Save Living Expenses and Avoid Fellow Koreans... Controversy Over Bride Education Guidelines by International Marriage Agencies

Netizens Criticize Gender-Discriminatory Educational Content
Company Says "It Was Education to Help Live Well"

Couple photoshoot of bride and groom unrelated to the article content
[Photo by Pixabay]

Although international marriages have been increasing every year, there are also considerable side effects, making it urgent to establish social measures to address them. Recently, a controversy over gender discrimination has arisen regarding the 'bride education' guidelines disclosed by a company that arranges international marriages for foreign women. This is referred to as a modern version of the "Seven Grounds for Divorce." The Seven Grounds for Divorce is a system derived from Confucian ideology during the Joseon Dynasty, listing seven reasons for expelling a wife.

A post containing foreign bride education guidelines recently created by a Vietnamese international marriage agency was shared on social media platforms such as X (formerly Twitter) and various online communities on the 30th. The post, titled "Dormitory Education in Progress," was uploaded by an employee on the agency's community on the 24th.

The post explained seven topics covered in the education for Vietnamese brides. Specifically, in addition to basic legal procedures such as "guidance on marriage registration documents," it listed items like "Do not lie," "Save on living expenses," "Do not use smartphones excessively," "Keep away from Vietnamese people in Korea," and "When in Korea, trust only your husband; your husband is the best."

The agency also introduced the "strengths and weaknesses" of Vietnamese women in the announcement. The strengths emphasized appearance, such as "Many women have long straight hair, are pretty, and have good figures," and "Surprisingly, many have fair skin." On the other hand, the weaknesses included baseless claims such as "Strong-willed and obedient women are rare," "They do not reveal their true feelings and stab you in the back," and "Once married, the husband controls everything."

The article introduced seven topics covered in the education program for Vietnamese brides. [Photo by Online Community]

Most netizens who saw this criticized the content as sexist and misogynistic, calling it an "abnormal marriage," and commented, "Are they saying to cut off hometown connections and stay only by the husband's side?", "It sounds like a religious doctrine," and "It's a disgrace to our country." One netizen even sharply criticized it as a "regressive and abnormal transactional marriage."

As the controversy spread, the agency explained regarding the education topics, "The bride and groom are getting along well, but we just informed them that it could be bad if they fall for the bad temptations of some Vietnamese people," adding, "We talked about it as part of education so that the couple can live well. People raise issues because they do not know much about international marriage and have a negative perception," to Hankook Ilbo.

About 1 in 10 Married Couples Are Multicultural Couples

According to the '2022 Multicultural Population Dynamics Statistics' released by Statistics Korea last year, multicultural marriages in 2022 numbered 17,428, an increase of 3,502 cases (25.1%) compared to the previous year. This is the largest increase since related statistics began to be compiled in 2008. The proportion of multicultural marriages among all marriages also rose from 7.2% to 9.1%. This means that about 1 in 10 married couples is a multicultural couple.

The age group of Korean husbands in multicultural marriages was highest among those aged 45 and older at 31.2%, followed by early 30s (19.3%) and late 30s (17.1%). The age gap between spouses was largest for couples where the husband was 10 years or older than the wife, accounting for 35.0%. Among foreign wives, Vietnamese nationality was the most common at 23.0%, followed by Chinese (17.8%) and Thai (11.1%). Among them, it was found that foreign women who migrated to Korea on the premise of marrying Korean men experienced depression at twice the rate of Korean women.

The 'Women's Health Statistics 2023' published by the National Institute of Health under the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency on the 1st showed that in 2021, the rate of depressive symptoms among marriage immigrant women was 27.4%, about twice as high as that of Korean women (14.1%).

By country of origin, women from the Philippines had the highest rate of depression experience at 31.5%, followed by Thailand at 30.2%, Cambodia at 30.1%, China at 27.9%, Vietnam at 25.9%, Japan at 23.6%, and ethnic Koreans in China at 23.3%. Additionally, the lower the income, the higher the rate of depression experience. Among marriage immigrant women with a monthly household income below 2 million KRW, 37.9% reported experiencing depressive symptoms. For those with monthly incomes of 2 to 2.99 million KRW, it was 29.3%; 3 to 3.99 million KRW, 26.4%; 4 to 4.99 million KRW, 24.0%; and 5 million KRW or more, 22.5%.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.