Everyday Practices of Belonging: Japanese Migrant Wives in Korean Society

Abstract

Multiculturalism is a ubiquitous word in Korean society today. Because of increasing foreign workers and marriage-based migrant wives, Korean society seems to be transforming from mono-cultural to multi-cultural. A number of scholarly articles and newspaper reports, however, have described the actual situation negatively. For example, many of the migrant wives, especially from Southeast countries who arrive through marriage brokers are forced to be assimilated to Korean society. In this paper I first present how the migrant wives and the idea of assimilation have been discussed in Korea. Then, I look at the migrant wives from Japan because of their position situated between wives from Western countries and wives from Southeast Asia. I focus on three situations of their everyday practices: job searching, roles as a daughter-in-law (며느리), and raising a child or children in Korea. Through these everyday practices, I analyze how these Japanese wives respond to the pressure to be assimilated and how they act in the new society. Assimilation, when mentioned in reference to the foreign wives situations in Korea, often does not mean being assimilated to Korean society. For the husbands and parents-in-law of migrant wives, assimilation often means behaving like an obedient wife or at least the way that they imagine an "ordinary" Korean woman to behave after marriage. On the other hand, Japanese wives do not have the same expectation of assimilation. Because Japanese society has or used to have similar expectations for married women, the gender-biased practices are not preferable, but are still acceptable. The situation changes for the Japanese wives when they have a child. A child or children make them a member of Korean society because of increasing opportunities to interact with Korean people. At the same time, the position as a mother changes them to be independent from Korean society because they think that they are the only source of Japanese culture for the child or children. The everyday practices of Japanese wives show the strong influence of their original, Japanese culture. The similarly gender-biased ideas allow them not to be assimilated to Korean society.