Over Half Foreign Wife-Korean Husband Households Live in Poverty
Lee Sun-young
Lee Sun-young. 2005. “Over Half Foreign Wife-Korean Husband Households Live in Poverty.” The Korea Herald, July 15, 2005.
ore than half the foreign wife-Korean husband households are in absolute poverty, earning below the minimum cost of living, and only 10 percent of them benefit from the state subsidy programs, according to a survey released yesterday.
The study, commissioned by the Ministry of Health and Welfare to keep abreast of the burgeoning ranks of female married migrants, was the first nationwide survey on the welfare conditions of foreign wives and thus is expected to lay groundwork for policy measures to be drafted in the future, explained professor Seol Dong-Hoon at Chonbuk National University, who led the research.
As of April this year, there were about 70,000 female married migrants in Korea, with 47 percent Chinese of Korean descent. Chinese nationals married to a Korean account for 17 percent of all foreign wives, followed by Japanese (10 percent), Filipinas, (8 percent) Vietnamese (7 percent) and Thai (2 percent), according to the Ministry of Justice.
Foreign wives of Koreans cannot acquire nationality until they reside in the country for two years, which effectively bars them from receiving government subsidies paid to low-income households, Seol noted.
“The most pressing need for marriage migrants, we found, arises from the fact that even though there are some other support programs in place, albeit not enough, most of those in dire need of them don’t get them simply because they were not aware of the aid,” he said in a telephone interview with The Korea Herald. He suggested guide books in various languages should be the No. 1 priority of government policy measures.
International marriages were a rarity in the past in the proud-to-be homogeneous Korean society but they soared to more than 35,000 last year from less than 5,000 in 1990. According to the National Statistical Office, cross-border marriages accounted for over 11 percent of all marriages in Korea last year.
The survey, which covered 945 couples and 26 matchmaking agencies which specialize in international marriages, also found that about 80 percent of foreign wives entered Korea to marry their husband-to-be or after their marriage while the rest met their Korean spouses while either working or visiting here.
About 27 percent of the 945 couples said their marriage was arranged by religious organizations, such as the Rev. Moon Sun-myung’s Unification Church, and 17 percent through matchmaking agencies. In the remaining cases, the couples met through an acquaintance or just causally.
Asked why they married a Korean, 41 percent of foreign wives said it was for economic reasons while 37 percent said it was for love.
On average, Korean men were 7 years older than their foreign spouses. In 34 percent of the cases, the husband was over 10 years older than the wife.
While families with Chinese wives mostly live in cities, Filipina, Thai and Vietnamese wives tend to be scattered in rural areas. Overall, one fourth of international-marriage families live in cities, the survey also found.
“One out of 10 marriages which took place last year in Korea were international marriages. But those marriage migrants are given no special considerations and still treated just like foreigners until they become naturalized, despite the fact that they are married to a Korean and gave birth to Korean kids,” Seol said.
“Supporting them is not only for the sake of the foreign wives but the healthy family as a whole, including the Korean husbands and their children,” he stressed.
However, in order to adequately address the welfare needs of marriage migrants, a public consensus should be reached to amend related laws, officials at the welfare ministry said.
They said measures will be drawn up swiftly to promote various help programs available for needy foreign wives at welfare facilities. By Lee Sun-young. milaya@heraldm.com.
