Multiculturalism in South Korea: putting migrant wives in their place

ABSTRACT

This paper focuses on the role of Multicultural Family Support Centers (MFSCs) to explain the gender, race and cultural hierarchies inherent in South Korea’s system of multiculturalism. Since the 1990s the South Korean state has played an active role in facilitating marriage migration and influencing the reproductive and caregiving decisions of female marriage immigrants. This is reflected in immigration and welfare policies that incentivize migrant wives to have children and provide disproportionate power to Korean husbands. Over the past decade the Korean government has invested heavily in MFSCs. These centers cater exclusively to migrant wives with courses focused on the acquisition of the Korean language and culture. The teachers are generally older Korean women while students are migrant wives from developing countries. The version of Korean culture taught to migrant wives emphasizes traditional Confucian family roles and that a wives’ role is to focus on managing the home and supporting her husband and children. I present two case studies of cultural and cooking classes provided by a MFSC where I volunteered. The classes illustrate that multiculturalism in South Korea is focused on assimilation with limited expectation that Korean husbands and in-law families should adapt to migrant wives. Instead, migrant wives are expected to acquire a strong understanding of how to behave and understand their place in a traditional Korean family structure. I provide migrant wives’ perspectives on these classes and explain why they have limited opportunity to influence or respond to the expectations of the Korean state and in-law families.

KEYWORDS:

• Cross-border marriage
• female migration
• South Korea
• multiculturalism
• migrant wives

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 See https://www.cheonan.go.kr/eng/sub04_02_03.do (accessed 6 September 2022).

2 Lee, Kyung-sook. 2010. To Prevent Human Trafficking, Cambodia Bans International Marriages to Koreans. https://asiafoundation.org/2010/03/31/to-prevent-human-trafficking-cambodia-bans-international-marriages-to-koreans/ (accessed 1 November 2021).

3 Kim, Bo-gyung. 2019. [Multicultural Korea] Local subsidies encourage foreign ‘bride buying’ http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20190218000459 (Accessed 1 November 2021).

4 Yi, Beh Lih. 2020. No sex, no babies: South Korea's emerging feminists reject marriage. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southkorea-women-rights-idUSKBN1ZJ02Z (Accessed 19 June 2022).

5 Lee, Kyung-mi. 2021. Number of marriages in S. Korea hit to record low. https://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_national/987501.html (Accessed 19 June 2022).

6 For example 15 out of 50 (or 30 per cent) of marriages in Cheongsong-gun county of Gyeongsangbuk-do province involved a foreign bridegroom in 2019. See Statistics Korea, Vital Statistics from https://kosis.kr/statHtml/statHtml.do?orgId=101&tblId=DT_1B83A24&language=en&conn_path=I3 (accessed 1 November 2021).

7 See www.visaskorea.com/getting-a-f6-visa-in-korea (accessed 1 November 2021).

8 Hoang, Lien. 2012. Vietnamese study to be ‘perfect Korean wives’. https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2012/12/4/vietnamese-study-to-be-perfect-korean-wives (accessed 1 November 2021).

9 Lee, Hyo-jin. 2020. Justice ministry hit for racist content in int'l marriage guidance program https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2020/10/177_297570.html (accessed 1 November 2021).

10 A checklist and limited explanation of the requirements is available on the Korean Embassy in the Philippines website under the visa section. See https://overseas.mofa.go.kr/ph-en/brd/m_3281/view.do?seq=761459&srchFr=&srchTo=&srchWord=&srchTp=&multi_itm_seq=0&itm_seq_1=0&itm_seq_2=0&company_cd=&company_nm=&page=1 (accessed 1 November 2021).

11 See Article 2 of the Multicultural Families Support Act, available at https://elaw.klri.re.kr/eng_service/lawView.do?hseq=29049&lang=ENG (accessed 1 November 2021).

12 This is based on my observation and own experience. When I visited a local public health center to register my pregnancy I was initially placed in the ‘international marriage’ category as I said my husband was an Australian citizen. However, after the staff learned my husband was racially of South Asian origin rather than Anglo-Saxon or of white skin, my family was registered in the ‘multicultural family’ category that had different health entitlements. This experience illustrates that multiculturalism in Korea does not have clear definitions but only presumptions based on skin color and nationality, leaving government staff a large degree of discretion.

13 See https://www.liveinkorea.kr/portal/USA/page/contents.do?menuSeq=3794&pageSeq=118 for a generic offering of MFSC programs and https://www.songpa.go.kr/eng/contents.do?key=4057& for offerings of an individual MFSC (both accessed 1 November 2021).

14 For example, see https://www.liveinkorea.kr/portal/USA/page/contents.do?menuSeq=3794&pageSeq=118 (accessed 1 November 2021).

15 For example see Korea Immigration Service (2012) and the main Government website concerning MFSCs www.mogef.go.kr/eng/pc/eng_pc_f006.do (accessed 1 November 2021).

16 South Korea ranked 127 out of 153 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Economic Participation and Opportunity subindex in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2020. See https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2020.pdf (accessed 1 November 2021).

17 See Powerful first step to the Republic of Korea Introducing the Immigrant Settlement Program https://www.socinet.go.kr/FileByteDownload.do?file=/20190102/soci/comm/board/BoardForm.jsp/%EC%9D%B4%EB%AF%BC%EC%9E%90%ED%86%B5%ED%95%A9%ED%94%84%EB%A1%9C%EA%B7%B8%EB%9E%A8±%EB%A6%AC%ED%94%8C%EB%A0%9B%28%EC%98%81%EB%AC%B8%29.pdf&filePath=/20190102/soci/comm/board/BoardForm.jsp&fileName=%EC%9D%B4%EB%AF%BC%EC%9E%90%ED%86%B5%ED%95%A9%ED%94%84%EB%A1%9C%EA%B7%B8%EB%9E%A8±%EB%A6%AC%ED%94%8C%EB%A0%9B%28%EC%98%81%EB%AC%B8%29.pdf&programId=bbs&docId=1866&fileType=BBS&tableNm=&keyColNm=&keyVal=&blobColNm=&blobCol=&isBlob=multi#:~:text=The%20Korea%20Immigration%20and%20Integration,a%20member%20of%20our%20society. (accessed 1 November 2021).

18 See https://www.mcfamily.or.kr/web/hcontents/hcontents.php?Spageno=7&thislangcd=tl&thislangcd=en (accessed 1 November 2021).

19 Ibid.

20 According to a survey from the National Human Rights Commission of Korea 42 per cent of migrant wives had suffered domestic violence, 68 per cent had experienced unwanted sexual advances and 81 per cent had experienced unwanted sexual advances. See https://www.asiapacificforum.net/news/survey-shines-light-violence-against-foreign-born-wives/ (accessed 1 November 2021).

21 Int'l marriages to Korean men grow in recent years: report https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20200526001900320 (accessed 1 November 2021).