서강대학교

초록/요약

The life of marriage migrants and their families is largely determined by a number of factors that depend on both the country of origin and destination. These connections have a significant influence both on the lives of the migrants and on the members of their extended families as well. Nowadays, due to the advanced communication means, transnational family networks extended their breadth, and this occurs not only in the form of remittances and chain migration, but also as emotional, cultural and informational exchange. This research studies how transnational family networks of Russian-speaking marriage migrants in Korea form, develop, and vary from each other. Furthermore, the reasons for the diversity of each family group within this study are presented. For that comparison, Russian-speaking women are divided into two groups of women from Central Asian and East Slavic countries. In this study, the impact of the transnational family networks on the everyday lives of marriage migrant women, their family relationships, and the raising of their children is studied. It analyzes the important factors of transnational family networks, such as the movement of family members in connection to the raising of children and future plans to remigrate. This study showed many determining results. Transnational family networks are maintained through constant phone, video calls, and mutual visits, as well as through remittances and chain migration. The tendency for financial help of Central Asian women to their integrated families is more prominent than those of East Slavic countries. The latter do not support their families back home; moreover, in a few cases, they received financial support from their parents. The desire of remigration to a third country is a unique aspect of Russian-speaking wives in Korea. Another uniqueness of transnational networks of Russian-speaking wives is the huge Internet community that has developed and allows the wives to find answers to any questions that arise. Furthermore, different forms of chain migration, such as labor and marriage, are also carried out through the Internet community. This study not only provided more breadth to the research on Russian-speaking female marriage migrants, but also helps to bring clarity to the peculiarities of integrating multinational families into Korean society. In addition, this research further added to current studies on Korean society by looking at how former Soviet Union marriage migrants fit into Korean society and had to adjust from the norms of their home countries.