Vietnamese wives, internet brides bear brunt of ageing Korea’s aversion to immigration
- As the once insular South Korea turns to immigration to address its falling birth rate, there has been an influx of migrant brides into rural areas
- Most are from Vietnam, many are found on the internet, and there is increasing revulsion at how they are being treated
“The reality was far from my expectations,” Dinh said. “Korean men married to foreign wives are usually old with poor manners or charisma, unlike the handsome Korean men in dramas.”
Despite learning Korean, Dinh soon ran into problems with her in-laws and encountered what she says is widespread discrimination against migrant spouses – and particularly those from Vietnam. She has often been accused of taking advantage of her husband.
“Many Koreans ignore us thinking we are only people from a poor country. There’s a popular misconception that migrant [wives] will run away from their marriages and children once they get citizenship,” she said.
In recent years there has been an influx of foreign women into the Korean countryside, where international marriages now make up nearly a fifth – or 18.4 per cent – of all marriages, according to 2017 government figures. While these women come from a host of countries – including China, Cambodia, the Philippines, Mongolia and Uzbekistan – Vietnamese migrants account for nearly three in four of such marriages.
Rather than be welcomed as a part of the solution to Korea’s troubles with its ageing society, many of the 6,000 or so Vietnamese women who marry into Korean society each year face either ostracism, like Dinh, or in some cases physical and mental abuse.
