‘돌보지 않으면 살 수 없는’: 양안(兩岸)결혼이주자 사례를 통해 본 돌봄의 역설과 젠더 질서의 재구성 = “Living by Caring”: The Paradox of Care and the Reconfiguration of Gender Order Among Cross-Strait Marriage Migrants

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study analyzes how Cross-Strait marriage migrants have been incorporated into the care system in Taiwan during the transition to a super-aged society and the restructuring of the long-term care system. Since 1987, many of these migrants initially remained household caregivers due to legal and social constraints. In particular, male Cross-Strait marriage migrants assumed primary responsibility for childcare and domestic care, experiencing a reconfiguration of gender roles as they shifted from breadwinners to caregivers. As the demand for care labor increased, Cross-Strait marriage migrants who obtained legal and institutional citizenship began to acquire caregiving qualifications and move into the formal care labor sector. Although this shift appears to indicate expanded social participation, it also reflects efforts to reduce reliance on migrant care workers from other countries while incorporating the labor of Cross-Strait marriage migrants into the care system. This study conceptualizes this process as the “paradox of care.” While Cross-Strait marriage migrants seem to have moved beyond household care, they are once again positioned within social care, ultimately leading lives in which caring becomes a condition for survival. Within the reorganization of the care hierarchy in Taiwan, their care practices reveal how the politicization of care reshapes gender order and citizenship, positioning caregiving as a condition of survival.