Who Likes Globalization? Attitudes towards International Markets, Migration, and Marriage in Four East Asian Countries

Abstract

People and countries have been affected differently by globalization. Mainly based on a stratification perspective, this paper examines if differences in class and socio-economic status may explain variations of attitudes toward globalization at both country and individual levels. Using the East Asian Social Survey conducted in 2008, the paper examines public opinions toward globalization in China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. The author finds that people have opposite reactions between economic and social globalization. East Asian countries have benefitted from trade and investment liberalization and the people have positive attitudes toward economic globalization. At the individual level, class and socio-economic factors affect the attitudes toward international marriage and foreign workers controlling for foreign contacts and travelling experiences. The working class is against increasing the number of migrant workers and people with higher educational credentials do not support any more foreign spouses. I discuss why East Asians seem to be economically open but socially conservative in the last part of the paper.