27(2011), pp.

95~118

International Marriage: Factors Causing Marital Disruption

-A Case Study of Nepalese Brides in KoreaThakur Subedi*, Jung Young Tae**

International marriage in Korea is thriving as more foreigners are getting married to Koreans. Being a homogenous country, Korean society faces a daunting task to integrate these newcomers. Apparently, poverty back home and the dream of dazzling foreign life floors their ways for international marriage. However, things change completely once these newly-wed wives land in Korea, and in no time with a few exceptions, several marriages break up. We conducted an in-depth interview of 10 Nepalese female married immigrants residing in various locations in Korea. We observed their motives behind the marriage in two folds: genuine (marrying to form a family and live here permanently) and fake (using marriage as a pass to enter Korea for other purposes, mainly econom-

ic). Upon examination, we encountered a dichotomy as the brides with fake marriage were found to be satisfied and enjoying while those with genuine intention were miserable. Further, we selected the samples with genuine intention or who married to form a family and live in Korea to examine various individual, cultural and environmental factors responsible for ending international marriage. Upon examination, compared to individual and cultural factors like finance, family, age etc., we found language and environmental factors such as inaccessibility to support facilities and the weak immigrant integration policies more responsible for disrupting these international marriages among Nepalese brides.

Key Words: International marriage, Nepalese brides, Marriage motive, Integration, Marital distraction.

. Introduction
Every month, hundreds of South Korean men fly to Vietnam, the Philippines, Mongolia, Nepal and Uzbekistan on special trips. An agent escorts each man to see many women in a single day, sometimes all gathered in the same hall. Like a judge in a beauty pageant, the man interviews the women, many of them 20 years younger than he, and makes a choice.1)
* Ph.D Candidate, Department of Political Science and International Relations, Inha University (tpsubedi@live.com) ** Professor, Department of Political Science and International Relations, Inha University (ytjung@inha.ac.kr) 1) Choe Sang-Hun, Foreign brides challenge South Korean prejudices, New York Times (Asia-Pacific), 24 June, 2005.

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International marriage migration has become a major contributor to the globalized migration trend in Asia.2) It is skyrocketing as more foreign wives are entering Korea than before. The speedy rise in international marriages over the last few years has, indeed, steered the conceptualization of international migration in Korea. Migration through international marriage in Korea has much to do with the form of labor migration. Since mainstream of these brides represent the developing Asian region, they are more prone to marry Korean husbands in order to avoid poverty back in home countries. Nepalese brides are also not an exception to this. On this basis we even could argue that despite their motive of forming a family, the economic factor always exists in the background because they hail from a poor socio-economic class back in Nepal. Previous research on Chinese women shows they married and came to Korea in order to form a happy family but had to run away due to several factors such as disappointment, dissatisfaction, domestic violence etc. On the other hand, some Korean-Chinese entered with the intention of a fake marriage, and lived in Korea well as their husbands were sincere or generous.3) To our knowledge, there completely lacks such kind of specific study on Nepalese brides, through this paper, we look in to the vibrancy of the dichotomy between the real marriage and fake marriage in Korea. Few researchers have shown their interests in the marriage trends and marriage processes of these foreign brides in Korea leaving a big gap on post-marriage scenario. Since it is the quality or marriage sustainability that matters more than the quantity or the number of marriages, through Nepalese case, we observe after marriage measure in terms of success and failure along with the reasons behind it. Similarly, in international marriage, not only the home country and host country environments contrast but also the migration and adaptation process of accompanying partner into the new society are also required. From this perspective, being born in countries like Nepal, which has different traditions and cultures, might play a role in determining the success or failure of the marriage. Moreover, majority of available researches handle international marriage related issues from the viewpoint of assimilation, socio-cultural change, and the social integration.4) Others have focused on the cross border marriages and have analyzed

2) J.Penny and S. Khoo, Intermarriage: A Study of Migration and Integration, Bureau of Immigration and Population Research, AGPS, Canberra (1996) 3) Lee, Hye-Kyung, International Marriage and the State in South Korea, Citizenship Studies, Volume 12, Issue 1(2008): 107-123

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the issue in the context of labor migration.5) While only a few have focused on the success or failure of the intermarriages. They particularly studied marriages between people from different ethnic groups did not pay much attention to the impact of the birth places of spouses.6) We agree that there are high levels of abuse and marital breakdown in international marriage.7) However, we can challenge the idea that marital breakdown is lower among international marriages than marriages in general. Their study further shows when women strides to protect themselves through contacting persons or organizations such as migrant shelters, the men are more likely to use additional threats such as violence, of deportation, of verbal as well as other abuses. More to this, existing researches mainly generalize the circumstances without trying to look at the factors affecting international marriage in Korea. Opportunity cost of migration of foreign partners is measured by their response to migration-related factors like communication problems, socio-cultural changes, economic problems, and the loss of family and social support. Individual factors such as human capital endowments and time spent since migration might also increase or decrease the level of liability of foreignness. For our study, we randomly conducted an in-depth interview between March 3rd and April 4th with 10 Nepalese brides currently residing in Korea. Additionally, two family members (Case4 and Case7) and two marriage agents (one in Incheon and one in Seoul) were also used as a source of information without letting them know of being interviewed in order to protect the information from getting distorted as they received money by arranging the marriage illegally. Our samples include only female immigrants, who entered Korea from Nepal through marriage visa regardless of motives. In this paper, the concept ofmarriagedescribes a couple formed with a Korean male and a Nepalese female, who united together by law regardless of whether they are living together or not. Similarly, the words like partner, union here reflect the meaning of spouse and marriage. The paper focuses on individual, cultural and environmental factors that de-

4) W. Johnson and D. Warren, Inside the mixed marriage: accounts of changing attitudes, p a t t e r n s , and perceptions of cross-cultural and interracial marriages. New York: University Press of America (1994). 5) J. Lievens, Family-forming Migration from Turkey and Morocco to Belgium: The demand for marriage partners from the countries of origin. International Migration Review, 33(1999): 717-744. 6) See Rankin and Maneker (1987), Ho and Johnson (1990), Phillips and Sweeney (2005) 7) James Tan and Graham Davidson, Filipina-Australian Marriages: Further Perspectives on Spousal Violence. Australian Journal of Social Issues 29, no. 3 (1994): 265-282

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termine international marriage sustainability from the perspectives of Nepalese brides. Since marital success or failure can be measured either by the satisfaction level of the partners and or by the duration of the union, we examine their satisfaction level although majority of these brides did not seem to have lived longer than a year. In this context, we first look if the marriage was truly-intended or used as a mean to enter Korea. Then, we analyze their post marriage status on the touch stone of those above stated factors in order to know the reasons that caused genuine marriage ending in failure. Moreover, apart from individual and cultural factors, we also examine various environmental factors such as national integration models and immigration policies also affect the integration of immigrants in to the host society, thus affecting the international marriage. At the beginning, the paper describes international marriage and the process in Korea. Observing the post marriage activities, we examine the real motivation behind marriage and factors affecting the survival of their marriages. We hypothesize if a marriage is truly intended; the brides would keep engage in assimilation process such as make an effort to learn Korean language, live harmoniously forming a family, make networks with Korean people and pay attention towards Korean culture. Contrary to it, in case of fake marriages, there likely to be a quick separation with the husband, and once the immigration process is over, the brides would go straight to the company searching jobs. After observing their motive behind marrying to Korean men, we analyze their post marriage development with the marriage outcome (survival or failure) from the perspective of various individual, cultural and environmental factors.

1. International Marriages in Korea

International marriage in Korea can be characterized with the Mail Order Bride (MOB) phenomenon, where the marriage usually takes place between women from less developed country to a man from a more developed country. They are arranged by a commercial agency, where the men chose women from a list or catalogue. Later, the marriage is completed after several paper works and in exchange the agency receives an introduction fee.8) Although few international marriages spotted during the 1980s, Koreans witnessed

8) M.L. Chia-Wen, Human trafficking, commercialized marriage or marriage of convenience? Intermediated cross-border marriages in Taiwan, Paper presented for the International Conference on Intermediated Cross-border Marriages in Asia and Europe, Academia Sinica, Taipei, 1820 (September 2006).

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a rapid increase in international marriage only after 1992. The number of marriage immigrants rose dramatically from 25,182 in 2001 to 143,915 in July 2011. Among them, 86.6% (124,594) were foreign brides in comparison to 13.4% (19,321) foreign grooms. Majority of married immigrants were from China (46%), followed by Vietnam (25.2%), Japan (7.5%), and the Philippines (5.5%). Statistically, Nepalese married immigrants made up only 795, where female married immigrants stood for 664.9) The reason behind such escalation in international marriage was due to Korean girls imperviousness towards marriage as well as due to sudden rise in commercialized matchmaking agencies, which are also well supported by many local governments. In the marriage process, most of prospective brides are introduced either by their relatives or by friends living in Korea while others are persuaded by the brokers or through match making networks. About four in ten newly-wed males living in rural areas married foreign spouses are from Asian countries. These wives are much younger than their husbands. For Cambodian brides, an average age gap was found 17.5 years younger than their husbands followed by Vietnamese with an average 17 year-age gap.10)Among the Nepalese, the average age difference with their husbands was found to be 10.9 years.11) In principle, international or transnational marriages differ from domestic marriage because it initiates and includes a migratory process across the border. Being ethnically homogeneous country and due to various socio-cultural differences, newlywed foreign brides coming to Korea often find it tough for the assimilation in to new society. The food, language, cultures etc. all result in setback for a while. On the other hand, as majority of brides come from Asian countries, mostly from the poor regions, it becomes very difficult to assess the authenticity of their marriages as well. Moreover, Korean society is based on homogeneous ethnic group with strong nationalist outlooks with a feeling of cultural superiority.12) This feeling not only seeds the prospect of discriminations but also generates cultural biases against the new races. Likewise, majority of these brides live in country side, where Korean
9) Ministry of Justice, Korea Immigration Statistics (July 2011), at <http://www.immigration.go.kr/> (searched date: 12 November 2011). 10) Andrei Lankov, International marriages, Korea Times (June 7, 2010), at< http://www.koreatimes.c o.kr/www/news/opinon/2011/07/137_90454.html>(searched date: 23November 2011). 11) Filed Survey 2011 12) Kyung-Koo Han, The Archeology of the Ethnically Homogeneous Nation-State and Multiculturalism in Korea, Korea Journal, 47.

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families strongly hold the traditional patriarchal values which make these foreign wives assimilation process even more problematic.

2. International Marriage in Nepal

International marriage in Nepal is an unfamiliar phenomenon. Due to open border with India in the south, east and the west, marriage across the border is common between Indians and the Nepalese. However, these marriages are not considered as an international marriage in general. It is mainly due to the reason that both countries do not require any official documents to enter and exit the other country and they can even live in either of the countries without limiting their stay period. Equally, people across the border bear similar socio-cultural assets such as languages, tradition and rituals, which makes adaptation easier. However, when it comes to marrying a man from a third country, people in Nepal feel very stubborn. As Nepalese still believe in joint family system, the seniors mostly decide the marriage. In this respect, they do not prefer their daughters to marry people from unknown countries. Even those living abroad often return home to get married instead of marrying in a foreign country. Hence, international marriages involving Nepalese brides take place only in exceptional conditions. Hence, it would be right to claim they are more associated with individual decision such as to escape poverty like in our case.

3. International Marriage Process

Arrangement of transnational marriages takes place through several links such as personal interactions, relatives, religious associations, brokers or marriage agencies etc. Previous study shows more than two thirds of marriage immigrants already had established their social networks in Korea before entering as a bride.13) In ethnic Korean case, it is their relatives while their friends played a pivot role for people of other nationalities. As mentioned in the study, majority of brides such as for the ethnic Koreans or Chinese women, introduction by acquaintances was the most popular way to get married, where as Japanese, Filipinas and Thais met their hus13) Dong-Hoon Seol, Women Marriage Immigrants in Korea: Immigration Process and Adaptation, Paper presented at the 9th lunch seminar, Center for Asia-Pacific Area Studies, Academia Sinica, Taiwan (December 16, 2005).

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bands through religious associations. Contrary to it, the Vietnamese, Mongolians and other nationalities mostly came through marriage agencies or the brokers, often involving the money. In Nepalese case, most of them found married through brokers by paying a hefty amount, while only a few were introduced by their friends. In a single case, it was the Korean husband who contacted the girl directly in Nepal with some monetary negotiation. Thus, almost all of Nepalese brides made their ways to Korea through the involvement of brokers.

4. Nepalese brides in Korea

Since only a few international marriages are noted in Nepal, then questions may surface on why these brides chose South Koreans. We found diverse reasons, where most of them were linked with poverty openly. For example, a large number of people from Nepal work in Korea as migrant workers, hence it has become popular destination among all Nepalese for earning decent money without any specific education and skill requirements. One of our respondents, Ms. Rn. (case 3) cited that once she heard of a person from her neighbor went to Korea and within a year he sent around US$ 12,000 back home. As she did not have higher education, she just thought about going to Korea at any cost, through international marriage. Apart from that, a large number of Korean tourists visit Nepal every year. They primarily go for trekking in the Himalaya region, which is not only geographically backward but also burdened with poverty and illiteracy. When young girls in the region hear about decent lives in Korea through these tourists and the tour guides, they become overwhelmed and curious, and later they put all their efforts behind entering Korea. From the perspective of Korean males, mainstream of these girls belong to rural areas in Himalayan region with Mongolian faces, which are quite similar to that of Koreans. Thus, many Korean males prefer them rather than females from the south. All of our respondents were found to have such faces. And except Ms. G (case 5) all brides were hailed from poor socio-economic background back home. In Nepal, prospective brides are asked to pay the amount ranging from US$7000 to US$14000 as a facilitation fee to get married with the Korean men.14) They are told that those would-be husbands would take them to Korea so that they can work and earn big money. However, upon arrival, in some instances, they are sold un14) The broker living in Incheon told us during the interview.

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knowingly to older men to work as slaves.15) Moreover, majority of female married immigrants from Nepal living in Korea possess shared features such as Korean-looking faces, representing rural areas in Nepal, poor socio-economic background, low level of education, younger age compared to their husbands etc. Although they possessed a shabby personal background, majority of them found to have married to Koreans with a wish to form a family regardless of their necessity to make money to support their families back in Nepal. Below are few common features, which we found to have an impact on their decision for the marriage. Poverty Nepal is one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world with per capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) about US$ 470, and where 24.7% of the population falls below the poverty line. Agriculture is the backbone of Nepalese economy providing a livelihood for three-fourth of the population accounting for about one-third of GDP. More than 76% of the population depends on agriculture. About 6% people are engaged in industry related occupation, and 18% are surviving by means of service sectors.16) Because of the lack of industries and service sectors, unemployment rate in Nepal is very high. During the interview, except Ms. G (Case 5), who belonged to a middle class, we found all the female married immigrants from poor family, which directly or indirectly shaped their mind to take this route for which they married the Koreans to avoid the poverty-ridden life back in Nepal. Illiteracy According to 2001 National Census, people 15 years or older, who can read and write, make up around only 48.6% of the Nepalese population. However, the disparity between the males and females is very large as males account for 62.7% compared to females only 34.9%.17) More to this, illiteracy rate in the rural areas are far higher than cities. As majority of females are illiterate, they are easily motivated or persuaded for getting married through some exaggeration of bright future. Our samples also showed similar trends and were found to be illiterate coming
15) Himal Khabarpatrika,Modern day slavery: Nepali women are paying brokers to be sold to Korean'husbands'(2009),at<http://www.nepalitimes.com/issue/2009/02/13/FromtheNepaliPress/15667> 16) CBI, National Account 2064/65, Kathmandu, CBS, National Planning Commission, Government of Nepal (2008). 17) Central Bureau of Statistics, Nepal, National Census 2001, Kathmandu: CBS, National Planning Commission, Government of Nepal (2001).

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from remote areas. Although, they are literate to some extent, most of them could not attend higher education because of the poverty and inaccessibility. Therefore, it will not be wrong to claim that their families, who are also illiterate, their own illiteracy, and the social push factors for going abroad and making money have easily lured these brides in to this business. Due to their ignorance the mediators often betrayed them easily, which they realized upon their arrival in Korea. Family environment People in Nepal live in a joint family. Generally, the elders and males go for work and make earnings while the rest of the family members stay back. Getting a job in Nepal is extremely difficult. Although if one gets work, the earning is very low that it is not enough to make a living for all. In the absence of opportunities at home, mainstream of them opt to go abroad. Even those with a job ponder he or she can make a lot of money by going abroad. Except a few, all the girls we interviewed had similar feelings for which they used marriage as an easy pass to get out of the country. Socio-political environment In the absence of industries, searching for a job has been a daunting task in Nepal. This is why going abroad for work has become the first choice among young generations. Political instability is hampering foreign investment causing negative impact on the employment sector. The displacements during the Maoist-led Civil war and the continuous political instability in Nepal have pushed the unemployment rate from 42% in 2004 to over 46% in 2008.18) In 2009, about 202,794 people went abroad for work (Fiscal Year 2065/2066) up from 171,244 during the same period in 2008. In 2009, about 202,794 people went abroad for work (Fiscal Year 2065/2066) up from 171,244 during the same period in 2008.19) The largest number heads for India and gulf countries for work as the former does not require any formalities while the latter is easier and cheaper. The other major destinations include Qatar, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Dubai, South Korea, Japan etc. The existing data of -1.35 migrants/1,000 populations is enough to justify our claim that people want to leave the country at any cost.20) As there
18) Central Bureau of Statistics, Nepal (2008), at <http://www.cbs.gov.np/statis_2008_content.html> (searched date: 12 October 2011). 19) Republica, 18.5 pc rise in Nepali Workers Leaving for Jobs Abroad, Republica (18 April 2010),at http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=17630>(searcheddate:28 December 2010).

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are fewer opportunities in Nepal, these brides also found to have made their ways to Korea. In addition to this, Nepalese society has a root on patriarchal system, so it disregards females to go abroad for work. Hence, females feel they are deprived and denied of such opportunities. As a response, we witness many female workers visiting gulf countries as domestic worker via illegal means. Going abroad via marriage neither requires higher education nor entails specific skills, so the marriage routes become quite popular in developing countries like Nepal. As South Korea is thought to be a lucrative country among Nepalese with high paying jobs, these brides jumped in to the marriage business expecting they would be able to live happily in Korea.

II. Motives in International Marriage

Some Korean-Chinese women earlier found to be married to Koreas in order to make a happy family but ended in discontent, dissatisfaction, and domestic violence later. Contrary to it, some with fake marriages found living happily due to the ignorance of their poor yet honest and generous husbands.21) This phenomenon gave birth to the dichotomy between the real marriage and fake marriage. Going through this standard, Nepalese brides motive behind marrying to the Koreans can also be explained in the same ways: first, as genuine marriage, which is to form a family and live happily with a better life prospects in Korea; and second, a fake marriage, limited only in documents and used marriage as a pass to enter Korea for purposes such as economic.

1. To live a better life forming a family

In case of Nepalese brides, six out of ten were found to be interested in forming a family and live happily hereafter in Korea. For this, they put on every effort for their assimilation from learning Korean languages and cultures to performing the traditions and rituals. However, all these respondents went through very difficult

20) CIA, The World Fact book, at <https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/theworldfactbook/geos/np. html> (searched date: 24 October 2011). 21) Hye-Kyung Lee, Migration and International Marriage in South Korea. Paper presented at the 99th Annual Meeting, American Sociological Association, San Francisco (August 2004): 14-17.

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phase as time passed by. They faced difficulties due to the lack of good integration environment. This was the reason, while only two of our samples found to be satisfied while majority of them had to abandon their marriage life in the middle.

2. Marriage as a pass to enter Korea for economic purpose

Unlike the first group, the brides (Case 1, Case 4, Case 8, and Case 10) intentionally entered Korea using marriage as a pass for the economic purpose or in the form of labor migration. Their marriages are limited in the papers only. Majority of husbands married to these girls received money through the intermediaries. This is the reason these female married immigrants found living at their own and working independently to make money. Their post-marriage activities were found totally different from those of first group, where most of them were living happily and satisfied.

III. Factors Causing Marriage Distraction

In order to find what went wrong to those who married with real intention to form a family in Korea yet failed to sustain their marriage life, we examined their post-marriage life on the basis of individual, cultural and environmental factors affecting the survival of international marriage.

1. Individual factors
While examining the individual factors affecting international marriage, we looked for human capital, socio-demographic, social capital, migration history, migration project, and acculturation strategies among these Nepalese married immigrants. In general, human capital legacy plays an important role to explain the martial affair in international marriage. The higher the level of education: the lower the probability of marital disruption.22) This is partly because highly educated couples have more means to overcome the difficulties and to adjust in a new environment. In our case, there were only two respondents with education level above high school and both of them found to be successful in maintaining their marriage life
22) T. Heaton, Factors Contributing to Increasing Marital Stability in the United States. Journal of Family Issues 2 (2002): 392-409.

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in Korea. Likewise, factors such as social networks and socio-demographic characteristics of the partners also found to have greater impact on their marriage life as Ms. M and Ms. N (Case 2 and Case 6), who were favorable in maintaining social networks found to be living happily regardless of the duration. However, it was Ms. M (Case 2) who has perfect assimilation. 34 years old Ms. M has been successful in adopting Korean life for the last four years. She speaks Korean fluently and has a strong network with Koreans in her vicinity. She did not face big troubles as her husband, an office worker, speaks broken English. Right after arrival in Korea, she started to learn Korean language. Watching dramas on TV with mother-in-law also helped her improving the language. However, at the beginning, she also had misunderstanding with her mother in law. Since she looks like Korean and speaks Korean, she rarely feels being discriminated. To her, language seems to be the most important factor for assimilation. Does Language matter? The language skills of the partners definitely affect the survival of international marriages. Since good communications is required for the success of relationship individually, in international marriage, knowing the language of the host country also facilitates the partners social integration smoothly. We found it having a very strong impact in our study too. Majority of the marriages were broken in the middle mostly due to the lack of communication. For instance, Case 2 and Case 6 did not have any trouble right from the beginning as their husbands could speak broken English. Ms. M (case 2) during the interview told us that it was her language skill that had kept her martial life intact for over a period of 4 years. Contrary to it, several marriages were found to be broken within a year due to language factor. 29 years old Ms. Rn. (Case 3) had to break up her marriage in a very short period. She arrived in Korea a year ago marrying through an agency. The intermediary had told her that once in Korea she could work without any problem as her husband would renew her visa. However, this did not happen. Her 40 years old husband used to beat her at night. She could not understand Korean language so did not know the reason. She called the broker several times, but in vain. Finally, she ran away and took shelter in a church. She is now undocumented and working in a factory. She fears upon return to Nepal, she would face social isolation. The language was also influential factor in Ms. N (Case 6), however the end result was opposite due to husbands English speaking assets.

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29 years old Ms. N in Seoul was lucky to have a 35 years old husband facilitating communication between her and mother in law. Apart from learning language, she is also found learning to cook Korean foods. However, she doesnt have all good things to say about Korea as she feels some old Korean women discriminate her of being non-Korean. Apart from language factor, socio-demographic factors such as age, marital history of the parents, previous marriages etc. also determine the fate of international marriage. In the early studies, Heaton found that marrying at an early age, previous marriages, and premarital births put marriage life at risk in the United States.23) In our study, we found only two instances of early age with no previous marriage existence. Although, the mean age gap between the husband and wife was around 11 years, yet it was not a concern for the marriage failure. We found couples working both and couples with children (only one instance of Case 2) had made a bigger effort to overcome marital difficulties than those without. However, the factors of the presence of family members seem to have influenced the marriage life heavily in Ms. G (Case 5). 27 years old Ms. G came to Korea two years ago. Her husband, an office worker, paid some money to the broker to get married. He was kind when she first met him in Nepal, however after a month of her arrival in Korea, he changed. The communication problem started as she was living with a family of five. Her husbands sister, as she said, persuaded her husband against her. Once he threatened to send her back to Nepal, she fled ending the marriage in just four months. Now she is undocumented. She feels the larger the family, the bigger the problem; although knowing the language would have lessened her problems. Other individual factors such as time elapsed since marriage may increase or decrease the degree of assimilation and may affect the martial affair. Similarly, the purpose of migration, the expected duration of stay, prospect of family reunification, citizenship acquisition also affect the marriage life. However, as our interviewees (except case 2 with 4 years of residence) had only an average of one and half years of time spending after marriage, we could not apply such indicator. Rather, migration paths (by paying money or not) and the reason (to form a family vs. using marriage as a pass to enter Korea) definitely found to have an impact on sustainability of marriage. In our case, married immigrants willing to go back to their home country after saving some money are seen more likely to risk their mar-

23) Ibid., 392-409

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riage as they used international marriage just as a pass to enter the country. Contrary to it, those who planned to bring family members (Case 2) also had plan to apply for the citizenship, are found more prone in keeping their marriage life intact.

2. Cultural factors
Culture is the collective mental programming of the people in an environment that is quite different from the other groups, tribes, regions, minorities or majorities, or nations.24) The higher propensity of mixed marriages for divorce is partly due to internal cultural differences between the partners.25) However, the effect of cultural factors on international marriages cannot be explained by the wider concept of ethnicity as they said. Rather, it is the internal cultural distances, by the partners approaches towards forming a family that matters more. While turning to cultural factors, we examined issues related to cultural distance, individualism-collectivism, masculinity-femininity and marital attitudes among our respondents. Conflict between Individualism and Collectivism Individualism implies to take care of oneself and of the immediate families while collectivism is considered to be a tight social framework in which people differentiate between their own group and others expecting that the members of their group will look after them. This concept correlates towards the family and marital attitudes too, where the well-being of a family is considered more important than those of any individual family member. Ms. Rt.s (Case 9) case exemplifies such scenario where, Ms. Rt. married to a farmer from countryside seems to be the victim due to her struggle between individual vs. collective forces. She used to work in a farm of her family. As she had her family back in Nepal to support, whenever she asked for money the family denied. She was working full time in the farm and yet not able to receive money. Once she came to know that the family had paid 10,000 US$ for the marriage she realized that she was actually bought to work as labor.

24) Kalmijn, et al., Intermarriage and the risk of divorce in the Netherlands: The effects of differences in religion and in nationality, 1974-92, 71-85. 25) Cao et al.,Optimizing the marriage market through the reallocation of partners: An application of the linear assignment model. Haute Ecole de Gestion de Geneve, Cahier de researcher (2008), at <www.hes-so.ch/documents/showFile.asp?ID=2694> (searched date: 14 October 2011).

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Although Ms. Rt. preferred to be collective by living in the Korean family, her individual side (looking back people back home) collided with it. She became an object of family violence later for which she could not cope up and after 6 months of marriage life ended her martial life. She wanted to be a good wife by forming a family, but the family environment did not let her to do so partly because she was tore apart between individualism and collectivism. Protecting Family value? Similar conflict was also found in Ms. H (case 7), where the emphasis was on the importance of having children as a mean of self-realization in her family whereas the bride was searching for her individual safety avoiding being pregnant. Although the bride came from the society believing in collectivism, due to other differences the marriage ends abruptly. Her story reads as follow: 27 years old Ms. H (Case 7) from Incheon is living with a family of nine. The family paid 15 million KRW to a marriage agency for a bride. In Nepal, the mediators had told her that she could work freely in Korea. However, when she arrived she was forced to do house works. The family seems to be in great hurry to have kids. It was also learnt that she was forced to have sex by the husband often so that she would become pregnant soon. As she was confined within in the house and prohibited from working outside, she feels that she was actually sold as a bondage labor.

3. Environmental factors
South Korea is one of the ethnically homogenous nation-states in the world.
26)

Since immigration phenomena are new in Korea, national migration integration models and immigration policies often seen based on problem solving method, which causes confusion in integration instead of facilitating international marriages. For example, in a country with multiculturalism model like Canada, the coexistence of several groups is considered as an asset, where all groups are recognized as contributors to the society as a whole. They promote policies to facilitate the integration of newcomers, which not only lessens the opportunity cost of migration but also help sustain international marriage longer. However, since Korea adapts to a model similar to France, married immigrants in the country forced to adopt main-

26) Gi-Wook Shin. Ethnic Nationalism in Korea. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press (2006).

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stream cultural patterns and lifestyles leaving their original cultural background, which causes opportunity cost of foreign partners rise up thus affecting marriage sustainability.

IV. Available Protection Measures

For the smooth integration and facilitation of the marriage migrants, Korean government has promulgated diverse measures. International Marriage Brokerage Regulation Act was enacted in 2008 to deal with the increasing abuses and exploitations caused by disguised marriages, scam marriages, and false information as the result of increasing international marriages. By this law brokerages became abide by local laws. However, as Kim Hyun Mee points out, this law itself seems to be problematic with 55th clause of the Basic Consumer Law, where the consumer can be given prompt relief according to the Consumer Law when harmed in the course of using the products or services of providers.27) The second measure to support was Multicultural Family Support Law, which also came into effect in 2008 to provide comprehensive social service to migrant women and their children. However, social support for migrant women has been conceptualized on the basis of life-cycle service: early years of migration period, family forming stage, pregnancy period, birth phase, and child-raising stage. This act, which is mainly constructed on the life-scripts of Korean middle class women, has been advertised as systematic state support of migrant women. However, it presumes that all marriage migrant women live the kind of life expected from the society. Hence, migrant women, regardless of their professional goals, educational background or work experience, are thoroughly expected to incorporate into Korean mainstream. This act also seems discriminatory in the sense that it performs a forceful integration of the migrants without concerning whether they fit into the provided norm or not. The latest program, Social Integration Program Completion Policy, is aimed to ease naturalization of immigrants. This policy exempts them from the citizenship acquisition test upon completion of a certain level of Korean education courses or Understand multiculturalism organized by the Minister of Law. Yet the cultural discourse that lies beneath social integration is problematic because it implements the idea of nationality based on linguistic homogeneity by asking marriage immi-

27) <http://kosians.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default> (Searched date: 15 December 2012)

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grants learn Korean for two years after their arrival. This not only severely harms migrant womens sense of cultural identity but also it becomes useless to those who find difficult to adjust at the beginning of their conjugal period.

1. NGOs and Civic Organizations

NGOs and Civic organizations in Korea mainly found to be campaigning against sex and racial discriminative promotion in international marriage through the banners and websites. They mainly advocate against match-making practices by local governments for the farmers and fishermen. They further conduct migrant women's human rights-oriented policy and post migrant women as a subject of rights from an object of support. They provide shelter to protect victims of domestic violence, do counseling, run education and cultural activity along with maternity protection activities. However, these civic groups provide assistance only if someone approaches them, which is quite uncomfortable and beyond the reach of newly wed foreign brides.

2. The Government
Apart from those stated above, the immigration Act in Korea still seems very harsh on these marriage migrants. For example, the law says if a Korean's foreign spouse resides in Korea over two years with Permanent Residency (F-2) status, then s/he is eligible for the naturalization. However, it is very tough to attain especially for those without kids. Only a few people are naturalized each year partly due to several difficult screening processes. First, there is an investigation of if the marriage is disguised or not. This idea sounds inapplicable, as those who have already lived in Korea for more than two years could easily deal with such a situation speaking a lie. In addition, since several marriages end within months (as in our case less than one year), there needs to be several protection measures for these immigrants right from their arrival to until the process of naturalization. This is the period they suffer the most as they are unfamiliar to the system and facilities due to language inefficiency. Further, the system advocates just reporting of a foreign spouses run does not lead to over-stay status. However, we find only rare instances where these brides are not deported. It also mentions if the causes of run or divorce lie in Korean side, these brides will be protected with F-2 status, but in reality it does not work because

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majority of these brides live in rural areas and are deprived of access to the information. Hence, the concern for the protection of the foreign spouses rights are only limited in the paper. Nepalese brides in Korea are in a very small number. As of 2009, there were 465 Nepalese brides with F-2 Status, and the data shows only a single bride has been successful in attaining the F-5 status.28) Second, in most cases, the husband himself seems to be the sole reason for spouses run, and in few instances either the mother-in-laws or the sister-in-laws are directly involved, which clearly is a set back to new coming brides as it shows the very place where they are supposed to be safe, is not safe at all. No doubt, the language barrier is the primary reason, but the situation could have been avoided had there been possibility of interpretation, which is thought to be widely available throughout Korea. Third, majority of civic organizations or migrant centers in Korea are confined within the foreign-densely populated areas such as Ansan, Wuijeombu, and Seoul, and are typically concentrated on foreign workers human rights related issues. As the largest number of foreign spouses live in countryside, these institutions, despite having a very good reputation and credibility among foreigners in Korea, are unable to provide helping hands to foreign brides. Likewise, the government policy also seems more inclined in prevention of false marriage rather than securing stable stay; more focused on adaptation rather than caring for their human rights related issues. Children priority policy offering welfare system according to the existence of children is also ironical, which is nowhere matches with the value of multiculturalism due to its emphasis on forceful integration. These policies regard migrant women as an object for support rather than the subject of rights because of the governments family priority policy over individual dignity. In short, we find at least three kinds of protection measures visible for these brides in Korea: the family, the NGOs or civic groups such as migrant centers, and the law or the government. Majority of foreign brides are illiterate and are ignorant about the immigration and other legal procedures. To attain residency or nationality is too much complicated. In most of the situation, these immigrants are not aware of the process either. Even if they come to know about it, they find it almost impossible to arrange all the required documents without the help of their husbands. This is the reason many of newlywed foreign brides give up in the middle. Even
28) Ministry of Justice, Korea Immigration Statistics (2009), at <http://www.immigration.go.kr/> (searched date: 6 September 2011).

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among Nepalese brides in Korea, we found environmental factors to have more impact on the marital stability compared to other individual and cultural factors.

V. Conclusion and Discussion

Migration takes place through numerous channels such as personal relations, family relations, friendship, and communal ties.
29)In

spite of a steep rise in interna-

tional marriages in Korea, the prospect for post marriage survival among Nepalese brides looks very gloomy. Majority of marriages ended within a year. Thus, they did not have enough time to go for the assimilation process. Various individual, cultural and environmental factors found to have an impact on marital sustainability in both pre-marriage as well as post-marriage stages. Major pre-marriage factors include wrong information provided to the prospective brides by the brokers and would-be husbands. Similarly, most of (8 out of 10) our respondents did not have college level education; 9 of them were economically marginalized back in Nepal, which not only affected the marriage but also helped brokers exploit the situation to lure these girls in the business. In our study Case 5, Case 7 and case 9 strongly support the reasoning. Further, 60% of our respondents found their husbands character changed after the marriage, which matches with the national report of the Ministry of Health and Welfare in 2005, where 59.7% of the female marriage-based immigrants had similar feelings. The same research points that 23% of the married based female immigrants satisfied with overall marital life compared to 13% of general Korean wive s.30)This also matches with our findings where dissatisfaction level among Nepalese bride hover around 70%. However, the real hurdle turns up in the postmarriage stage. Sometimes not being in an immigrant country haunts these married immigrants; because in an immigrant country, the natives are believed to be well aware of basic immigrant related issues. The Korean immigrant integration model tries to integrate marriage immigrants in to the mainstream of homogeneity interest. Here, the husbands seem to have control over the issues such as separation, visa, and citizenship acquirement.
29) L.L. Lim and N. Oishi, International labor migration of Asian women: Distinctive characteristics and policy concerns, in Asian Women in Migration, ed. G. Battistella and A. Paganoni, Scalabrini Migration Center, Quezon City (1996): 23-53. 30) (Dong-Hoon Seol et al, 2005, Foreign Wives Life in Korea: Focusing on the Policy of Welfare and Health, Gwacheon: Ministry of Health and Welfare (2005), 79-117 (In Korean)

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This is why the protective measures for newly-wed brides become feeble. Although we agree that language barrier as the first thing immigrants face in Korea, accessibility to support facilities such as migrant centers, civic organization, government organizations, information, integration policies etc. are almost impossible without the consent and support of the husband or the family members. Even though 70% of Nepalese brides intended to live by forming a family, only 20% (Case 2 and Case 6) found to be going well whereas the rest 70% ended prematurely. Case 7 is also at the verge of ending her marriage during the time of interview. In only one instance of Ms. T (Case 4), where the bride herself was found to be responsible for breaking up the marriage, all other marriages that ended prematurely the reasons lie on husband side. Not the least to mention, the case of Ms. Rm. (case 1) shows lapses in marriage process as she was already married before entering Korea and still able to maintain her status. The average age gap between a husband and a wife in Nepal is generally four years, where the husband is elder; in our study, the age factor did not seem to have any impact on their marriage despite the fact that the mean age gap was 10.9 years. In many cases, these spouses even did not know their mistakes due to language incompetency. For some brides living with older women appeared to be the problem, while many of them were happy to have their father-in-laws better than their husbands. None of the brides was found to be aware and known of existing migrant women support facilities around. We also observed dichotomy among the brides as those married with true intent to form a family in Korea failed to keep their marriage life up while those with fake marriage were found to be living happily. Four out of 10 married immigrants life turned out to be ill-fated, while one brides (Case 7) on the verge of collapse. The greatest surprise was that 3 of our interviewees paid a huge amount of money even to marry genuinely. More to this, some genuine marriages involved money while few fakes did not. All these findings support how desperate are these girls to leave their home country to avoid poverty. Apart from the brides who entered Korea in the form of labor migration, those with genuine intention were also burgled by the facilitators or their respective husbands. This is clearly an act of human trafficking. Major reasons behind the distraction of majority of these marriages were found to be wrong information, communication gap, lack of supportive facilities regarding assimilation process, family issues, weak protection measures etc. Many of those problems could have been avoided easily had there been an easy access to available supports and facilities

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during the early period of the marriage. We found several cases related to violence or verbal use occurred for which Nepalese brides contacted the persons or institutions was nothing but to make an escape. These girls are forced to stay illegally to avoid poverty back home and a possible social exclusion.31) To conclude, our findings among Nepalese brides may replicate the other Asian brides marriage life in Korea due to their similar socio-economic background. As found in our study that most of the brides live separately without being divorced formally with their husbands, the official divorce rate between a Korean male and a foreign spouse must be far more than what appears on the government paper. The surprising finding from cases 7 and 9 raises our eyebrow as the respondents felt like being a bondage labor. Since the issue is very individual and the number is small further research is needed to verify the authenticity of such claims. Government policies are also often found to be deeply rooted in patriarchal norms and focused on family making rather than individual acceptance. Delaying citizenship in cases of childless migrant women just because they have not been thoroughly adjusted yet is one example. Hence, the surge of foreign brides from Southeast Asian countries requires not only individual adaptation but also several economic, social, political, and cultural changes in dealing with their settlements in Korea.

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Appendix
Basic Information of the Respondents*
Case 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 No. 11 12 Name Ms. Rm. Ms. M Ms. Rn. Ms. T Ms. G Ms. N Ms. H Ms. K Ms. Rt. Ms. L Name Mr. R Ms. Ko Age 39 34 29 29 27 29 27 23 30 24 Age 33 48 Husbands Age 45 42 40 41 36 35 45 36 44 36 Profession (Middle man) (Agency owner) Socio-Economic background Low income Low income Low income Low income Middle class Low income Low income Low income Low income Low income Address (Incheon) (Seoul) Visa Status Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes No No No Paid? US$13,000 US$10,000 US$6000 Nationality Nepal Korean

Information about the brokers, who were also cross examined

*Considering their requests for privacy, the names of the respondents are disguised.

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