OMNES : The Journal of multicultural society

HOME

OMNES: The Journal of Multicultural Society - Vol. 10 , No. 1
[Paper List] [Go to Volume List]

[ Article ]
OMNES: The Journal of Multicultural Society - Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 1-29
ISSN: 2093-5498 (Print)
Print publication date 31 Jan 2020
Received 15 Feb 2019 Revised 16 May 2019 Accepted 14 Nov 2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14431/omnes.2020.01.10.1.1

Filipina Marriage Migrants’ Experiences of Human Rights Violation in South Korea and Their Negotiations across Structural Constraints
Jaran Shin
University of Massachusetts, Boston, USA

Abstract

Despite a worldwide trend toward the feminization of migration, international marriage migration has received less scholarly attention than other forms of gendered migration. Even though international marriage practices are complex, female marriage migrants are too frequently stereotyped as opportunists, victims, or active sovereign protagonists. To provide a more nuanced picture of their experiences, this study examines the narratives of three Filipina marriage migrants in South Korea through the lens of a human rights perspective. It (a) identifies the kinds of human rights violations that they have endured as brides-to-be, wives, mothers, workers, and/or residents/citizens and (b) demonstrates how they exercise agency in navigating structural inequalities in different settings. This study then discusses the broader circumstances that enable human rights abuses to occur in the ways that they do. Ultimately, it highlights the importance of incorporating the voices of female marriage migrants into the policy decisions that affect them.

Keywords: international migration, marriage migrants, family violence, human rights, South Korea
References
1. Bélanger, D., Lee, H. K., & Wang, H. Z. (2010). Ethnic diversity and statistics in East Asia: ‘Foreign brides’ surveys in Taiwan and South Korea. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 33(6), 1108–1130.
2. Blommaert, J. (2005). Discourse: A critical introduction. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
3. Boyatzis, R. E. (1998). Transforming qualitative information: Thematic analysis and code development. London, England: Sage.
4. Bunch, C. (1990). Women’s rights as human rights: Toward a re-vision of human rights. Human Rights Quarterly, 12(4), 486–498.
5. Cheng, C. M. C., & Choo, H. Y. (2015). Women’s migration for domestic work and cross-border marriage in East and Southeast Asia: Reproducing domesticity, contesting citizenship. Sociology Compass, 9(8), 654–667.
6. Choo, H. Y. (2013). The cost of rights: Migrant women, feminist advocacy, and gendered morality in South Korea. Gender & Society, 27(4), 445–468.
7. Constable, N. (2003). A transnational perspective on divorce and marriage: Filipina wives and workers. Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 10(2), 163–180.
8. Constable, N. (2009). The commodification of intimacy: Marriage, sex, and reproductive labor. Annual Review of Anthropology, 38(1), 49–64.
9. Freeman, C. (2011). Making and faking kinship: Marriage and labor migration between China and South Korea. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
10. Gulati, L. (1994). Women in international migration. Social Development Issues, 16(1), 75–97.
11. Halualani, R. T. (1995). The intersecting hegemonic discourses of an Asian mail-order bride catalog: Pilipina “oriental butterfly” dolls for sale. Women’s Studies in Communication, 18(1), 45–64.
12. Hsia, H. C. (2009). Foreign brides, multiple citizenship and the immigrant movement in Taiwan. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 18(1), 17–46.
13. Johnson, D. M. (1992). Approaches to research in second language learning. White Plains, NY: Longman.
14. Kim, M. (2013). Citizenship projects for marriage migrants in South Korea: Intersecting motherhood with ethnicity and class. Social Politics, 20(4), 455–481.
15. Kim, M. J., Yoo, M. K., Lee, H. K., & Chung, K. S. (2006). Being Korean wives: Dilemmas and choices of Vietnamese and Filipino migrants. Korean Cultural Anthropology, 39(1), 159–176.
16. Lan, P. C. (2008). New global politics of reproductive labor: Gendered labor and marriage migration. Sociology Compass, 2(6), 1801–1815.
17. Lee, H. K. (2008). International marriage and the state in South Korea: Focusing on governmental policy. Citizenship Studies, 12(1), 107–123.
18. Libal, K., & Parekh, S. (2009). Reframing violence against women as a human rights violation: Evan Stark’s coercive control. Violence Against Women, 15(12), 1477–1489.
19. Mitra, N. (2013). Intimate violence, family, and femininity: Women’s narratives on their construction of violence and self. Violence Against Women, 19(10), 1282–1301.
20. Paiewonsky, D. (2007). Feminization of migration: Remittances, gender and development. Working Paper 1. Santo Domingo: United Nations International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women.
21. Perez, B. E. (2003). Woman warrior meets mail-order bride: Finding an Asian American voice in the women’s movement. Berkeley Women’s Law Journal, 18, 211–236.
22. Piper, N., & Roces, M. (Eds.). (2003). Wife or worker? Asian women and migration. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
23. Saldaña, J. (2009). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
24. Seol, D. H., Kim, Y. T., Kim, H. M., Yoon, H. S., Lee, H. K., Yim, K. T., ... Han, G. S. (2005). Foreign wives’ life in Korea: Focusing on the policy of welfare and health. Gwacheon: Ministry of Health and Welfare. (In Korean)
25. Stark, E. (2007). Coercive control: The entrapment of women in personal life. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
26. Statistics Korea. (2016). Foreign residents statistics. Daejeon: Statistics Korea. (In Korean)
27. Tseng, Y. F. (2010). Marriage migration to East Asia: Current issues and propositions in making comparisons. In W. S. Yang, & M. C. W. Lu (Eds.), Cross-border marriage migration in East and Southeast Asia: Socio-demographic patterns and issues (pp. 31–45). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Amsterdam University Press.
28. Yeoh, B. S., Leng, C. H., & Dung, V. T. K. (2013). Commercially arranged marriage and the negotiation of citizenship rights among Vietnamese marriage migrants in multiracial Singapore. Asian Ethnicity, 14(2), 139–156.
29. Yin, R. (2003). Case study research, design and methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
Biographical Note

Jaran Shin is an Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Her research focuses on how language/culture learning experiences enable individuals to (re)construct their identities and how they engage with others, using languages to negotiate linguistic, cultural, and ideological differences. E-mail: jaran.shin@umb.edu

 

Copyrights© 2019 by the Research Institute of Asian Women, Sookmyung Women's University.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Research Institute of Asian Women:Sookmyung Professional Center #412, 36 Cheongpa-ro 47 na-gil, Yongsan‐gu, Seoul, South Korea 04309 (Tel: +82 2‐6325‐3156)