Marital dissolution of transnational couples in South Korea

Abstract

This study examines the risk of transnational divorce in Korea using marriage and divorce registration data between 2010 and 2014 from Statistics Korea. We raise two research questions. First, how does risk of marital dissolution differ by type of marriage? Second, how do the socio-demographic factors of a transnational couple affect the probability of divorce? We find that transnational marriage has an extremely high risk of divorce within the first 48 months of marriage. About 19% of marriages between a Korean husband and a foreign wife were dissolved, while only 6% of marriages between Korean nationals ended within 48 months. Both Chinese husbands and wives have the highest risk of divorce, and foreign women from Southeast Asian countries also have a substantially high risk of divorce. Another important finding is that less educated foreign wives have a significantly higher probability of divorce than foreign wives with higher education. Lastly, acquisition of citizenship lowers the risk of divorce for foreign spouses. Given the increasing number of transnational couples in Korea, this study presents the actual risk of divorce according to marriage duration for the first time and provides the most complete description of transnational marital dissolution thus far.