• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.268-282
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• 2012

International marriage migrants from developing to developed countries are to seek a better economic condition. There are only a few empirical research on comparing and analyzing economic condition of marriage migrants before and after marriage. This study attempted to analyze the relationship between the cognition on the change of economic condition before and after marriage and the socio-economic characteristics of Vietnamese international marriage female migrants. About 80% of interviewees of this study were motivated to marry Korean men for economic reasons; however, their household economic level was relatively low. Reflecting the household economic level, about half the Vietnamese women considered that there was very little difference in the economic condition before and after marriage; while, the percent of women considering the current economic condition as getting better were more than 4 times of that of women considering as becoming worse. The cognition on the economic condition change before and after marriage was positively correlated with the level of education attainment of husbands and themselves, the Korean language ability, state of occupation in Korea, the level of husband's income, involvement of management of living expenses and length of residence in Korea. The occupation in Vietnam and the state of remittance were not significantly related to the cognition on the economic condition change before and after marriage. Vietnamese marriage female migrants were highly motivated to have a job out of home to improve the economic condition of their own family and natal family. Concreted alternative programs should be made to help those women to work out of home.