Social participation and support network patterns among marriage migrants in South Korea: Does place of residence matter?

Abstract

Using the case of female marriage migrants in South Korea, one new immigrant destination hosting the majority of East Asia’s marriage migrants, this article examines the associations between social participation, place of residence, and support network patterns among the six largest migrant groups ( n = 64,972): ethnic Koreans (Korean Chinese) born in China, Vietnamese, Han Chinese from China, and those from the Philippines, Japan, and Cambodia. The results show that both participation in community meetings and membership in non-governmental organizations are significantly associated with more types of Korean support networks and co-ethnic support networks, after controlling for demographics, immigrant characteristics, marital status, health status, perceived discrimination, and ethnicity or country of origin. Using Seoul City as a reference location, those who lived in Jeolla Province were less likely to have support networks composed of Koreans yet were more likely to have support networks of co-ethnics, after holding all other covariates constant. With the identification of significant interactions between marriage migrants’ place of residence and ethnicity, stratified ordered logistic models demonstrate how place of residence matters for marriage migrants of certain ethnicities or countries of origin. In conclusion, this article demonstrates the importance and the benefits of social participation for marriage migrants as a pathway to building support networks of local people and co-ethnics.