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The Marriage Migration Regime of Vietnamese Women in South Korea: Evolving Roles of Governments, Matchmakers, and Migrants

Recent studies have clamored for measures to avoid the victimization of women in marriage migration. Thus, an important question entails how to consider marriage migrant women and their decision-making while acknowledging the current settings for international marriage between Vietnamese women and South Korean men. The present research establishes the following findings based on participant observation and in-depth interviews with Vietnamese marriage migrant women (including candidates) in South Korea and Vietnam. First, this study uncovers how governments, matchmakers, and migrants informally interact, form, and reform the marriage migration regime. In particular, this study focuses on how illegal marriage matchmakers take part in the regime and how they exploit marriage migrants owing to tightening immigration policies. Second, this study highlights the role of ethnic networks in the decision-making of marriage migrants. Thus, the discussion challenges the meaning of active governmental policies vis- à -vis the domination of illegal matchmakers. This study contributes to the literature on international migration by discussing the intermediate mechanism of marriage matchmakers and considering the agencies of marriage migrants. The present study employs the concept of regime, which results from the relations between various actors and presents the condition that governs behaviors and decision-making, to articulate the marriage migration of Vietnamese women to Korea. By doing so, the contribution of this article is fourfold: (i) The concept of regime enables the analysis of the dynamics of actors in the complicated migration picture, thus, bridging the politics of migration and the practices of those on the move. (ii) While bridging the discourses and practices, the importance of the intermediate mechanism ― marriage matchmakers ― as well as the interplay of government and non-governmental actors in framing migration policies have been considered in this research. (iii) In line with calls regarding the avoidance of victimizing women in marriage migration, this study has shown how marriage migrant women made their decisions based on their ethnic networks despite the challenging context for international marriage between Vietnamese women and Korean men. (iv) Finally, the findings of this study have important policy implications. The author would suggest that greater cooperation at the government level is crucial to support marriage migrant women who undergo marriage migration with the help of matchmakers. Regardless of its illegal characteristic in Vietnam, it is undeniable that marriage matchmakers have dominated the market. Meanwhile, as long as matchmakers are legal in Korea and the entry of Vietnamese marriage migrant women into the country seems unabated, further cooperation between the two countries is vital.