EXPERIENCING EVERYDAY OTHERNESS: A STUDY OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN MARRIAGEMIGRANTS IN SOUTH KOREA

Abstract

This study explores the everyday Otherness experienced by SoutheastAsian marriage-migrant women in South Korea. South Korea is increasingly ethnicallydiverse due to the dramatic rise in international marriages between foreign women andKorean men, most of which are facilitated by marriage brokers. Yet little research hasbeen conducted on marriage-migrants’ experiences of communicating with local Koreans.Drawing on data collected through in-depth interviews with five participants fromCambodia and Vietnam, this study focuses on specific factors that cause conflictsbetween these women and local Koreans in various social contexts, includingthe household, workplaces, and wider communities, and how the women respond to suchconflicts and manage challenging interactions. The participants’ narratives demonstratethe tensions and conflicts they encounter, which can be divided into three categories:the imposition of Korean ways of living, negative stereotyping, and language use.The women describe being perceived as deviating from Korean society’s cultural andlinguistic norms and facing pressure to conform to these norms, which sometimes conflictwith their own sense of identity. In addition, they experience marginalization throughOthering and negative stereotyping in their interactions with Koreans and struggle todevelop a sense of belonging to the host society. The results of this study provideimplications for second language programs designed for marriage-migrants, which havethe potential to enable marriage-migrants to achieve sustainable development in theirsecond language learning and to support their development of multilingual andmulticultural identities.