The purpose of this study is to identify the process in which marriage migrant women who are required to assimilate into Korean society unilaterally and are limited to the family area as their primary living space acquire the power that changes themse...
The purpose of this study is to identify the process in which marriage migrant women who are required to assimilate into Korean society unilaterally and are limited to the family area as their primary living space acquire the power that changes themselves, groups, and society as the main agent of society, and to identify which conditions and factors influence this acquisition process.
As this study focused on revealing the meaning and conditions of the experiences of marriage migrant women contextually, this selected a useful qualitative research method to explore and understand the process and the context. Participants in this study were Asian-born marriage migrant women who resided in urban areas (Seoul, Gyeonggi-do, Incheon). Twenty three marriage migrant women who had stayed in Korea at least for seven years and were experienced in various social participations including volunteer work and employment were analyzed by conducting in-depth interviews.
This study's results revealed four phases through which marriage migrant women acquire power. The first phase is the assimilation phase with dual characteristics and exhibits voluntary·strategic assimilation and involuntary·compulsory assimilation at the same time. While marriage migrant women are severed from their mother country's familiar environment and social relations due to migration, they are faced with conditions in which they cannot manage ordinary life themselves, thus experience psychological problems such as "frustration", "isolation", and "a feeling of helplessness." For marriage migrant women to recover ordinary life and intimate relationships as in their homeland, the ability to use the Korean language and understanding Korea's society and culture are essential as survival resources. As assimilation into Korean society becomes resources for adaptation and settlement, it has a voluntary characteristics, but at the same time, it also has involuntary and compulsory characteristics.
Korean families expect marriage migrant women to assimilate into Korean family lives quickly. The assimilation required by Korean families include performing the traditional gender role at home and not revealing cultural differences in language, living culture, and so on. The reproduction of a family is not a matter of negotiation and selection, but has become a "task" and "obligation" that should be naturally performed by marriage migrant women. However, accepting this request of forcible nature from families cannot be seen as only oppressive. This is because it is forcible in terms of having no choice, but when accepting it, marriage migrant women can obtain "trust" and "autonomy" from their families.
The second phase of acquiring power is the phase in which marriage migrant women are won over by multicultural policies, thereby depending on them. With the institutionalization of multicultural policies, multicultural projects have been expanded in both the private and public sectors. In addition to Korean language education for the initial adaptation of women, education programs and opportunities for social activities and financial independence have been expanded largely. Moreover, a friendly environment has been created for marriage migrant women to have access to resources. Education and projects toward marriage migrant women was an official reason for marriage migrant women to "get out" of their home, and enabled their exchanges with women from the same homeland that they met through education programs and projects. Gatherings with women from their homeland have become the "last bastion" that helps them maintain their self-identify and a "breathing space" away from assimilation pressure from their families. In addition, marriage migrant women participated in multicultural events in various forms including those of each country's traditional songs, performances, and food. They were able to acquire recognition and a sense of belonging through acts that socially revealed them as "the being with different cultures". However, the ways of dealing with cultures in actual multicultural fields remain in the form of "exhibiting and "experiencing" various cultures, such as "touring" each country's culture and "tasting" the food of different countries at restaurants. Multiculturalism that emphasizes only cultural differences has the limitation of fixating marriage migrant women in the position of others called "they" that differs from "we".
The institutionalization of multicultural policies has led to the creation of marriage migrant women's groups and multicultural jobs, which are core resources and a foundation for marriage migrant women to acquire power. The expanded implementation of multicultural projects in which marriage migrant women participate broadens the space and frequency of contacts among marriage migrant women. Therefore, it increases the potential to create voluntary meetings and has become a foundation to maintain cultural identity in their residential areas and from which small social gatherings proving mutual emotional supports emerge. Although it is the top-down grouping that is not voluntary, marriage migrant women have acquired a sense of belonging and self-confidence by participating in group activities and experience the self-efficacy that they can do "socially meaningful work". In particular, experiences of acting as a group have representative nature that cannot be provided when they were individualized existences, and are important experiences that lead them to be acknowledged as socially active existences. In addition, marriage migrant women could achieve financial independence through specialized jobs for marriage migrants, which can be performed with their own cultural background and language resource. These served the role of so-called "safe jobs" that marriage migrant women who should maintain a balance between work and child care and have vulnerable human capital. However, marriage migrant women h
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