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[Samuel]

 Trivia time:

 Does anyone know the minimum wage in Korea?
 Does anyone know the number of migrant workers in Mokpo?
 Does anyone know the number of foreigners in Korea?

 I will let you guess first. All data comes from my reliable co-worker, head of the teachers union in Mokpo.

[AlexMokpo]

I know minimum wage is 3,200W/hour

[Samuel]

Very low for the minimum wage.

There are supposedly 10 000 migrant workers from Asian countries working in Mokpo (which includes its islands). I thought the number to be very high. My co-teacher visits local factories in Mokpo to defend their rights. Many migrants are here illegally. Also, he told me that Korea has 1 000 000 waygooks. This proves that Korea is a multicultural society. I thought the number high. I also said that Korea is only multicultural on the bottom of society. Anyone disagree with this?
Last year in Seoul there was an article about migrant workers from India that wanted to use the sauna. It seems that some saunas had posted signs banning them from entering.

[Brian]

Yes, there are over 1,000,000 foreigners in Korea.  You can read a post by The Marmot's Hole here: http://www.rjkoehler.com/2007/08/24/foreigners-break-1-million-mark/  According to the post, Jeollanam-do doesn't have a high percentage of that million, I guess because of the relatively low population of the province.

One statistic I'm interested in is the number of international marriages in Jeollanam-do.   (It's important to be skeptical with the stats you find in English-language sources in Korea, but) According to one site, 37.6% of marriages in 2004 in Hampyeong county were between a Korean and a foreigner.  http://blog.joins.com/media/folderlistslide.asp?uid=dhseol64&folder=4&list_id=7559782  That website also says that about 18% of marriages in Jeollanam-do are international, and I've seen other sources that say it's as high as 25%.  The language isn't clear, though, and I don't know whether they actually mean 18% of all marriages, or 18% of all new marriages.  Anyway, everywhere you look there are mail-order bride brokers. 

The idea that Korea is multicultural is ridiculous.  I'm not using that as a slight against Korea, because we've witnessed multiculturalism go terribly wrong in the US, UK, and elsewhere.  But like Samuel said, that foreign population is pretty isolated and kept in certain social and economic circles.  It could become multicultural over the next generation or so, especially with the influx of mail-order brides and mixed-race children, but it's not there yet.  Hell, look at all the Chinese, Vietnamese, Thai, and Filipina (sp?) women in Jeollanam-do already, and then look at how many authentic ethnic restaurants you have.  Almost zero.  How many academies offer instruction in these languages?  Almost zero (save for Chinese).  How many times do you hear these languages spoken here at all?  Almost zero.  Korea has historically been pretty multicultural---mix of Mongolian, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, and European genes and cultures---but instead of embracing the ways it adapts to foreign cultures, it insists on the pure-blood company line, which opens it up to all sorts of easy attacks and charges of hypocracy.

Anyway, I'd really like to read more about the experiences of international brides here in Korea.  Most of what I have read has been negative, as can be expected. 

edit: Couldn't find information about that sauna who refused the Indian guy.  Last year there was a story in the Korea Times about a woman denied entrance to a pool (story here).  A few years ago was the story I was originally thinking of, when sex industry workers blamed the drop-off in business on migrant workers, afraid that no Korean man would want to sleep with a prostitute who defiled herself by banging a brown guy. 

[Samuel]

 Nice post and funny. The last line tells it like it is. So refreshing:"afraid that no Korean man would want to sleep with a prostitute who defiled herself by banging a brown guy."

Actually, I think the man refused entrance into a sauna was Pakistani.

Perhaps the drop in business has to do with other factors, such as the increase in Korean men meeting prostitues on line, and the "crack-down" in prostitution in Seoul starting in 2004. Or perhaps it has to do with the urban development of red-light districts. Or perhaps it has to do with the slow withdrawal of American troops from Itaewon. No, it has only to do with some foreigner's AIDS infected wiener.

Near 37 percent of marriages in Hampyeong are between foreigners? Wow. That is a very high stat. I heard that many farmers can't get a Korean to marry him, so he has to go abroad to get a wife. There is a one-visit, one-look, one-decision "bridal show" in Vietnam. The Korean goes there, looks for a wife in some room, spends the night, then flies back with woman on his arm. Yes, I would like to hear from those women too.

I see so few non-white waygooks in Korea. I saw some at the foreigner/call-center in Mokpo on the weekend. I would be interested to hear about their lives in Korea. I heard some of them make as little as 2000 won an hour. They work under the table, and without insurance of any kind.

So I really respect my co-worker, who fights on their behalf against illegal and poor treatment of those migrants.

Bibimbab anyone? O God no, that's the 11th time this month!!!

Wouldn't it be nice to eat Indian or Sri Lankan food in Mokpo? Snap!!

[Brian]

This all might be an interesting topic for the Gwangju News to look into.  (The magazine published by the Gwangju International Center).  I've only flipped through a few of their issues, so if they did do a feature on international marriages, I missed it.

There are signs for international marriages all over the place, and marriage brokers are really easy to find.  I can't find a picture of the "Vietnamese Women Never Run Away" banners that were hanging around last year. 

Anyway, here's an article from the New York Times via the International Herald Tribune: http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/21/news/brides.php

An excerpt:

More and more South Korean men are finding wives outside Korea, where a surplus of bachelors, a shortage of marriageable Korean women and their rising social status have combined to shrink the domestic market for the marriage-minded male. Bachelors in China, India and other Asian nations, where the traditional preference for sons has created a disproportionate number of men now fighting over a smaller pool of women, are also facing the same problem.

But a booming Korean marriage tourism industry is seizing on an increasingly globalized marriage market and sending comparatively affluent Korean bachelors to searching for brides in the poorer corners of China and Southeast and Central Asia. The marriage tours are fueling an the explosive growth in marriages to foreigners in Korea, a country whose ethnic homogeneity lies at the core of its self-identity.

 In 2005, marriages to foreigners accounted for 14 percent of all marriages in South Korea, up from 4 percent in 2000.

After an initial setback — his first three choices found various reasons to decline his offer — Kim narrowed his field to a 22-year-old economics major in college and an 18-year-old high school graduate.

"What's your personality like?" Kim asked the college student.

"I'm an extrovert," she said.

The 18-year-old asked why he wanted to marry a Vietnamese woman.

"I have two colleagues who married Vietnamese women," he said, adding, "The women seem devoted and family-oriented."

One Korean broker said the 22-year-old, who seemed bright and assertive, would adapt well to South Korea. Another suggested flipping a coin.

"Well, since I'm quiet, I'll choose the extrovert," Kim said finally, adding quickly, "Is it O.K. if I hold her hand now?"

She came over to sit next to him, though neither dared to hold hands. She spelled out in her name in her left palm: "Vien." Her name was To Thi Vien.

In South Korea, billboards advertising marriages to foreigners dot the countryside, and flyers are scattered on the Seoul subway. Many rural governments, faced with depopulation, subsidize the marriage tours, which typically cost $10,000.

The business began in the late 1990s by matching Korean farmers or the physically disabled to mostly ethnic Koreans in China, according to brokers and the Korea Consumer Protection Board. But by 2003, the majority of customers were urban bachelors and the foreign brides came from a host of countries. The board says between 2,000 and to 3,000 agencies operate now.

The widespread availability of gender-screening technology since the 1980s has resulted in an overabundance of Korean males. What is more, Korea's growing wealth has increased women's educational and employment opportunities, even as it has led to rising divorce rates and plummeting birth rates.

"Nowadays, Korean women have higher standards," said Lee Eun Tae, the owner of Interwedding, an agency that last year matched 400 Korean bachelors with brides from Vietnam, China, the Philippines, Mongolia, Thailand, Cambodia, Uzbekistan and Indonesia. "If a man has only a high school degree, or lives with his mother, or works only at a small- or medium-sized company, or is short or older, or lives in the countryside — he'll find it very difficult to marry in Korea."

Another article, this one from Korea Focus: http://www.koreafocus.or.kr/society/view.asp?volume_id=58&content_id=101508&category=D

From the Chosun Ilbo:

These days, Vietnam is being rocked by sad stories of their women who are living in pain and suffering in Korea. In Daejeon in July, a 19-year-old Vietnamese bride died after being beaten so severely by her husband that 18 of her ribs were broken. Some Vietnamese women come to Korea duped into marrying Korean men, who divorced their wives on paper only, simply to get another woman to bear them a child. After they have the child, the Vietnamese women are divorced. Incidents like these have been carried in Vietnamese media, leading to mounting calls to reconsider diplomatic ties with Korea.

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200711/200711010025.html

From Yonhap:

A study by the state-run Rural Resources Development Institute last month showed 41 percent of the 150 migrant wives surveyed experienced physical or verbal abuse from their Korean husbands.

Another survey, conducted last year by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, showed that 14 percent of the 945 migrant women surveyed were beaten by their Korean husbands, while 31 percent were verbally abused.

http://english.yna.co.kr/Engnews/20061224/480100000020061224093834E1.html

[capebretonbarbarian]

I done a little reading on the matter also.  I've read that 1 in 4 rural marriages are an international marriage.  The bulk being with Vietnamese brides followed by Filipino.
The article also discussed the issue of Vietnamese women coming to Korean and the problems they have.  
According to the article, many women have a romanticized version of what life being married to a Korean man would be like.  It blamed this partially on the airing of several Korean soap operas in this area of Vietnam.  The Vietnam government started an education program for the woman so they would know what they could possibly expect arriving in Korea.  
In this area ( a peninsula somewhere) of Vietnam, the population of women to men is very high.  On the contrary, in rural Korea, the population of men to women is very high. So, they make a good match.
I also read  a book about people's experiences in Korea.  The book was divided into chapters with each chapter being a persons account of life in Korea.  There were English teachers, migrant workers, spouse of Korean men and so on.   I can check the name if anyone is interested .    

Cheers

[Samuel]

Damn. I like the line:

If a man has only a high school degree, or lives with his mother, or works only at a small-or medium-sized company, or is short or older, or lives in the countryside — he'll find it very difficult to marry in Korea.

Wow--what's wrong with living with Ma? What about the Fonz? Maybe he is the Korean Fonzie scoring with the ladies.


Wow--Korean women won't marry someone with a grade 12 diploma. What about a year of community college?

Wow--if he works at a medium sized company--what's wrong with that? Does every Korean got to work for Samsung?

Wow--if he is short. Ha ha ha ha ha.

Tragic about those Vietnamese women. I haven't seen any in Mokpo, though, even though this is a farming community.

I would love to see the banner that Vietnamese women do not run away. Trapped for life!!!

[Brian]

[Samuel]

Wow!!!

[wattawoman]

My co-worker got me signed up at Korean Digital University's online Korean language program.  It is designed for foreign women who marry Koreans.  It is in Thai, Vietnamese, English and I think Chinese.  The first lesson is about how to greet your in-laws.  This says a lot about the culture these women are marrying into.  I think the marriage statistics for Hampyeong county are a bit high.  I thought the population of Hampyeong was pretty low.  Maybe not....