Mobility constraints and strategies of marriage migrant women in Korea

Keywords: transportation, capability approach, gendered mobility, marriage migration
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 11:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 12:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 42

Abstract

Marriage migrant women in Korea are a distinct minority group embedded with racialized, classed and gendered conditions. Since the 1990s, Korea has been at the “receiving-end” of transnational migration in Asia. (Massey, 1994) Increasing outmigration from neighboring Asian countries and influx of migrants, laborers, and refugees into Korea reflects the changing landscape of power hierarchies in global and local scale. Coupled with such a phenomenon, feminization of migration has become a visible trend in transnational migration. In this context, many marriage migrants move to mono-racial rural areas to live in low-income and auto-deficit households.

My research focuses on the daily mobilities of marriage migrant women through semi-structured interviews with 23 women who entered Korea with F-6 (marriage migrant) visas, in Gongju-si, Chungchungnam-do. Drawing on Sen’s capability approach, I examine how confluence of social factors (gender, maternity, practice of mothering) and environmental factors (highways, intra-city bus, local bus) lead to spatial and temporal mobility constraints for these marriage migrants situated in rural Korea.

My findings show why future transportation planning should consider intertwined conditions of mobilities constraints in boosting access to opportunity within neighborhoods. To promote access, planners may not only consider how to provide the infrastructure and resources, but also how to recognize individual travel needs of people and properly empower their capability.