Migrant Women’s Narratives of Good Wifeliness: An Australian Case Study of Migrant Agency

This chapter explores the role of agency within the “narratives of good wifeliness” presented by women who migrated by partner visa to Australia. Through an analysis of four in-depth case studies, we highlight how these women use their narratives agentically to demonstrate their legal and social deservingness to remain in Australia. These narratives, we contend, do not occur in isolation but are powerfully shaped by migration law, engaging with understandings of the “genuine,” and thus “good,” wife. While understandings of agency usually center around ideas of direct and explicit resistance to external systems or pressures, we find that apparent compliance with ideas of good wifeliness can be re-signified by the women, making it another form of agency. Compliance and resistance thus appear in the women’s narratives as agentic in form, revealing that, even within situations of perceivably full or absolute compliance, there is always room for resistance to emerge.