstyles and clothing. Their stories resonated with him, particularly when the government held his salary for several months during the school year, a common occurrence. After working for an entire year as a teacher, he hadn’t even made as much as his friends could reportedly earn in one month. He noted that he felt strong pressures from his male peers: They don’t look down on you, exactly, but they encourage you to work. They would say ‘why you are staying here and why you don’t go there working, then you’d have a place to live [i.e. a nicer home] and be better off. Importantly, Vanna’s comments highlighted his feeling that the teaching role he was filling at the time was not respectfully regarded as ‘work’ by his male migrant peers. In contrast, during the time of my fieldwork and on return trips since, no female teacher from the area migrated to Thailand. When I asked one of the local teachers why male civil servants were more likely to leave than women, she suggested that they feel pressure to earn larger salaries in ways that she did not. A male, nonmigrant teacher explained the same pattern with reference to earning the respect of students, and noted that this was a particular problem for male teachers. ‘How can we advise our students if our standard of living is lower than theirs?’ he asked. ‘Some students might think that their teacher just has a bicycle while they have a motorbike. How can we advise them and be respected?’ Given the particular ways that migration is linked with earning potential, risk, and hegemonic ideas of masculinity in Cambodia, young men find it harder to justify staying in the village to both household members and peers. In contrast, young women were distinctly advantaged over their male counterparts in terms of their ability to find acceptance for nonmigration. Women often experienced less direct family and peer pressure to migrate, but just as critically they had multiple gender-appropriate ways to defend a preference for remaining at home. Those with a preference for staying could explain their nonmigrations to others with reference to the caring roles they were needed to fill at home, through the traditional idea that it was more ‘appropriate’ for women to remain close to home, and through a concern for their safety or well-being if they were to migrate. These negotiations were possible in part because of the legitimate concerns of sexual violence that occurred in the migration process. Given these concerns, young women could argue that it would be better for them to wait and migrate once they were married, or once they were slightly older and could thus hold off migration pressures for periods of time. Yet, women’s negotiations were also successful because of the multiple 12 M. Bylander representations of femininity in Cambodian culture, where women can achieve meaningful status as women through a variety of paths: business, caring work, household work, and wage labor. Importantly, because women viewed domesticity and caring work as valid and valuable tasks for them to pursue (Brickell and Chant 2010), these were viable alternatives to migration. As Brickell notes, women’s domesticity in Cambodia is regarded both as ‘an important coordinate of public value’ and as ‘a practical family need’ (2011b, 453). Thus, women were able to justify their support for family members, their caring responsibilities, and their interest in performing such tasks as justifications of why they would prefer to remain at home. In contrast, housework and caring roles are undesirable or viewed as ‘impossible’ for Cambodian men to do except under extreme circumstances (Brickell 2011a). Because of the tendency for masculine roles to be defined in opposition to feminine ones, men who stayed home and performed caring or home-based responsibilities put themselves at risk of being labeled effeminate, a finding suggested in other work in the Southeast Asian context Downloaded by [Maryann Bylander] at 13:24 20 August 2014 (e.g., Parren˜as 2008). Similarly, being concerned for their safety, afraid, or risk-averse threatened dominant ideals of appropriately masculine behavior. As a result, young men were more likely to suggest that they were pressured or persuaded to migrate. Men responded in various ways to these pressures. Some, like Phally, shifted their aspirations and willingly migrated for work. Others sought to maintain their individual aspirations while also accommodating household pressures. An illustrative example is Vuthy, a teenager who was studying in grade seven in 2011 when his family took out a loan they struggled to repay. Vuthy’s mother pressured him strongly to migrate, in particular since his older sister had recently returned from Thailand to have her first child and they no longer had her remittances to rely on. In response to these household demands, Vuthy dropped out of school and worked for a year, sending money home and repaying the debt after about six months. He returned to the village at the start of the following school year and used the rest of the funds he had saved to pay his way back into school, offering an informal payment to a local official who re-enrolled him into school and let him pass into the next grade (such payments are common in Cambodia for a variety of bureaucratic processes). In doing so, Vuthy negotiated a mutually acceptable pathway that enabled him to support his family while at the same time furthering his own educational goals. Where young men did successfully navigate opposing household pressures for migration and were able to remain in the village (generally, for education), they did so with respect to more traditional ideas of masculinity, challenging the ‘successful’ ideal of migration with the ‘good’ path of continued education and long-term earning potential. For example, Rith, a young nonmigrant studying in upper secondary school noted that every time his mother was angry at him for something (often, in his words), she would bring up the topic of migration and chastise him for staying at home when he could be away earning money. To mediate her anger he would try to reassure her that his desire for education was framed around an ability to earn money – one with a higher and more long- term potential than he could get through migration. He asked her to compare the opportunities he would have if he migrated versus completed school, and tried to reason that this was at its core an economic choice. In doing so, Rith built on the primary concerns his family had, and argued that he would be more, not less successful in the long-term by staying put. Other young men drew on similar discourses, some reflecting with family members on the number of migrant young people who have returned in debt, or without savings, and others noting the frequency of alcohol and drug use in Thailand. By organizing their nonmigration choices around ‘good’ and perhaps in the long-term Gender, Place and Culture 13 ‘successful’ conceptions of masculinity, nonmigrants work to negotiate household support for their staying (and often, education) choices. Conclusions This paper has described a community where gendered expectations and pressures contribute to young people’s desire for migration as a life-making project, and also to their ability to negotiate staying home to pursue alternative paths. In this context, household, peer, and social pressures for migration are particularly acute for men. Young men who attempt to resist the ‘rite of passage’ of migration report having to cope with parental conflicts, feelings of shame and embarrassment, and a continual need to justify and defend their choices. They feel an obligation to earn cash in order to arrange a marriage, are often pressured by family members to seek out wages abroad, and perceive that local alternatives are low-status and (in the words of one respondent) ‘not good for young men Downloaded by [Maryann Bylander] at 13:24 20 August 2014 who can go earn money [in Thailand].’ This includes pursuing an education, or formerly high-status work such as public school teaching. While some young men are successful at drawing on more traditional imaginaries of masculinity, and thus negotiate staying with reference to being a ‘good’ man, the experiences of others suggest an inability to justify staying. In contrast, young women have more potential to manage conflicts between individual and household mobility preferences, given the multiple gender-appropriate life- making opportunities available to them. Thus, they are more able to assert a desire to remain at home, perceive themselves as having alternative life-making projects through caring work and home-based work, experience less severe pressures from parents, and do not report similar levels of embarrassment or shame from their peers. Beyond the Cambodian case, this work adds further insight into our understanding of gender and migration in two key ways. First, my work builds on and supports Paul’s conceptual model of negotiated migration decision-making. Paul’s (2013) work suggests that individuals use gendered scripts to appease household opposition to migration, and underscores the importance of incorporating both individual aspirations and potentially conflicting household ideals into our understanding of migration decision-making. My work extends these arguments to suggest that these same processes apply to men, and also that a negotiated model of decision-making can be a useful frame for understanding how active stayers may need to negotiate their decision-making in the context of opposing household goals. Given how rarely staying is considered in migration studies, such exploration highlights both the agency staying decisions can require and the social and economic constraints (indebtedness, parental pressure, gendered social judgments) that frame such agency. Second, I suggest that this work expands our understanding of the ways that hegemonic notions of masculinity and gender norms affect migration decision-making, not only for those who migrate but also for those who choose, or would prefer to stay home. Increasingly, studies have noted the strong associations between masculinity and migration, noting how masculinity shapes the migration experiences of men, how gendered expectations of men to be breadwinners and wage laborers can prompt and shape migration. However, rarely is this problematized in terms of the alternative possibilities that it closes off for male migrants. Only limited work has explored the ways that men perceive to be feminized by engaging in local life-making strategies over migration (Osella and Osella 2003; McKay 2007; Jo´nsson 2011). Yet, gendered norms and expectations that limit men’s (and particularly, young people’s) opportunities in such significant ways are critically important from a development perspective. While the 14 M. Bylander migrations I describe in this paper are ultimately chosen, the fact that young men feel that undocumented migration represents the only meaningful option for ‘life-making,’ can be read as problematic, and invites a range of further questions. For example, a capabilities approach to development (e.g., Nussbaum 2011) would suggest that there are deep development challenges within such contexts. This perspective would recognize that although the decision to drop out of school and migrate may be beneficial for young people, it might also jeopardize or close off opportunities across a range of areas of life. Similarly, to the extent that young people perceive only one viable life-making project, the choice they have in actualizing it is largely a reflection of their constrained socioeconomic location, rather than their individual agency. Given the growing prominence of international migration as a development strategy, and the complex and varied ways that migration shapes social change, these processes and questions remain critical areas of inquiry. Downloaded by [Maryann Bylander] at 13:24 20 August 2014 Acknowledgments I thank Leng Kimteang, Duth Kimsru, and Rith Sarakk for their research support and useful feedback. A version of this paper was presented at the International Conference on Gender and Migration, Marmara University in Istanbul, where I received thoughtful comments and feedback. Finally, I thank the three anonymous reviewers, whose insightful and detailed suggestions have greatly improved the paper. Notes on contributor Maryann Bylander received her PhD in Sociology from the University of Texas at Austin in 2012. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Lewis and Clark College. 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World Bank. 2005. “Cambodia: Quality Basic Education for All.” Report no. 32619-KH, World Bank, Washington, DC. Yeoh, Brenda and Katie Willis. 2004. “Constructing Masculinities in Transnational Space: Singapore Men on the Regional Beat.” In Transnational Spaces, edited by Peter Jackson, Philip Crang & Claire Dwyer, 147–163. London: Routledge. ABSTRACT TRANSLATIONS Movilidades disputadas: las presiones de migracio´n generizadas entre jo´venes de Camboya Este trabajo analiza co´mo las normas y las expectativas de ge´nero dan forma a los procesos de la toma de decisio´n con respecto a la migracio´n de las personas jo´venes camboyanas, en una comunidad caracterizada por los altos niveles de migracio´n a Tailandia. Apoya´ndome en un trabajo de campo cualitativo con jo´venes migrantes y no migrantes, estudio co´mo entienden la migracio´n y sus alternativas locales, y destaco las varias presiones generizadas que las personas jo´venes, en particular los hombres, experimentan por la migracio´n. Dada la falta de alternativas locales para realizar su vida que se ajusten claramente a los ideales masculinos hegemo´nicos, los hombres jo´venes experimentan fuertes presiones para la migracio´n y encuentran juzgamientos sociales negativos cuando quieren quedarse. En contraste, las mujeres jo´venes experimentan presiones de migracio´n no tan fuertes, perciben proyectos alternativos para realizar sus vidas en forma significativa en sus aldeas, y se sienten ma´s libres para resistir activamente la migracio´n. Ma´s generalmente, mis resultados destacan la importancia de interrogar a los procesos generizados de migracio´n, no so´lo sobre co´mo afectan a las mujeres y a aquellos que eligen migrar, sino tambie´n en co´mo afectan a los hombres, y a aquellos que eligen – o preferirı´an – quedarse. Palabras claves: ge´nero; migracio´n; Camboya; masculinidad; juventud 竞逐的能动性：柬埔寨青年的性别化移民压力 本文探讨性别常规与期待，如何形塑柬埔寨 一 个以高度人口移民至泰国着称的社 区中的青年决定移民的过程。我根据对移民和非移民青年所进行的质化田野工 作，检视年轻人如何理解移民和其他的在地可能性，并凸显青年、特别是男性经 Gender, Place and Culture 17 验移民的各种性别化压力。有鉴于在地缺乏符合霸权男性典范的其他生计选择， 年轻男性经历了必须移民的强大压力，且他们企图留在家乡时，则遭遇了负面的 社会评价。反之，年轻女性较少经验强迫式的移民压力、能在村落中发觉有意义 的另类生计工作，并且能够更自由地积极抗拒移民。更 一 般而言，我的研究发现 凸显了探究移民的性别化过程的重要性，这些过程影响了女性以及选择移民的 人，并同时影响了男性以及选择 – 或宁愿 – 留在家乡的人。 关键词：性别; 移民; 柬埔寨; 男性气概; 青年 Downloaded by [Maryann Bylander] at 13:24 20 August 2014