In the situation where the divorce rate of the multi-cultural families is rapidly increasing, the researcher tried to examine the difficulties that divorced Chinese mothers of multicultural families recognize in their parenting, and at the same time, ...
In the situation where the divorce rate of the multi-cultural families is rapidly increasing, the researcher tried to examine the difficulties that divorced Chinese mothers of multicultural families recognize in their parenting, and at the same time, the issues of support services. To achieve these objectives, data (collected through in-depth interviews with and participant observation of six divorced Chinese mothers of multicultural families) and documentation were used.
To sum up the result of this research in this study, largely, two points can be scoped on: the difficulties that divorced Chinese mothers of multicultural families recognize in their raising children, and the issues of the support services that they perceive.
First, on the difficulties that divorced Chinese mothers of multicultural families recognize, in their child-rearing, there are: Linguistic difficulties. While mothers mainly use Chinese, kids use Korean largely, causing difficulties in communication as days go by. This influences the mother to discipline or educate their children. In addition, mothers feel a great deal of difficulties in communications with nursery teachers and in understanding the letters to parents or the daycare journals, and further in many cases, mothers give up asking the teachers, though they wonder, how their child is doing at the daycare center, just because of the difficult communication.
Economic difficulties. After divorcing, all the multicultural Chinese mothers experience economic difficulties. The mothers unavoidably get limited career choices, and due to their job characteristics of simple labor, the mothers have to send their children to a 24-hour child day care center, or send them to China with no other choice. W300,000 won (roughly $300 USDs) per month from their Korean ex-husband, as the child rearing expense, is woefully low for living, especially when the baby is under 0-12 months old.
Psychological and emotional difficulties. The reality of divorce makes the Chinese mothers of multicultural families feel the sense of betrayal and anger about their husband, and it also makes them feel depressed and frustrated. Besides, divorcing in less than two years of staying Korea, before settling down in Korea, brings them severe anxiety, loneliness, and isolation.
Physical difficulties. Parenting, housework, and working for living with simple labor due to sustenance aggravate the health of the divorced Chinese mothers of multicultural families. Even though their health is in bad condition, they can hardly afford the time and money to treat in time, worrying their livelihood.
Social difficulties. Lack of social supporters in Korea and social prejudice against divorced women in Korea, without any relatives, make it harder for the divorced Chinese mothers of multicultural families to adapt themselves to the society. On holidays or in case of emergency, in particular, they have difficulties in leaving their children while they have to work, having no relatives or acquaintances. Further more, cold eyes and inhospitality caused by social bias toward Southeast Asian immigrant women bring them larger wounds and pain. The language difficulties and the problems due to the absence of supporters have a direct influence on them in accessibility to and in use of the service information, and accordingly, these blocks them to search for parenting information, service-use information, employment information, etc.
Legal limitations: Chinese mothers who get divorced within two years of marriage cannot acquire the Korean nationality, which makes them unfavorable in designating parental right and child custody. Typically, when Korean couples divorce, these rights are preferentially assigned to mothers. Yet, in international marriages, mothers are determined to get the rights only when the Korean husbands give up the rights, or when the husbands are considered to be disadvantageous to the child. If the half of the child custody and the family register belong to Korean ex-husbands, their consent is necessary for the child support application or insurance, and for application and issuance of any certificates. Thus, mothers receive a severe stress when their ex-husbands are uncooperative or disturb intentionally.
Educational difficulties. The mothers' linguistic difficulties have a direct influence on educating their children and guiding their study. Also when the children get into the school-age, mothers get to worry considerably about the tuition for their child's private education. The mothers think that their children are already born socially-disadvantaged as children of multicultural families in South Korea, and the only way to succeed is to study. The expense for the private education, however, is agreat burden for them. On the other hand, many multicultural Chinese mothers of divorced families recognize that their children of multicultural families receive discriminatory treatment from the director and teachers at the nursery school.
Second, on the issues of support services, there are: Access difficulties to the service. It is hard for the mothers to have an access to the information of the support service, and they feel inconvenient using the service. Many mothers still do not know about what kinds of services are provided to the multicultural families. Also they experience discomfort in paying visits to the institutions, not knowing what to do and where to go, searching for support by themselves and for themselves and asking one by one, rather than being assisted by the service.
No systemicity of the service. Though there exist a variety of support services for the multicultural families, they are perceived invalid because when urgent support services are asked, they are not available. Besides, some related works are distributed in various ministries, and the missions are executed inefficiently. Also, the frequent changes of the service policies and those of the department in charge bring chaos to the mothers, or the service applicants, and lead distrust to the government.
No continuity of the service. The learning support service for the children is limited to the period of 10 months. Thus, the mothers worry a lot about what to do and how to deal with it at the end of the service.
Prejudice and discrimination of the service providers. Due to the lack of expertise of the service providers of the government employees, the mothers get biased and discriminated in words and attitudes. They also get hurt when they are treated unfairly according to their level of speaking Korean.
No expertise of the visiting teachers. Different educational philosophy and teaching approach and the attitude and competence of the visiting tutor, one by one, effect on the formation of trust of the multicultural family mothers. The non-specialty of indoctrinating the teacher's own tutoring method to mothers without understanding the Chinese mothers' culture and educational philosophy and the unprofessional attitude such as not adhering to the class time provoke antipathy from the mothers.
Based upon these results, proactive efforts and reactive policy alternatives are suggested for the divorced Chinese mothers of multicultural divorced families to minimize the difficulties they recognize in raising children, to make an efficient use of the support services, and to assist them to nurture their children and adapt well in Korea.
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