Using the Multicultural Family Support Centers and Adjustment among Interethnic and Interracial Families in South Korea

The present study proposes a model of using the Multicultural Family Support Centers and adjustment among foreign brides and their interethnicand interracial families in South Korea based on the narratives of 10 foreign brides married to Korean men and 11 service providers who directly interact with these women and their families. The results illustrate how programs offered through Multicultural Family Support Centers serve as a bridge for these families to pass through mistrust and conflict to reach a point of intimacy and unity as a family. Recommendations for the Multicultural Family Support Centers are made.Key Words: foreign brides, interethnic marriage, multicultural family in Korea, multicultural family support centerThe ethnic makeup of South Korean families, which remained mostly homogeneous throughout history, has begun to be transformed over the last two decades. Since the late 1990s, a growing number of women from Asian and other countries have migrated to South Korea through arranged marriages as foreign brides of Korean men. Subsequently, the number of interethnic and interracial marriages in South Korea jumped from 619 in 1990 to 36,204 in 2008 (e-National Indicators, n.d.), comprising more than 1 1% of the total marriages in 2008. As of 2009, there were approximately 1 67,090 interethnic or interracial families, and it is estimated that 75% of these families consist of Korean husbands and brides from other countries Kim, Yang, & Lee, 2009). The growing presence of foreign brides and thus interethnic and interracial families in South Korea has kindled scholarly interest in understanding how they are doing (e.g., Chung & Lim, 2011). In general, research has identified various problems that they experience, such as cultural differences (Koo, 2007), marital conflict (Kim, Yoo, Lee, & Chung, 2006), and tension between foreign brides and their in-laws (Kang, 1999). One study of foreign brides in Seoul (Jang & Lee, 2009) found that 20% of these women have considered divorce but did not because of their children or lack of economic resources. Twenty-one percent in the study reported that their husbands had used physical violence or control tactics against them, whereas 67% indicated that they experienced relationship difficulties with their husbands' parents.In response to these reports on the problems that arise in interethnic and interracial families, South Korea enacted the Multicultural Family Support Act in 2008 with a goal of providing free services and programs to meet the needs of foreign brides and interethnic and interracial families more systematically. Such a systematic policy effort is notable given that other countries with a longer history of immigration (e.g., the United States) do not provide programs or set up centers for foreign wives through policy. The enactment of this act led to the burgeoning of over 170 Multicultural Family Support Centers nationwide. Prior to 2008, various local community centers had offered Korean language classes and childrearing support, although it was not common until around 2000 to find a community center that provided such services. According to the 2010 Guide for Multicultural Family Support Centers (Ministry of Health & Welfare, 2010), mandatory services that these centers are required to provide include Korean language classes, job training, counseling, support groups, family life education, and courses designed to learn about legal, economic, and social systems in Korea at no or minimal cost. Each center can also select one or more specialized programs to offer among language classes for children of interethnic and interracial families, child-care service for center participants, mentoring and volunteer program, community networking, and translation service. If we include other nonprofit community organizations that offer one or more of these services to interethnic and interracial families as part of their larger program, there are more than 700 such centers across the nation (Kim et al. …