While I do not have a lot of outside knowledge on migration, I do know that one feature of migration results in multicultural and multiethnic marriages. Outside of Central Asia, one region I know well is that of the Korean Peninsula. One similarity between South Korea and Russia is that they are both going through a birthrate crisis. In Russia, the birthrate
In South Korea, the high cost of education and lack of resources for mothers has led to a large increase in the marriage age along with a decrease in women who are willing to have children. Particularly, many Korean men from rural areas have trouble finding a wife due to women going to the cities for education. Given this, rural Korean men have been relying on the migration of women from South East Asia to fill the gap. However, while these interracial marriages have had its benefits, specifically with helping the birthrate, many of these Southeast Asian women are extremely vulnerable, and often end up marrying for economic and migration security. Because of this vulnerability, Southeast Asian women are often subject to domestic abuse, are looked down upon by their in-laws because they are not Korean and have a darker complextion.
Similarly, in Russia, multicultural marriages have increased between Central Asians and Russian people. Russia has also been struggling with fixing their declining birthrate, so these marriages have proved vital for helping to boost the birthrate a little bit. According to the Chicago Tribune, interethnic marriages make up 22% of all Russian marriages. Interestingly, unlike in Korea, it seems there is a high proportion of Russian women dating foreign men. One of the main reasons for this is that many Central Asian men, being muslim, do not drink alcohol. Given that many Russian men, unfortunately, become alcoholics, this makes Russian women very open to pursuing relationships with Central Asian men.
According to De Hass, interAsian migration has become popular since the 1990s, and many of the receiver countries have very low fertility rates. For example, not only South Korea and Russia, but Japan and China too. However, many regard these foreign mothers as a threat to national identity and racial pride (De Hass, 182).
Both countries have become increasingly troubled over multiethnic marriage. Korea and Russia, both being homogeneous countries, are seeing their population become more diverse. Both have a huge fear of becoming the minority, especially because Southeast Asian and Central Asian people tend to have larger families than Korean and Russian ones. In addition, Korea and Russia are both Christian nations, while many of the migrants from Central Asia and some from Southeast Asia come from Muslim backgrounds, which diversifies the population.
Below is a short clip showing the cultural differences between a South Korean man and a woman from the Philippines.
Bibliography:
Santana, Rebecca. “Interethnic Marriage Is on the Rise in Russia.” Chicagotribune.com, 4 Sept. 2018, www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2003-08-29-0308280428-story.html.
Haas, Hein de, et al. The Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the Modern World. Red Globe Press, 2020.
Veronica, I think it’s great that you focused on marriage as it relates to migration. It’s especially relevant as differences is gender populations have widened in Asia. I especially enjoyed reading your point about Russian women marrying Central Asian men. I think the Aljazeera video is a nice touch.
I found your post very interesting because it touches on a subject that is very sensitive for ethnically homogeneous nations that are proud of their dominant culture. As gender roles change and the highly-skilled leave in search of better opportunities, it becomes harder to find a spouse and start a family so people have to look abroad to solve birthrate problems. Something you mentioned that I hadn’t thought much about before is that Russian women are becoming more interested in pursing relationships with Central Asian men because of their cultural values, and these relationships make up almost 25% of all marriages in Russia. Thanks for the informative post!
The hardship in finding a wife comes partly from South Korea’s gender imbalance, due to son preference. Here’s the population pyramid https://www.populationpyramid.net/republic-of-korea/2020/ where we note that there are fewer women in every age cohort under 50. I assure you that this does not result from nature. The imbalance is not quite as extreme as what is seen in People’s Republic of China or India, but is pronounced.
The migration for marriage phenomenon is interesting, and it happens in other countries as well. The comparisons may be hard to make, though. For South Koreans, interethnic marriage almost inherently means that one spouse must be an immigrant, while Russia is a very multi-ethnic country, so it shouldn’t be assumed that most of those inter-ethnic and interracial marriages involve migration.
Interesting post!