Foreign brides rejuvenate South Korea's aging society

Oct 28, 2009, 15:23 GMT

Seoul - Foreign brides are replacing local women as a major source of vitality in South Korea's greying rural communities, helping to rebuild rural family bonds by providing babies and farm labour and participating in community activities.

   Lured by the prospect of a higher standard of living, brides recruited from other Asian countries are becoming commonplace in the South Korean countryside.

   In rural communities, which once prided themselves on their homogeneity, four in every 10 women married in 2008 were foreign- born, according to data from the Ministry of Public Administration and Security.

   In small towns with average ages in the 50s or above, many old farm houses are abandoned or under-utilized by elderly residents after their adult children have left for jobs in the cities.

   The farm house of Han Jun-Hee, 44, is a good example. Han said the house used to be a place of 'sighs and silence' before his Thai bride arrived in 2002.

Now, the couple's three daughters play in the garden, and wife Onnoi, 36, helps work the family rice paddy. She even takes care of Han's aging parents and works as an English interpreter at a local community centre.

   'I cannot imagine our family without her,' Han said. 'She gave us a new family. She helps me with the rice harvest. She is a good mother. She is a good daughter-in-law.'

   Onnoi had to work hard to fit in.

'You have no idea how lonely and hard it was when I first started my life here,' she said. 'I didn't understand what the other family members were saying. I was scared about everything that is different here.'

   Cultural differences often deepen the homesickness felt by the foreign brides.

'I weep secretly when I think of my parents at home and miss them,' said a 25-year-old Vietnamese bride who married a South Korean farmer last year.

   The passage of time may ease the homesickness as the young women adapt to their roles as wife and mother.

   But some of the marriages, especially those undertaken out of necessity rather of romance, can end with runaway brides after the women discover a huge gap between their fantasies and the reality of life on South Korean farms.

   A 2008 survey by the Korea Institute of Health and Society showed that 28 per cent of foreign brides experience verbal abuse from their Korean spouses. Twenty-five per cent feel physically threatened by spouses.

   Some foreign brides have even been locked into their houses to keep them from running away. Suicides among foreign brides have been reported.

   Divorces among these mixed-marriage couples increased from 4,171 in 2003 to 11,225 in 2008. In 2008 there were 36,204 marriages registered between South Koreans and foreign-born spouses, according to South Korea's Statistics Office.

   The offspring of mixed marriages often suffer for being different. Many of these children have a harder time with the Korean language and are subjected to teasing or bullying by peers.

   As of the end of 2008, there were 167,090 marriages between South Korean and foreign-born spouses, and those unions have produced more than 100,000 babies over the years, according to the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. At least 25,000 of those children have reached school age.

   Foreign wives are emerging from the pain of loneliness and prejudice by forging networks among themselves. Across the country are dozens of inter-cultural family centres, where foreign brides get counseling on family welfare, learn about Korean culture and take part in community services.

   At the centres, the foreign brides work as interpreters to help recent arrivals adapt to their own new lives.

   Some of the foreign mothers are preparing to teach English at community centres or schools.

   A 35-year-old Philippine-born woman, mother of a 10-year-old son, is one of 13 foreign brides attending classes to become English teachers at primary school in the Korea Arts and Culture Education Service.

   'I want to teach English at primary school, where my son is learning,' said the woman, who asked not to be named. 'I'd like my son to be proud of his mom when I teach his class.'

   The state-run Korean National Tourism Organization provides a medical tourism class for 18 brides from China, Japan, Thailand and the Philippines so they can work for local government or medical clinics or travel agents.

   'If we have more Asian brides, we may have more of an international mix, or third culture, that is partly Korean and partly Thai or Vietnam or Philippine,' said Park Dae-Sik, a researcher for the Korea Rural Economic Institute.