Transnational Marriage as a Solution to a Double Marriage Squeeze?

Hyunok Lee, Cornell University
Lindy Williams, Cornell University
Florio O. Arguillas, Cornell University

This research analyzes conditions surrounding a marriage squeeze in South Korea and one in Vietnam in the context of rapid social change and persistent gendered cultural norms. It then provides evidence of increasing transnational marriage as one solution to uneven access to marriage partners. While we consider numerical imbalances in both countries, we assess them in conjunction with socio-economic factors such as education, occupation and place of residence because these factors are potentially important in marriage markets in the East Asian contexts of interest in this research. We examine Korean census data from 2000 and 2005 and Vietnamese census data from 1999. We then discuss ethnographic data that reveal some of the important processes underlying the recent growth in transnational marriage migration streams from Vietnam to Korea.