Transnational perspectives on intersecting experiences: gender, social class and generation among Southeast Asian migrants and their families

Abstract

This Special Issue engages two strands of scholarship in dialogue in a meaningful way: intersectionality and transnational studies. This introductory article outlines the ways in which we envision this project as a part of the ongoing process of cross-fertilisation between these two camps and build on these debates. As a step in this direction, we pay special attention to gender, social class and generation as main intersecting categories, while also considering others. These three are flexible categories rather than dogmatic ones. To this end, we critically reflect on the ‘feminisation’ of gender, proposing to expand the scope of analysis to social constructions around masculinities in relation to femininities and their experiential dimension. We will then discuss the neglect of social class and the importance of generation in the transnational migration scholarship. The introduction ends with discussing the contributions in relation to the key theme of the present Special Issue.