| Summary: | Global migrations are often associated with, indeed motivated by, upward social
mobility. However, the new mobilities paradigm emphasizes structural inequalities of
migration mobilities that allow movement for some but mean stasis for others. This
article studies the realities of marginalized marriage migrants engaged in the
simultaneities of mobilities and immobilities, adopting resistant strategies against
structures of social and regulatory oppression. We conducted qualitative interviews and
ethnographic research with 33 Vietnamese foreign brides in Singapore. Applying an
intersectionality framework reveals that, in response to multiple forms of spatial and
social immobilities, the marriage migrants adopted essentialist identities at the
intersection of ethnicity, gender, and class. Communication technologies, symbolic of
new mobilities, were found to facilitate essentialist expression. The study reveals the
complexity of intersectional marginalization and mediated essentialist strategies
developed by marriage migrants facing immobilities, contesting dominant views of
gender empowerment in postcolonial scholarship on identity.
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