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I have been following the evolution of their life course since I first met them eight years ago. Gifted in languages, having a big heart for their fellow migrants, and being critical about how migrant workers and spouses from Southeast Asia are being marginalised by the state and society of Taiwan, they became activists in their own right and had influenced people surrounding them, Taiwanese and Vietnamese alike, in their own way. Pursuing a PhD, both Minh Mai and Minh Thu are highly sought after Vietnamese language teachers in an expanding market of rising interest in learning the Vietnamese language. A\u00a0chartered interpreter for law enforcement agencies and a successful businesswoman, Xu\u00e2n Phuong runs a grass-root organisation for improving migrants\u2019 wellbeing whereby she has established her networking with local politicians. Talented in storytelling, Kim H\u1ed3ng is an award-winning documentary maker who believes in civic journalism. Adopting a hands-on approach as a down-to-earth activist, she has organised an array of cultural events and social campaigns at which she wore \u00e1o d\u00e0i<\/em>\u00a0(Vietnamese national costume) to demonstrate her identity.<\/p>\n However \u2018elite\u2019-like they seem to have become, their migration, which has crossed state borders between Taiwan and Vietnam, and their efforts of negotiating with the exclusionary and discriminatory host society for their self-identity, is not too different from that of their fellow immigrants. After graduating from university in Vietnam, Minh Mai came to Taiwan as a migrant worker at an electronics factory where there was an ethnic hierarchy stratified by Taiwanese mangers at the top, Filipino group leaders in the middle, and Vietnamese assemblers at the bottom. Being a mother of two children, Ming Thu\u2019s son is now a university student and her daughter is about to enter university. Yet, when they were at school age, to her great surprise, Minh Thu received notices from their school informing her that the children\u2019s entitlement to special assistance to their academic study, because children born to migrant mothers were seen as prone to slow or late development. Xu\u00e2n Phuong failed a suicide attempt after she was bitterly scolded by her brother-in-law for her alleged negligence towards her mother-in-law\u2019s needs. Her matchmaker, who became part of this showdown, threatened to confiscate her passport and promised to \u2018deliver\u2019 her back to Vietnam should her brother-in-law decide to get rid of her. Kim H\u1ed3ng was a divorcee whose bitter experiences were shared by the four protagonists featured in her first documentary.<\/p>\n Marginalization and denunciation as experienced by them and other migrant spouses in Taiwan, South Korea and Japan, the major destinations for transnational marriage in East Asia<\/a>, has been substantially studied by researchers across disciplines. It has been argued that victimhood not only prevails in the popular discourse about migrant spouses but also dominates the agenda of academic research. Migrant wives are said to be \u2018pathologised\u2019 under the gaze of the powerful<\/em> others<\/a>, whose discrimination is constituted by ethnicity, class and gender. However, such intensive interest is a strong contrast to the near absence of their Taiwanese husbands in academic studies. The stereotype of their husbands is that they have a low socioeconomic standing due to their older ages, having limited education and low incomes, engaging in laborious or agricultural jobs, enduring mental or physical disabilities, or residing in rural areas<\/a>. As a result, these husbands are said to suffer a \u2018marriage squeeze\u2019 where there is a dim prospect for them to get married, and this is why they resort to an overseas supply of potential wives<\/a>. The stereotype is further reinforced by their use of commercial matchmaking services<\/a>. Commercial brokering is perceived by the husbands, as well as the society, as a channel for \u2018purchasing\u2019 wives, although the majority of the payment goes to matchmakers\u2019 pockets, with a small portion given to the parents of their wives-to-be as a bride price. If popular discourses and beliefs about the husbands as such do reflect truth, then their marriages with foreign women, as well as their lives of maintaining a culturally mixed household, warrant further investigation so that we might\u00a0better understand how people of different class backgrounds react to global mobility.<\/p>\n It is believed that, depending on their socioeconomic background, how people react to migration is polarised. In the UK, it is believed that this polarisation has been projected by\u00a0Brexit<\/span><\/a>, the result of its EU membership referendum. The middle-upper class are said to embrace migration for its material and cultural benefits. In contrast, the working class tend to be nationalistic in their political orientation and hostile to migration for its associated job losses, rising crime rates, abuse of benefits and weakening of national identity. Allegedly, the latter do not participate in global migration owing to the lack of global employability and sociocultural capital and thus do not benefit from its consequential advantages. However, in the case of transnational marriages, it is the underclass men who put themselves right in the centre of global mobility as a consequence of their wives\u2019 migration. Their first meeting with their wives-to-be is often the first overseas trip they undertake on their first passport and arrive in a country where they do not speak the local language and are excited by the exoticness of the sights. Their marriage brings foreign cultures and unfamiliar values into their spousal intimacy and familial relationships. Comprising of a foreign wife, mixed children, and extended local family members, an inter-ethnic household of cultural diversity is thus established. Yet, the majority of the husbands do not seem to be prepared to deal with this intimate diversity in their marriage and family life.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/crab.port.ac.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/IC2-300x225.jpg?resize=300%2C225\")