A Qualitative Study of Symbolic Capital and Distinction-Making among Marriage Migrant Women in Korea

Abstract

Marriage migrant women have become the representative symbol and group of multiculturalism in Korean society. This paper aims to show the ways in which symbolic capital is hierarchized by reviewing personal characteristics of marriage migrant women in Korea from the perspective of ‘symbolicity’ rather than ‘individuality’. The ‘symbolic capital’ of marriage migrant women is divided into language, skin color, marriage path, economic status of the country of their origin, among which the economic status of the country of origin was found the most powerful one. Furthermore, the hierarchical symbolic capital caused distinctions such as ‘symbolic violence of homogenization’ and ‘fixation of the hierarchy of division’. In other words, this study argued that prejudice and discrimination against marriage migrant women have been promoted by the ‘distinction’ from them, along with the distinction among them, amplifying the complex discrimination structure in Korean society.