Work Packages

• Leader: Sanjana Arora
  Participants: Anne Brit Hatleskog, Szonja Zoltanfi, Bjørn Hallstein Holte, Kari Storstein Haug, Norma Wong, Meltem Yilmaz Sener, Ingrid Løland.

WP1 describes and analyses the role that (transnational) social networks and labor market participation play in Thai migrant women’s life strategies and social inclusion in Norway.

• Methodology: The fieldwork will go over a six to twelve months period characterized by an in-depth and long immersion into Thai migrant women’s daily lives in Norway.

PhD Projects:

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• PhD Project 1 (Anne Brit Hatleskog): The role of Thai massage parlors in Thai women’s lives as migrants in Norway.
• PhD Project 2 (Szonja Zoltanfi): Long-distance families scattered in the transnational space: social roles, aspirations and everyday practices of Thai migrant women in Norway.

• Leader: Kari Storstein Haug.
  Participants: Georgios Trantas, PhD Research Fellow.

WP2 seeks to identify, describe, and explain the role of religion in the lives of Thai migrant women in Norway.

• Methodology: (a) Semi-structured interviews with Thai women who frequent Buddhist temples and other places of worship (b) In the same setting as well as in Stavanger and Bergen/Oslo, focus group interviews will be conducted with the monks. (c) Visual content analysis, dealing with the religious aesthetics, artefacts and generally symbolisms in the places of worship and work;

• Leader: Chantanee Charoensri.
  Participants: Panitee Brown, Wilasinee Pananakhonsab, Meltem Yilmaz Sener.

WP3 describes and analyses how love and care are highly-mobile through hybridized migration that has been often segmented into marriage, lifestyle, retirement, and return migration. It explores dynamics of highly-mobile and transnational lives of Thai-Norwegian couples and how it affects the life strategies of Thai migrant women. Further it asks how the Norwegian welfare system, the Thai immigration policy and informal support through love and care plays a role in facilitating and/or hindering migration among Thai-Norwegian couples.

• Methodology: A desk study of relevant policy documents will be conducted. We will furthermore conduct life-story interviews with 15-20 Thai-Norwegian couples who have returned from Norway to Thailand.