The purpose of this study is to investigate the life and empowering process of Vietnamese women who marry Korean men and are currently living in Korea. Through this research, I hope to explore two points: first, how these women lived before coming to Korea; second, what difficulties have they encountered in their life in Korea and how they cope with them. Through each person’s experiences, differences can be found in their relationships with husbands’ family members or their ways in dealing with difficulties and empowering process in Korea. Specifically, this research seeks to analyze the influence of the relationship between Vietnamese women with their husbands’ family members in this mentioned process. In my opinion, in explaining the choice of international marriages, economic factor will not be adequate in solving problems rooted in Vietnamese-Korean families. This study thus considers the wish for self-achieve and self-satisfaction as fundamental elements affecting Vietnamese women’s choice. As a result, policies which only emphasize on adapting these women to life in Korea will likely to overlook or disregard cultural elements as well as their purposes of marriage. This study is done by conducting in-depth interviews with 15 Vietnamese women who got married to Korean men and are currently living in Seoul. The content of these interviews is analyzed according to problems set out by the study in the first place, which can be summarized as below. First, Vietnamese women in this study have the same choice of international marriage despite how they arrived to Korea. The circumstances of their husbands’ families may be similar or different, and so are the difficulties they encounter and their experiences in overcoming them. Therefore, with these interviews, I hope to examine their actions's significance and some information hardly known about women involving in international marriages through their own stories. Second, since those women were born and brought up in Vietnam, inside them are Vietnamese women’s identity, which has distinguished them from Korean women. This Vietnamese identity is deeply grained in them and when coming to Korea, they do not lose this identity but create new one by combining it successfully with Korean one. Through the interviews, I also hope to see how this Vietnamese identity is recreated in the land which these women choose for their new life. Third, until now, there have been a lot of researches on Vietnamese women in international marriages with Korean men, portraying them as victims or of inferior social status. However, through sharing their living experiences in Korea, I focus on the process of empowerment through their economically self-reliant efforts and agreement with husbands’ families. Last, I found their hopes and future plans for a happy family and good teaching for their childrens. In so doing, they have made effort to learn Korean and actively participate in economic activities. In short, this study is conducted to understand the process of solving difficulties and empowering process in families as well as in society through presenting experiences of Vietnamese women who choose to marry Korean men. With this study, I hope to contribute new insights to more effective and practical researches as well as policy implementation process for multi-cultural families in Korea.
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