作者 ｜
康庭瑜(政治大學新聞學系)
摘要 ｜
本文聚焦於台灣赴美生育旅遊，分析目的地國在出入境口的國界管理如何規範日漸盛行的跨國生育旅行，而從事跨國生育的女人又如何理解和回應這些國界規訓。本研究訪談美國國界管理者並分析相關的次級資料，包括國界管理者的受訪資料、聲明稿、政策和法規文件，以了解國界管理的政策、法律和執行；同時，本研究也與台灣赴美生育旅遊的女性進行訪談，探問她們受到國界規範的經驗。這些研究資料指出，對於生育旅遊，目的地國在出入境口的國界管理是非常新自由主義式的，即，若是你經濟自主且資本累積能力高，則國界歡迎你進來。這種新自由主義的國界邏輯看似以性別中立的語言寫成，實則有其性別面向：女人的生殖性被標誌為國家的財務風險。這些跨國生育旅遊的女人被出入境口國界管理者依年齡、婚姻狀態等分類檢查其生殖可能，高生殖可能者再依資本能力分類檢視，篩檢出好的生殖性和壞的生殖性。這個高度浮動的分類實踐，在赴美生育女性當中建構出一種特殊的法律地位主體意識，亦即指認自己的法律地位是浮動的。這種模糊的法律地位主體意識有幾種特徵：第一，它是一種高度身體化的主體意識；第二，它也是階級化的主體意識；第三，它有時也是種族化的主體意識。
關鍵字 ｜
生育旅遊、國際遷移、新自由主義、性別、身體、懷孕
Title ｜
Regulating Birth Tourism: The Flow from Taiwan to the United States
Author ｜
Tingyu Kang(Department of Journalism, Natoinal Chengchi University)
Abstract ｜
This article focuses on the context of birth tourism from Taiwan to the United States, analyzing how border regulators manage this increasingly popular phenomenon and how birth tourists experience and react to the regulations. The methods are twofold. Firstly, this research is based on interviews with border regulators and the analysis of relevant secondary materials to obtain information regarding how border regulators manage birth tourism. The analysis of secondary data mainly focuses on policy papers, public talks, and press releases by officers at Custom and Border Protection. Secondly, this study is also based on interviews with birth tourists which inquire into their experiences of border regulations. The findings suggest the regulation of birth tourism is largely governed by a neoliberal logic. That is, only financially autonomous and economically competent transnationals are considered qualified for entry. This seemingly gender-neutral border principal is in fact highly gendered, as women’s reproduction is viewed as a financial threat to borders. Border regulators regularly scrutinize women’s reproductive status and categorize them into “good pregnancy” and “bad pregnancy” according to their financial competence. This constructs an embodied subjectivity among the women that surrounds their vague and volatile legal status, leading to their constant self-surveillance of their own reproductive bodies. The process through which the women build a perception of their own legal status is racialized and classed. They construct birth tourists from other national and class backgrounds as a racial and economic Other to draw boundaries between themselves as the legitimate visitors and the have-nots as the outlawed, unwelcomed “black sheep” in the ever expanding flow of birth tourism.
Keywords ｜
birth tourism, neoliberalism, border management, pregnancy, migration, gender