• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.67 no.2
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• pp.33-60
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to analyze the life experiences of fifteen marriage immigrant Asian women who went through running away from their home countries, marrying with Korean men, divorcing from their husbands, and coping with many difficulties after their divorce in Korean society. In order to conduct this study grounded theory methods have been employed. The central phenomenon digged out from this study was 'resistance to baffled reality' (i. e. dislocation). The causal conditions which brought about the central phenomenon were 'escaping for survival' and 'experiencing the gap between reality and expectation. 'The intervening conditions included 'getting to know the reality of their husbands,' 'losing hope,' and 'not being able to pull themselves together.' The contextual conditions consisted of 'being treated as maids,' 'becoming victims of family violence,' 'making up their minds to survive,' 'securing future life,' 'being marginalized,' and 'being aware of themselves as strangers.' The action/interaction strategies on the central phenomenon were 'building support systems,' 'building up will for new life,' and 'reconstructing social identity.'The final outcome was 'arranging places of new settlement.' The divorce was classified as four types: 'coping and growth,' 'emancipation and settling down,' 'being overwhelmed by livelihood,' and 'continuous wandering.' Based on these results, this study provided a few political and practice suggestions to prevent family violence and divorces among multi-cultural families, and also to bumper the impacts of divorce.