Research On The Construction And Dissemination Of Migrant Women's Healthy Discourse

Female migrant workers(FMWs)are nowconfronted with serious health inequality because of the lower socioeconomic status.Traditional health interventions implemented by government didn't touch root causes of health problems,namely,power relations and social system.In the face of the dilemma,a number of grassroots non-govermental organizations(NGOs)are emerging to support FWMswith vaarioushealth communication activities,hence,it is essential to shed the impact of grassroots NGOs' on FMWs.The "emerging" theory perspectives of health communication research focuses on people's understanding of health through discoutse around health.The interpretive/critical theory perspective,critical discourse analysis(CDA)andgender theory are employed as theorectical framework to study the construction and dissemination of health discourse among FMWs.Using the methods of participatory observation and indepth interview,researcher conducted field work in Shenzhen during from October to December in 2016.Through working with Green Roses NGO(GR),research had interviewed and recoded 44 FMWs,male workers,children and NGOs staffs.Then the data was interpreted under critical discourse analysis.The result shows that FMWs have experienced a repression of health discourse under the power relation of capitalism,the force of state and patriarchy.FMWs believe that the "minimum wage" and the exclusion of the social system is the main reasonsthat they are marginalized.In this case,they can only rely on "self-decision","self-comfort" or simply,the fate.The way thathealthy discourse of FMWs has been repressed demonstates the reproductionof the mainstream ideology.In the context of the disease,the narrative of the FMWs shows how they understand occupational diseases and how to actively seek legal aid for the rightsof health and survival.In the process of identitification,they experienced thelegitimized identity,the "procrastination" of capital powerand took their "vulnerable identity as a weapon" to fight for health rights.Grassroots NGOs provided legal discourse to FMWs with occupational disease and support the ideology of resistance.The primary contribution of Grassroots NGO's lies in the construction of feminist health discourse.An elaborate analysis through the content on "Workers World" reveals the evokening awareness of gender.GR even constructs "Control My Own Body" by deconstructing dominant discouses and highlighting the importance of gender ideology.Various discourse strategies,like narrative,metaphor and intertextual strategies,are applied to strengthen the feminist health discourseand FMWs' cognition. GR mainly utilizestwo strategies to spread out the feminist health discourse,one is the internal communication,and theother is the external advocacy.In terms of the internal communication,FMWs' group is an effective way of communicating health knowledge.Video voice and photo voice involes in the external advocacy to shape the healthy image of FMWs,meanwhile,policy advocacy appears to have potential to strenthen future advocacy work.In addition,using arts as a two-way communication strategy and developing a "peripheral" strategy are prominent intiatives to health communication among FMWs.The discourse construction and communicaton derived from Grassroots NGO havesaliently empowered FMWs and their community.On the one hand,FMWs' physical and mental health gets improved,on the other hand,FMWs are aware of health rights,gender,and autonomy.They also turn to actively fight for collective interest.While grassroots NGOs have developed social resources and inter-agency cooperation at the institutional level,it is difficult to achieve substantial empowerment breakthroughs at community level.The conclusion reaffirms the importance of socialized defination of health andcontext-embeded health communication research.Researcherargues that it is essential to understand FMWs' own health experience,unveiling the power relation and ideology through construction of healthy discourses.Grassroots NGOs' expertise on health communication facilitate the creation ofdiscourse space for vulnerable groups,and promotes more social action for change.The role of grassroots NGOs in enhancing community mobilization should acquire more attention in further research.