South Korea in the Embrace of Multiculturalism: Identifying Women Immigrant’s Major Problems and Strategies of Sociocultural Adaptation

CEESOK Journal of Korean Studies. 2016. No. 16.

Ким Н. Н.

This research focuses on current problems of sociocultural adaptation facing women immigrants in South Korean society. The goal of the present study is to investigate, through the lens of acculturation theory, the major problems in sociocultural adaptation facing women immigrants married to Korean nationals, and to define the strategies they use for coping with the problems involved in cultural adjustment. Statistical data and analytical reports were used to determine the issues and factors influencing the choice of acculturation strategies for women marriage immigrants during their process of psychological and sociocultural adaptation to the host culture. The preliminary results of the research showed that the choice of acculturation strategy is strongly dependent both on ethnic origin and educational background of marriage immigrants. The integration strategy is mainly practiced by the marriage immigrants of European origins with high professional qualifications while the immigrants with low educational background from Southeast Asia have to be either assimilated to better adjust to a new social environment or else face being marginalized. In any case, a smooth integration and acculturation of marriage immigrants is significantly hampered by the existing racial prejudices towards foreigners in South Korea, which is yet cannot be called a multicultural society.

Ключевые слова: multiculturalism, South Korea, labor migration, gender issues, adaptation of migrants