The New Koreans: An Introduction

By Sangita Annamalai

 

Changing Population – publicbroadcasting [dot] net

 

 South Korea (here onwards to be synonymous with “Korea”) is well known for its rapid economic changes and technological advancements made within the past four decades. Simultaneously, South Korea’s population demographics have been changing equally as rapidly. As the corporate workforce increases, the amount of dual income couples increase, leading to the natural outcome of fewer children. This is not an unusual phenomenon and a lower birthrate in and of itself is not the concern; the issue lies in the rate of change. In 1960 South Korea’s fertility rate was above both China’s and Japan’s at an astounding 6.16 (China’s was 5.47 and Japan’s was at a direct replacement rate of 2.0). Since then South Korea has dropped to become the lowest of the three countries to 1.24 (last recorded in 2011).

World Bank Fertility Rate

This demographic change is in large part due to the modernization of Korea coinciding with more women leaving the countryside and moving into the cities to earn money. There have been resulting effects, one is an increasing aging population, and the other is an increasing unmarried population of men in the countryside.

Though currently Korea has the third youngest population in the world, by 2050 it is projected to have one of the oldest, surpassed only by Japan. But though Japan will have a large aging population as well, as seen by the graph above, it’s a fairly constant demographic. Korea’s rapidly changing demographic though, foreshadows a likely deceleration of economic growth.

So Korea is left with modern couples who want few kids, elder couples who had their kids and have reasonably decided not to have more, and single men outside of the city who want to have kids but don’t have women to procreate with. In efforts to stabilize the average population age of the country, South Korea pulled up their bootstraps and came up with a solution to address the latter population: mail order brides. According to population data, as of 2007, international marriages constitute 11% of the total amount of marriages in South Korea. This amount is 3.12 times the amount of international marriages accounted for in 2000. More specifically, the number of international marriages between Korean men and foreign women has increased approximately 4 times during that same span of time (as opposed to having a foreign man with a Korean woman). In 2006 it was determined that 41% of Korean fishermen and farmers married foreign women.

Most of these women come from lower socioeconomic statuses in Southeast Asia, set up by matchmakers with the promise of a better life. Though the goal is to solve the immediate issue of a decreasing fertility rate, it has opened up new issues regarding discrimination, financial instability, and social exclusion. Of the immigrant wives participating in a study conducted in 2006 by Gyongbuk Women’s Policy Development Institute, 82.9% reported having difficulty in either (or both) commanding or understanding the Korean language. These barriers prevent the migrant brides from being able to properly use cultural and social welfare facilities. The issues regarding this new population will be discussed in following posts, especially with regards to public health and healthcare access.

References:

1. Kim, H. R. “Maternal health and nutritional status of marriage-based women immigrants in Korea and policy directions.” Health Welf Policy Forum. Vol. 155. 2009.
2. Nho, Choong Rai, et al. “Trends of studies on Southeast Asian women married to Korean men.” East Asian Social Policy 5th Conference: Welfare Reform in East Asia, November. 2008.
3. Phillips, David R., ed. Ageing in the Asia-Pacific region: Issues, policies and future trends. Routledge, 2002.
4. Yang, Seung-Bum, Yongmo Lee, and Ador R. Torneo. “Political efficacy and political trust among marriage immigrants in South Korea.” Philippine Political Science Journal 33.2 (2012): 202-223.