Ministry to Conduct Survey on Foreign Wives

Ministry of Health and Welfare

Ministry of Health and Welfare. 2004. ¡°Ministry to Conduct Survey on Foreign Wives.¡± Government Press Releases, December 24, 2004.


he Ministry of Health and Welfare will next month launch a survey on women of foreign nationalities who are married to Korean men in an effort to expand their social welfare benefits. The project is designed to help foreign women married to Korean men better adapt to their lives in Korea. According to the ministry, many foreign wives of Korean citizens have been neglected from social welfare benefits due to cultural differences, language barriers and their legal status.

The six-month-long survey will be conducted by an ad-hoc team consisted of experts drawn from various sectors including sociology, anthropology and public works. The survey is the first to be carried out in a nationwide scale in Korea.

Led by Seol Dong-Hoon, a sociology professor of Chonbuk National University, the survey team will interview a total of 1,000 foreign women married to Korean men and the same number of their spouses on the process of international marriages, regarding their living standards, marital conditions, vocational trainings for cultural adaptation and self-support and others.

Based on the survey result, the ministry plans to develop welfare policies including health, medical care and social welfare for them in order to reduce potential risks of human rights violations as well as relieving them of their social and cultural grievances.