Performing under pressure: Probationary migrant wives and marital expectations in Hong Kong and Melbourne, Australia

Migrant wives on spouse visas find themselves in a state of transition. The conditional and temporary nature of their legal status positions these women precariously, with their wait for permanency causing legal limbo. Although research into the insecurity and precarity of women on spouse visas is increasing, we know little about how power imbalances between these women and their sponsor husbands are enacted and sustained through quotidian family practices. Responding to this gap, this article analyses the everyday experiences of 39 wives who, after migrating with a type of spouse visa to Hong Kong ( n = 20) and Melbourne, Australia ( n = 19), faced significant pressure from their husbands to perform ‘good wifeliness’. Although highly diverse and residing in two different social contexts, these women are connected by how these expectations can be traced to their visa status, specifically its purpose (for an intimate partnership), transitional and probationary nature and underlying sponsorship arrangement. Ideas of good wifeliness imposed by the women’s husbands are further underpinned by pressures to demonstrate legal deservingness as migrants seeking to move from a transitional legal status to permanent residency. Remnants of this dynamic continue even after separation, pointing to the long-lasting effects of arriving by spouse visa.