[ARI Working Paper Seires No. 14]



The Meaning of Transnational Space in Local Community: 

The Experience of Marriage-Migrant Women in Korea 



by Hwang Jung Mee

(Research Professor, Asiatic Research Institute)

Notes on Contributor

Hwang Jung Mee is a Research Professor of Asiatic Research Institute(ARI) at Korea University. Professor Hwang received her Ph. D. from Seoul National University and was a researcher of Institute for Gender Research at SNU, a research fellow at KWDI(Korea Women’s Development Institute). Her recent works include ‘Feminization of Migration and Marriage Migration in Korea: A Theoretical Inquiry’(2009), ‘A Study on Local Community Participation of Immigrants and Supporting Policies for Integration in Korea’(2009), ‘Korean’s Attitude toward Multicultural Society and Ethnic Minorities(2007)’. She also coauthored Asian Women Across the Borders(2009), and Issues and Prospects in Korean Gender Policy(2005).

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Abstract

Marriage-migrant women and their families are now subject to increasing attention in academia and policy circles. If previous research emphasizes the role of these women as wives, mothers, and daughters-in law in Korean families, it is worth exploring the transnational dimensions of their everyday life that are not overtly expressed. Notwithstanding that transnationalism is one of the booming concepts among migration, transnational aspects of marriage migration have rarely been analyzed or discussed. Based on in-depth interviews with 30 migrant women, I analyze explicit and implicit aspects of transnational practice and their potential in the local community context. These interviews show that many women have emotional ties and continuous affections with the country of origin after migration. Most of these women usually take part in social gatherings with other migrant women. Interestingly, many of them maintain close friendships with women from not only their own country but also different countries. Moreover, informal meetings of migrant women to eat and chat together are sometimes transformed into more intentional groupings with a common purpose. There are interesting examples of some migrant women with stable jobs and financial resources taking important roles, for example, providing values and aims of their meeting, recruiting members suitable to their purpose, and mobilizing financial resources and support from Korean civil society. There should be additional analysis to determine whether the instances of transnational practice observed in this study will further expand or decline in the future, and if they expand, what impact this would have on the lives of migrant women.