Domestic Violence Against Migrant Women in South Korea

Domestic Violence Against Migrant Women in South Korea

Part A: Statement of Issue

Description of Domestic Violence

Domestic violence is instigated by the desire of the abuser to exert power to gain control over their partner and can manifest itself in various forms. Physical abuse is the most acknowledged type of abuse, and can vary from a shove to a slap to a broken arm, black eye, or cut lip. It does not always leave scars or marks. Emotional abuse is an attack on one’s character instead of the body. If an individual is changing their behavior since they are scared of the reaction of their partner, she is being abused. Sexual abuse is when an individual uses threats or force to oblige their partner into having sex, or make her engage in sexual acts that she is not comfortable with. Financial abuse appears in numerous different forms, which include taking the money of a partner, preventing her from working, observing how they spend money, or placing debts or bills under her name.

In South Korea, domestic violence is a common problem. In particular, domestic violence against migrant women who use marriage to enter South Korea is an emerging social issue. Migrant women find themselves multifaceted socio-cultural settings that support numerous forms of oppression against them. The various forms of oppressions create difficulties when migrant women react to abusive scenarios more than that of Korean women who are native-born. However, on the basis of the intersectional model of oppression, experiencing increased types of oppression does not automatically develop extra hardships on an individual (Mullaly, 2010). Instead, the impact of oppression would be amplified in a person’s life when different types of oppression intersect with each other. Numerous sociocultural settings of the person have an impact on the numerous interactions of oppression (Mullay 2010). On that account, the subsequent paragraphs discuss the interaction of numerous types as they associate with migrant women in sociocultural settings in Korea.   

Globalization has enabled smoother border movement of migrants in comparison to the 1980s when the violence against migrant womengovernment endorsed the movement of rural bachelors so that they could get married (Han, 2007). Globalization has also facilitated the involvement of commercial marriage brokers in marriage migration. Since a large percentage of people from other counties in Asia move to Korea to seek better lives, ethnic, cultural, and, racial diversities cannot be avoided. As highlighted by the deployment of the Support for Multicultural Families Act, South Korea generally recognizes the importance of accepting and embracing diversity in the country. In spite of the social transformation to a multicultural society, the historical and cultural pride of maintaining a linguistically, culturally, and ethically homogenous country, namely, mono-culture and pureblood notion, is still prevalent in Korea (Han, 2007). The notion supports the ethnocentrism that puts migrant women in deeper positions of disadvantage in comparison to native Korean women who endure domestic violence in accessing economic and social support.

In addition, whereas researchers have highlighted the language barrier as a variable for immigrant victims of domestic violence in gaining access to services, the risk can be enhanced for migrant women due to Korea’s monocultural ideology (Han, 2007). The ideology develops the social belief that migrant women should learn the Korean language to enable them to live in the country.

Another cultural and historical value that affects the experiences of migrant women of oppression is Confucianism which places emphasis on patriarchal power and the hierarchy of chronological age. Obeying and respecting individuals older than oneself is a dominant cultural ideology in Korea. On average, migrant wives in Korea are 10 years younger than their husbands (Lee, 2008). In the nation’s cultural settings, the broad age difference indicates that a Korean husband is expected to have more power in regards to decision making, and the migrant woman is obliged to obey her husband. Additionally, the patriarchal power is also associated with gender oppression.  The patriarchal culture is based on the notion that a good wife is supposed to be obedient to the spouse (Shim and Hwang, 2005). With the involvement of commercial brokers in marriage, the impact of the patriarchal culture on the lives of migrant women could intensify as their Korean husbands usually believe that they possess the women since they purchased them. In addition, even though migration via marriages was endorsed to resolve Korea’s problem of low-birth rates, women might be forced to bear children against their will. Generally, the male-dominated culture makes it difficult hard for migrant women to exercise power over their personal rights.

Occurrence of Domestic Violence Against Migrant Women in South Korea

The rate of domestic violence against migrant women in South Korea indicates that the issue is a critical social issue in the country. Incidents of domestic violence attended to by the Emergency Support center for Migrant Women (ESMW) increased more than two-fold from 2007 to 2009 (from 1674 to 4025) (ESMW, 2010). Whereas a rise in reporting of domestic violence might highlight increased active use of the services by the abused, the real percentage of episodes among migrant women could be more when those who do not seek professional assistance are taken into account. In fact, survivors of immigrant domestic violence face linguistic, cultural, and social barriers n gaining access to social services. Additionally, a countrywide survey shows that migrant women endure different types of domestic violence under their Korean husbands. In the course of one year, the women recorded enduring different varieties of abuse including sexual abuse (23%), physical abuse (27%), verbal abuse (30%), throwing things (24%), threats of being struck (18%) (ESMW, 2010). In spite of the high prevalence and the cruelty of domestic violence against migrant women, researchers in the field of social work have paid minimal scholarly attention to how the domestic violence policies in South Korea reinforce these women.

Demographics of Migrant Women in Korea

In 2004, the number of inter-marriages between foreigners in Korea and Korean nationals surpassed 30,000. On aggregate, at least 75% of internal marriages in the course of five years from 2005 to 2010 were marriages between foreign women and Korean women (Statistics Korea, 2010). Most of these foreign spouses migrated from developing Asian nations like Cambodia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand, and China, in the effort to seek better socioeconomic conditions (Lee, 2009). These women are usually called migrant women of the international marriage (migrant women).

Response to Domestic Violence Against Migrant Women

Political

Korea’s rapid economic growth, unfortunately, not affected everybody in a similar manner, leaving many, in particular migrant women, to endure the despair of marginalization. The government, ware of this marginalization and in an effort to tackle it, adopted a domestic violence prevention through environmental design approach with the hope of decreasing violence and sex crimes against migrant women.

Economic

The government ensures the safety of migrant women living in low-income households situated invulnerable regions based on a collaboration with a private security company called ADT Caps, which deployed extra surveillance cameras, window shield, and infrared sensors in these regions. To lower the financial burden of the project, the state successfully induced ADT caps to make the investment, resulting in a decreased monthly fee for the targeted homes from $58 per household each month to just $9 per month.

Social

The Safer Neighborhoods for Women initiative solicits the input of diverse groups, including those typically marginalized in policymaking, like migrant women. The regions participating in this initiative have adopted a proactive approach to sexual violence, with citizens partnering with women’s organizations to highlight issues and facilitate educational programs. Such communal efforts are key to countering and preventing hidden forms of violence against migrant women, and create an environment whereby all members of the community are involved are involved in making their neighborhoods safe.

Part B: The Intervention

The Support for Multicultural Families Act (SMFA)

The protection of the victims of domestic violence and its prevention in multicultural are explicitly endorsed as the policy objectives of SMFA. Article 8, which is tiled Protection and Support for Victims of Domestic Violence has various provisions to reinforce migrant women. First, it states that the local and national governments should make efforts to mitigate family violence in families that are multicultural. Second, the local and national governments should strive to enhance domestic violence therapy and shelter services offered in foreign languages. Third, the local and national governments may facilitate services, which include administrative, legal, and interpretation assistance, to migrant victims who want to seek divorce because of domestic violence. The third designation is meant to prevent the victims from being in a position of disadvantage due to their lack of fluency in Korean language and restricted familiarity with the country’s policy and legal procedures.

Process of Intervention

The SMFA is a meaningful intervention since its represents an official recognition that domestic violence against migrant women is a hinderance to the promotion of diversity and integration in South Korea. Further, the SMFA tries to improve the adverse social environment affecting multicultural families. Such an endeavor is critical since social discrimination can highly impact the survival process of migrant victims of domestic violence. Lastly, Article 8 of the intervention policy acknowledges the need for multidimensional services among migrant victims.

In spite of these benefits, the SMFA has numerous key limitations in the protection it facilitates migrant victims of domestic violence. First, such victims cannot gain form the intervention’s safeties if they do not have a marital status that is legally recognized as the SMFA describes multicultural families in regards to legal ties. However, the Korean men who abuse migrant women use the immigrant status of the victim as leverage to threaten and control them (Mahoney et al., 2001). Abusive men have been known to deliberately delay registering migrant women as their spouses and have declined to sponsor them to become South Korean citizens (Byun et al., 2008). Therefore, the legal status perquisite in the SMFA may fundamentally box in migrant women in abusive scenarios since they are legally tied from seeking professional assistance until they acquire a legal status that is the basis of the support of their abusive spouses.

Second, even though Article 8 of the intervention facilitates guidelines for the State to help migrant victims of domestic abuse, they allow (instead of mandating) these actions and do not describe particular rights for the victims. Whereas the first and second provisions emphasize the State’s duty to defend migrant victims, they also permit broad discretion for state officials to select how and to what degree they will help the victims. The third provision of Article 8 allows the local and central governments to facilitate certain administrative, legal, and language services to migrant victims in the process of ending relationships that are abusive (Pyo, 2009). Since the State did not issue any specific guidelines for facilitating such services under Article 8, the quality of service may vary among local governments, on the basis of how service providers understand the underlying policy of the Act and the effort they are willing to put in. Despite these inherent weaknesses, the SMFA is a useful intervention and is a critical step towards protecting the rights of women in abusive relationships.

The Effectiveness of SMFA

The Korean’s government deployment of legal interventions to defend the migrant victims of domestic violence is reassuring. The Korean government has made constant legislative efforts to address the hardships migrant women encounter in handling domestic violence. Nonetheless, as the analysis of this paper has revealed, the current domestic violence intervention restricts the ability of migrant women to tackle domestic violence and also their self-development opportunities since most of the provisions in the policy do not enable the women to access the services that they need to sustain themselves. In other terms, the Korean government is adopting an incorporation-based strategy in tackling numerous types of abuse that migrant victims endure. Such a strategy, according to Dominelli (2002), makes some societal transformations to solve the issues the of the marginalized or to accept them into the conventional society. Nonetheless, such efforts are developed only to the degree to which the dominant members of a society can preserve their social structures. In addition, acceptance by the conventional society is dependent, extending only to the individuals who are willing to follow the prevalent culture and social order. Therefore, several aspects of the State’s intervention policy need to be improved to better safeguard migrant women.

Conclusion

The following paper has discussed the issue of domestic violence against migrant women in South Korea. Domestic violence is instigated by the desire of the abuser to exert power to gain control over their partner and can manifest itself in various forms like physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, and financial abuse. In South Korea, domestic violence is a common problem. In particular, domestic violence against migrant women who use marriage to enter South Korea is an emerging social issue. Migrant women find themselves multifaceted socio-cultural settings that support numerous forms of oppression against them. To help the migrant victims of abuse, the Korean government has deployed the SMFA, which is a meaningful intervention since its represents an official recognition that domestic violence against migrant women is a hinderance to the promotion of diversity and integration in South Korea. However, the intervention has inherent weaknesses which need to be improved to better protect the rights of migrant women.

References

Byun, W., Lee M., Kim, H., Hwang, J & Lee, S. (2008). Domestic Violence against Marriage Immigrants and Support Enhancements. Korean Women’s Development Institute, Seoul Korea.

Dominelli, L. (2002). Anti-Oppressive Social Work Theory and Practice. New York: Palgrave Macmillan

Emergency Support Center for Migrant Women (ESCMW). (2010). 2009 Annual Statistics Report. Available online at: http://www.wm1366.or.kr/

Han, G.S. (2007) ‘Multicultural Korea: Celebration or Challenge of Multiethnic Shift in Contemporary Korea?’, Korea Journal 47(4): 32–63

Lee, S.W. (2008). The Social Status and Legal Problem of Female Marital Immigrants in Korea. Seoul Law Review 16(1): 125–58

Mahoney, P., Williams, L.M.  & West C.M. (2001). ‘Violence against Women by Intimate Relationship Partners’, in Sourcebook on Violence Against Women, pp. 143–78. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Mullaly, B. (2010). Challenging Oppression: A Critical Social Work Approach, 2nd edn. Toronto: Oxford University Press Canada.

Pyo, M. H (2009). Examination of How the State Protects Migrant Women in Korea: Discussion on Laws. Public Law 10(3): 97–120.

Shim, W. and M.J. Hwang. (2005). ‘Implications of an Arrest in Domestic Violence Cases: Learning from Korean Social Workers’ Experiences in the U.S.’ Journal of Family Violence 20(5): 313–28

Statistics Korea. (2010). Population Change: Marriage. Available online at: http://kostat.go.kr/