Economic Integration or Segregation? Immigrant Women's Labor Market Entrance and Their Support Service Utilization in South Korea

This dissertation is comprised of three independent yet interconnected studies. The main objective of the three chapters was to examine the economic integration/segregation of immigrant wives in South Korea, with a particular focus placed on their entrance into the labor market and their utilization of immigrant support services. Possible reasons for immigrant wives’ relatively low position within the labor market compared to their native counterparts were examined based on a framework that encompasses human capital theory, dual labor market theory and statistical discrimination theory. Specifically, the first study identified underlying forces that contribute to the different employment outcomes between Korean and immigrant wives. Data from the National Survey on Multicultural Families and the Korean Labor and Income Panel Study, both conducted in 2009, were used to obtain information on immigrant and native Korean wives. A decomposition technique was used to assess the extent to which the gap between the two groups was attributable to discrimination. Focusing on the heavy concentration of immigrant wives in the informal-sector labor market, the second study documented some possible mechanisms assigning this group to such a bottom segment of the labor market. Specifically, the study paid attention to identifying the causes of different qualities of career positions between immigrant and native Korean women in the labor market. Finally, by utilizing Gelberg-Anersen’s behavioral model, the third study examined factors that determined immigrant wives’ support services use. A structural equation modeling method was used to examine possible differences in service utilization patterns depending on immigrant their employment status situations. Overall, the findings from the three studies suggest that immigrant wives have been incorporated into the Korean labor market in a segregated way. Immigrant wives appear to be employed predominantly in precarious jobs where their human capital credentials are not fully recognized. In line with statistical discrimination theory, employers’ preference to native Korean workers over immigrant wives seems to persist in the formal sector. Further, regarding immigrant support services, the cleavages that exist between the intended purposes and the actual usage patterns raise questions about the effectiveness of the services. This dissertation hopes to augment the relatively thin research on the economic integration of immigrant women in newly emerging immigrant destination countries, especially in the context of East Asia.Ph.D