Community-based social service utilization of marriage migrants in Korea

Joan P. Yoo | Department of Social Welfare, Seoul National University

Hyemee Kim | Department of Social Welfare, Institute of Social Science Research, Incheon National University

Kwang-Hyun Han | Institute of Social Welfare, Seoul National University

ABSTRACT

While social services for marriage migrant women have proliferated in the past few years, research on the use of those services remains limited. This study examines factors associated with women’s use of multiple types of services, focusing on the effects of women’s country of origin. We use Gelberg– Andersen’s behavioral model for the theoretical framework and exploit the 2015 National Survey on Multicultural Families for analyses. The results from multi-group analyses reveal that Korean-Chinese, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Filipina women all used services in systematically different patterns, and that different factors were associated with service use depending on women’s country of origin. Implications for practice and policies are provided based on the findings.

KEYWORDS

Marriage migrant women; Country of origin; Social service use

The Social Science Journal, 57:1, 39-57, DOI: 10.1016/j.soscij.2019.03.012