The recent increase of international marriage in Korea is accelerating into multicultural society. Since most of women marriage immigrants are living on low-income families, they’re suffering from economic problems. This would impair their settlement into Korean society. Therefore the government should support their employment and their economic independence.
The aims of this study are to analyze the economic activities of women marriage immigrants in Korea and to develop the policies of their employment. Research methodologies used in the study include data analysis, and in-depth interviews with women marriage immigrants who are working or worked before.
The findings of data analysis using national survey data on the status of multicultural families are as follows. First, the rate of economic activities of women marriage immigrants is 36.9%. And they are mainly working in three occupations. The highest rate is 32.5% in service workers, 12.4% in professionals and associate professionals, 17.0% in elementary occupations.
Second, their human capital influence the employability and the quality of employment. The higher age-level, education-level, Korean language-level are, the higher are the employment rate and the working income. And it also affect the employment rate and the working income whether they had got the job experience in their home countries.
Third, the jobs of workers of women marriage immigrants include four types; society-participating jobs and priority -employing jobs by public sector, life-serving jobs and market-integrating jobs by private sector. Life-serving jobs have characteristics of long-time working and elementary-skilled and hard work. Society-participating jobs have characteristics of relatively short-time working and low income, while priority-employing jobs have the conditions of relatively high income and good working environment, but short-term employment. And finally, life-serving jobs have characteristics of relatively high income and high skilled job.
The government needs to set up the plans to support the employment of women marriage immigrants in Korea. Policies should be developed to find ways for the women marriage immigrants to fully make use of their human capital like mother language and culture. Several plans are suggested in this study. First, the infrastructure of their employment should be established. Second, the jobs by public sectors should be created. Third, the jobs connected into private sectors should be developed. Fourth, the jobs for low income families and farm areas of women marriage immigrants should be created. Fifth, the infrastructure of human capital development on women marriage immigrants should be established. Sixth, the business start-up programs are needed.
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