Despite a wide age and academic gap, over half of foreign spouses married to Koreans showed relatively high satisfaction with their lives here, according to survey results released yesterday.
The Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs surveyed about 131,000 foreign spouses between July and October last year, in what was the widest-ranging government-run survey of marriage immigrants ever conducted.
Of the total 167,090 marriage immigrants here as of May last year, those married to naturalized Koreans or foreign nationals were excluded from the survey, the ministry said.
The response rate to the questionnaire was 60 per cent.
According to the survey, ethnic Koreans from China accounted for the largest, 30.4 per cent, followed by Han Chinese with 27.3 per cent, Vietnamese with 19.5 per cent, Filipino with 6.6 per cent, and Japanese with 4.1 per cent. And nearly 90 per cent of them were female.
Most of them lived in bigger cities, with 51.9 per cent living in Seoul and the surrounding area.
Reflecting a recent surge in international marriage, 81.8 per cent of foreign spouses came to Korea since 2000, with 54 per cent entering since 2005.
The survey showed that there was an average 10-year age gap between foreign wives and Korean husbands, while the gap between foreign husbands and Korean wives was less than 2 years.
The age gap was more apparent especially with Cambodian and Vietnamese wives with 17.5 and 17 years, respectively.
There was also a huge gap in the educational background between foreign wives and Korean husbands. Half of the wives had not completed elementary level education, while their Korean spouses were mostly high-school graduates.
Foreign spouses expressed overall satisfaction with their life in Korea, with 57 per cent of the wives and 53.8 per cent of the husbands showing high contentment. The proportion who had complaints was 6.7 per cent in women and 8.3 per cent in men.
While those from North America, Australia, West Europe, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam showed higher satisfaction, Japanese spouses exposed the least satisfaction about their lives here.
About their marriage life, the satisfaction rate was 74.8 per cent with their Korean spouses, 88.1 per cent with kids and 64.8 per cent with the relationship with their family-in-laws.
The figures were higher than those of Koreans. In a social statistics survey conducted in 2008, the rate of Koreans was 65.7 per cent with their spouses, 72.7 per cent with kids and 52.4 per cent with family-in-laws.
When asked if they would recommend marriage with Koreans to family members in their home country, 46.2 per cent of foreign wives and 54.5 per cent of foreign husbands responded positively.
Experts said, however, their higher-than-expected satisfaction originates more from their personal feelings, rather than specific changes in social support recently.
"The concerns that they had when they decided to get married to Korean spouses could have been eased during the years of their marriage life here," said Kwon Yong-hyun, director general of family affairs at the Health Ministry.
"Considering the overall results of the survey, however, their financial struggles and social discrimination against them were still the same," he added, saying that the government will seek more measures to support them.
According to the survey, nearly 60 per cent of the multicultural families surveyed were struggling financially, earning less than 2 million won ($1,700) per month. The percentage of high-income families pulling in more than 5 million won was 2.1 per cent.
The average monthly income of Korean households was 3.3 million won last year, the Health Ministry said.
Regarding discrimination, 34.8 per cent of foreign wives and 52.8 per cent of foreign husbands said they had been discriminated against. Experts said that because males are involved in more social activities, they may have more opportunities to experience prejudice.
In the survey, the employment rate of foreign husbands was 74 per cent, almost double the 37 per cent foreign wives who had jobs.
For difficulties in their lives here, foreign wives pointed out the language problem (22.5 per cent) is the most urgent issue, followed by economics with 21.2 per cent, and child education with 14.2 per cent. Foreign husbands cited economics (29.5 per cent), along with language problems (13.6 per cent).
The Health Ministry plans to conduct the survey every three years, aimed at setting up realistic measures to support multicultural families.
The survey booklet, containing some 100 questions, is offered in 10 foreign languages.
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