I read this editorial over at the English version of Hankyoreh:

One out of every four men who married in farming and fishing regions last year married a foreign woman. 90 percent of those women are from China, the Philippines, and Vietnam. Korea has been solving the problem of difficult work others hate to do with foreign labor, and now it is having Asian women take the place of Korean women in farming and fishing communities that Korean women want to avoid.

Experts say that Korea is already no longer a homogeneous society, and that is has already essentially become a immigrant nation. As of last year foreign workers topped 420,000 and foreign wives numbered more than 50,000. Naturally there is a continuous rise in the number of children who have mothers or fathers from China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Mongolia, Russia, the US, and Japan. Given the fact Korea has a low birth rate and is aging and how international interaction is on the rise, the trend is going to accelerate. The problem is that our understanding of the situation and our society’s preparedness lags far behind that trend.

Just as has been the case with foreign labor, marriage to foreigners has run into various problems. Many hasty-arranged marriages done with the assistance of professional agencies end in divorce. They say that applications for divorce by marriages involving spouses from China and Vietnam recently almost doubled. Domestic violence against foreign wives is becoming a problem. There are also problems involving the language development and social adjustment of children whose mothers lack proficient Korean language skills.

It is time our country formulate real plans as a multi-ethnic society. To begin with, there needs to be better oversight of the international marriage agencies. Foreign spouses need to be given help in adjusting socially, through Korean language and cultural education. There needs to be counseling for the problems faced by international families. Most importantly we need to have open hearts that accept them as members of Korean society.


A similar editorial is found in The Korea Times which adds more detail:

But the problems of “mail-order brides” are complex. The most common of them are frequent and early divorces, caused mostly by husbands’ violence, language barriers and culture gaps. Korea’s nationality act that turns foreign spouses who divorce before two years of marriage into illegal aliens is virtually encouraging these abuses. In some cases, Korean men fall to becoming the victims of foreign women, who use the nuptial contracts as just a means of entering the country and finding jobs.
It is time for the government to step in. It should first enhance administrative surveillance on international matchmaking agencies. These go-between agents are now mushrooming, as they infrequently report to the authorities. So, the government should introduce a licensing system. It also needs to run an educational institution to help foreign wives adjust to the Korean language and other ways of life. The recently reborn Ministry of Gender Equality and Family would be best to do it.
Since the 1980s, the discrepancy in the ratio of males and females in Korea has exceeded 11:10. This means the culture shock and family violence resulting from biracial marriages could continue in the next 20 years or so, unless there are some systemic improvements. The government should set up an agency responsible for receiving reports of abuse, survey the situations and protect foreign wives. Koreans need to recall the mistreatment suffered by Korean women married to American soldiers.

Just a few passing comments. It is promising to see admissions that Korea is not a homogeneous society. This will hopefully begin the process of getting it to stop acting like it is one. It is also promising to see that they want Koreans to have “open hearts” that accept these international spouses as members of Korean society. Also, I also am really happy to recognition of abuse in many such brokered relationships and the problems of, for example, the two year rule which compounds an already unequal power relationship.

Apparently however, multi-ethnic does not mean a multi-cultural or a multi-lingual society. While it is certainly not objectionable to to want to each Korean language and culture to those who arrive, I suspect that, as in the case of the Danish immigration policies, the line between government programs to help newcomers to adjust to a new environment and organized cultural assimilation is a fine one. I think Korea will have to come to terms that its future is one in which not only new ethnic groups but new languages and cultures will become omnipresent in its society.

UPDATE: See this fantastic, if sometimes quite emotional posting over at Metropolitician which talks about many issues related to interracial couples and identity in Korea.