DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND HELP-SEEKING BEHAVIOR AMONG VIETNAMESE
WIVES IN KOREA
By
Suyeon Park

A DISSERTATION
Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
2011

ABSTRACT
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND HELP-SEEKING BEHAVIOR AMONG VIETNAMESE
WIVES IN KOREA
By
Suyeon Park
Domestic violence among immigrant women who relocated to marry South Korean men
has been a recent social problem in Korea. Although there has been research exploring marital
conflicts or domestic abuse of immigrant women, the research focusing on help-seeking behavior
among abused immigrant women is limited. The purpose of this dissertation was to improve
understanding of domestic violence and help seeking behavior among Vietnamese women in
Korea. This research explored the nature of the abusive relationships which provided the context
in which women seek assistance and several factors which shaped women‟s decision to seek help.
Based on data from in-depth interviews with twenty-two abused women, this study
focused on a sample in which abuse by husbands and in-laws is best characterized as intimate
terrorism and reflected marital families‟ expectations of the extremes of patriarchal family
arrangements. Data from this study also suggest that supportive networks, access to information,
and capacity to survive after leaving abusive families motivated women to seek help from
various sources. Rural isolation, difficulty with Korean language, concerns about privacy and
feelings of shame, and fear of discrimination prevented abused women from seeking help.
Concern about children also influenced women‟s decision to seek help. These findings suggest
that it is essential to adapt coordinated community approaches to serve the needs of immigrant
populations and effectively address domestic violence issues.

Copyright by
Suyeon Park
2011

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This dissertation would not have been possible without the support and help of many
people. My heartfelt appreciation goes to my dissertation committee chair, Dr. Merry Morash, for
her mentorship during my entire doctoral program and for her endless encouragement and
insightful feedback. She always was there whenever I needed her help and gave me invaluable
support. I also would like to express sincere thanks to my dissertation committee members, Dr.
Vince Hoffman for the tremendous support and care he provided as well as Dr. Sheila Maxwell
and Dr. Brandon Mullan for their expertise, comments, and time in completing this work.
I am deeply indebted to all the Vietnamese women who participated in my study and
shared their lives, and personal experiences. I would like give a special thanks to those who
opened their hearts to me and shared their knowledge and wisdom. They expressed the hope that
other women might benefit from their disclosure of abuse stories. They taught me about courage.
I am also grateful to those who guided and helped me in the process of contacting these
women; they include Dr. Yeunhee Shin, Sungkyul University; Gibok Ko, Representative Director
of Youngin Migrant Shelter; Chounsook Jung, President of Seoul Women‟s Hotline; Moon Lee,
staff of Seoul Women‟s Hotline; Hangwon Shin, staff of Gwangju Women‟s Hotline; Nanyoung
Yoon, staff of Gunsan Women‟s Hotline; Soonyoung Shin, staff of Solidarity for Asian Human
Rights and Culture; Tran Thi Mai Han (Ye-eun Kim), staff of Incheon Migrant Workers Cneter;
Junghee Yoon, staff of Korea Foundation for Women; Haejung Seo, former director of the
Shelter for Immigrant Women at Oroji Welfare Institution; Fr. Jaeseok Heo, Catholic Migrant
Center Exodus (Guri); Sr. Mary, Gwangju Multicultural Families Center; Fr. Joseph Pam Thanh
Binh, Sr. Josephina, and Shihwang Ryu, Catholic Migrant Workers Counseling Services. Their

iv

support facilitated the successful completion of a very important phase of this project.
I am grateful for the time and expertise of key informants who shared their professional
experiences with me. I would like to thank Dr. Hoan Bui for editing my Vietnamese instruments
and providing me with of the list of Vietnamese pseudonyms. Her corrections and comments
were invaluable and appreciated.
I would like to thank all my friends for their friendship, encouragement, and support.
Special thanks to Byung Lee and Juyoung Song for helping me with the back translation and
thanks to my friends in the prayers meeting, “Sisters of Lydia,” for sharing my moments of joy
and sorrow.
Finally, my sincere gratitudes go to all my family for their love and full support.
Especially, I would like to thank my husband, Joongsik, for his patience and support through the
long process. He made significant sacrifices so I can complete my dissertation. I am also grateful
to my daughter, Jeeho, for her love and endurance. I dedicate my accomplishment to my husband
and daughter.

v

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. ix
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Statement of the Problem .................................................................................................... 1
Purpose of the Study ........................................................................................................... 7
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
Vietnamese Wives in Korea ............................................................................................. 10
Marriage Migration and Vietnamese Wives .......................................................... 10
Cultural Backgrounds and Women’s Status in Vietnam ......................................... 12
Family and Community Context in Korea .............................................................. 14
Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 15
Help Seeking Behavior among Asian Immigrant Women .......................................... 17
Influence of Culture ................................................................................................ 17
Influence of Ethnicity and Race ............................................................................. 20
Summary ................................................................................................................. 21
CHAPTER THREE: METHDOLOGY
Overall Strategy ........................................................................................................... 22
Sampling Strategy ........................................................................................................ 23
Sample Characteristics ................................................................................................. 25
Data Collection Instrument and Procedure .................................................................. 28
Data Management and Analysis................................................................................... 30
Validity......................................................................................................................... 33
CHAPTER FOUR: THE NATURE OF THE ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS
Circumstances Leading to Marriage ................................................................................. 35
The Role of Marriage Brokers ............................................................................... 35
Reasons for Marrying Korean Men ........................................................................ 39
Unfulfilled Expectations in Marriage........................................................................... 44
Reason for Marital Conflicts and Abuse ..................................................................... 47
Conflicts over Money .............................................................................................. 47
Conflicts with Husbands and In-laws over Child Rearing and Household Chores 50
Conflicts over Women’s Work outside the Home .................................................... 53
Conflicts over Women’s Sexual Activity.................................................................. 54
Communication Problems Related to Abuse ........................................................... 55
Intoxication as a Cause of Conflicts and a Trigger for Abuse ................................ 57
Multiple Reasons for Conflict and Abuse ................................................................ 58
Women Exercising Their Agency ............................................................................ 58
Nature of Abuse ........................................................................................................... 59
Physical Abuse ....................................................................................................... 59
Emotional Abuse ..................................................................................................... 63
vi

Economic Abuse ...................................................................................................... 65
Sexual Abuse ........................................................................................................... 67
Negative Effects of Abuse ........................................................................................... 68
The Nature and Pattern of the Abuse ........................................................................... 69
CHAPTER FIVE: HELP-SEEKING BEHAVIOR AMONG VIETNAMESE WIVES
Sources of Help Used by Vietnamese Women ............................................................ 71
Help Seeking Process ................................................................................................... 73
Women Who First Turned to Their Personal Networks .......................................... 73
(A) Seeking Help Primarily from Personal Networks ........................................ 73
(B) Seeking Help from Personal Networks and Social Services ........................ 74
(C) Seeking Help from Personal Network, Police, and Social Services ............ 76
(D) Full Range of Help Seeking ......................................................................... 78
Initial Contact with Formal Sources of Help .......................................................... 80
(A) Initial Contact with Social Service ............................................................... 80
(B) Initial Contact with Police ........................................................................... 83
No Help Seeking ..................................................................................................... 84
Overview of Patterns of Seeking Help..................................................................... 85
Outcomes of Women‟s Efforts to Obtain Help ............................................................ 87
Police Intervention ................................................................................................. 87
Social Service Agency Intervention ......................................................................... 89
Filing for Divorce.................................................................................................... 91
Informal Support ..................................................................................................... 93
Factors that Affect the Decision to Seek Help ............................................................. 95
Language ................................................................................................................ 95
Supportive Social Networks .................................................................................... 97
Access to Information .............................................................................................. 98
Children ................................................................................................................... 99
Rural Isolation ...................................................................................................... 100
Capacity to Survive .............................................................................................. 102
(A) Employment ................................................................................................ 102
(B) Immigrant Status ........................................................................................ 105
Fear of Discrimination .......................................................................................... 106
Concerns about Privacy and Feelings of Shame ................................................. 106
Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 107
CHAPTER SIX: CONCLUSION
Summary of Findings ...................................................................................................... 113
Nature of Abuse .................................................................................................... 113
Factors Affecting the Decision to Seek Help ......................................................... 115
Limitations ................................................................................................................. 118
Implications ................................................................................................................ 120
Policy Implications ................................................................................................ 120
Future Research Implications ............................................................................... 124
Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 126

vii

APPENDICES ................................................................................................................ 127
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................. 154

viii

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Number and Percent of International Marriages by Year ..................................... 1
Table 2: Sex Ratio by Age and Area of Residence, 1970-2000 ........................................ 2
Table 3: Nationality of Immigrant Women Who Married Korean Men (Cases) ............... 5
Table 4: Helping Seeking Sources Used by Women in the Sample ................................ 72

ix

CHAPTER ONE:
INTRODUCTION

Statement of the Problem
Traditionally, international marriage was not a common phenomenon in South Korea.
Consistent with widely accepted conservative thought, which stresses lineage and racial purity,
international marriage was not considered to be acceptable (H. Lee, 2008; Thanh, 2005). Since
the 1990s, however, international marriage has been increasing rapidly in Korea and there has
been a break in the long-prevailing racial and cultural homogeneity (see Table 1). According to
the Korea National Statistical Office (2006), the percentage of international marriages rose from
1.2% in 1990 to 13.6% in 2005. Especially, there has been a substantial increase in the number of
foreign wives from underdeveloped countries immigrating as spouses of Korean men. According
to the most recent statistics that are available, the number of foreign wives who marry Korean
men has increased drastically from 619 in 1990 to 31,180 in 2005, accounting for 9.9% of all
marriages for that year (in contrast to .2% in 1990).

Table 1. Number and Percent of International Marriages by Year
Year All marriage International marriage
Immigrant wife
Immigrant husband
1990
399,312
4,710 (1.2)
619 (0.2)
4.091 (1.0)
1995
398,494
13,494 (3.4)
10,365 (2.6)
3,129 (0.8)
2000
334,030
12,312 (3.7)
7,304 (2.2)
5,015 (1.5)
2003
304,932
25,658 (8.4)
19,214 (6.3)
6,444 (2.1)
2004
310,944
35,447 (11.4)
25,594 (8.2)
9,853 (3.2)
2005
316,375
43,121 (13.6)
31,180 (9.9)
11,941 (3.8)
Source: Korea National Statistical Office, Population Dynamics (Marriage and Divorce).
http://nso.go.kr

1

Foreign wives are increasingly accepted by Korean men and their families when the men
have difficulties in identifying potential spouses in the domestic marriage market (H. Lee, 2008;
Seol, 2006). Much of this difficulty arises because of a serious imbalance between men and
women of marriageable age in Korea resulting from sex-selective abortion based on son
preference (Seol, 2006; see Chun & Dasgupta (2009) and Park & Cho (1995) regarding
imbalance of the sex ratio in sex selective abortion). The imbalance peaked in the early 1990s,
after which changing attitudes about sex preferences and laws regarding fetal-screening for sex
identification reduced the ratio (Chun & Dasgupta, 2009).

Table 2. Sex Ratio by Age and Area of Residence, 1970-2000
Rural
Age
Aged 20-24

Year
Total
Urban
Eup
Myun
1970
106.06
92.81
104.94
125.80
1980
104.12
89.49
109.72
151.61
1990
109.15
96.55
124.37
187.70
2000
111.44
105.84
122.66
161.70
Aged 25-29
1970
99.04
99.63
93.04
99.57
1980
99.98
98.00
97.87
108.05
1990
99.46
96.49
99.23
123.15
2000
100.87
98.46
98.61
130.72
Aged 30-34
1970
102.25
109.05
100.82
95.70
1980
105.53
105.79
106.15
104.44
1990
103.77
102.70
107.09
109.43
2000
102.13
100.61
102.80
117.60
Aged 35-39
1970
97.44
103.77
98.59
91.86
1980
102.83
107.34
103.66
92.40
1990
106.13
105.72
111.55
105.60
2000
102.32
100.16
112.65
114.21
Source: Korea National Statistical Office, Population and Housing Census. http://nso.go.kr

As shown in Table 2, the sex ratios (number of males per 100 females) for ages 20-24,
30-34, and 35-39 in 1990 and 2000 were above 102. The sex imbalance in rural areas was most
severe because of migration of rural young women to urban areas for factory jobs or service
2

sector jobs (Y. Lee, Seol, & Cho, 2006). For example, in rural villages (myun areas), the sex
ratios for ages 20-24 were 187.70 and 161.70, and for ages 25-29, they were 123.15 and 130.72
in 1990 and 2000. The sex ratios for ages 30-34 and 35-39 were slightly lower but still above
104, reaching 117.60 and 114.21 in 2000. In addition, greater gender equality in education and
women‟s participation in economic activities have delayed the age at which they marry, which in
turn has further limited the number of women available to marry males, especially those with
low socioeconomic status in rural areas (Bélanger, Lee, & Wang, 2010; Seol, 2006).
As the number of international marriages has increased, incidents of domestic violence
and family-related problems among immigrant women have been reported in the media (J. Cho,
2007, November 15, 2008, May 19; Chung, 2005, January 13; Jung, 2008, April 7). Various
NGOs and social service providers which work with immigrants have indicated that many
immigrant women were abused by their Korean spouses. For example, Gwangju Women‟s
Development Center (2002) released results of a survey of 100 immigrant women who married
Korean men in Gwangju City and Jeonnam Province. According to the survey, 30% of immigrant
wives experienced domestic violence by Korean spouses, 57% of victims experienced physical
abuse, 18% were verbally abused, and 12% were economically abused (e.g., denied access to
money). Findings of the survey conducted by Gwangju Women‟s Hotline (2004) also
demonstrated that 36.4% of 150 immigrant wives in Gwangju City and Jeonnam Province were
abused by their husbands; 58.8% of victims experienced verbal abuse and 17.6% reported
physical violence.
The survey of Foreign Wives, sponsored by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, was the
most comprehensive study of immigrant wives (Y. Lee, Seol, & Cho, 2006). According to this
nationwide survey of 945 immigrant women, for a 12 month period, 31% of immigrant wives

3

reported verbal abuse by their spouses, 23.7% reported objects thrown at them, 18.4% reported
threats to hit them, 13.9% said they were pushed or shoved, 13.5% said they were slapped, and
14.0% reported being forced to participate in unwanted sexual activities. The prevalence of
domestic violence among divorced or separated immigrant women groups was much higher than
the prevalence for other immigrant respondents. For example, more than 50% of divorced or
separated immigrant women experienced physical violence, more than 40% were forced to
participate in unwanted sexual activities, and 70 to 80% were verbally abused during the last
year before divorce or separation (Seol, Kim, & Kim, 2005).
The survey of Foreign Wives also indicated that only 10% of women reported abuse to
police and 13 to 14% of abused women used a shelter or hotline for immigration women. Most
victims did not contact the police due to their hope of preserving the marriage (20.1%), lack of
information on how to contact police (13.7%), low trust of police officers‟ problem-solving
ability (12.7%), and their immigration status (10.3%) (Seol et al., 2005).
The high rate of underreported domestic violence coupled with the information provided
by prior surveys have demonstrated that domestic violence among immigrant wives is reaching a
critical level of danger and has become a widespread problem in Korean society. Although there
have been a few studies exploring marital conflicts or domestic abuse among international
couples in Korea (Byun, Lee, Kim, Hwang, & Lee, 2008; O. Kim, 2006; H. Lee, 2005; Shin,
2005; Son, 2005; Than, 2006; Yoon, 2004), no research has fully explored help seeking behavior
among abused immigrant wives.
Recent studies conducted outside of Korea have demonstrated that immigrant women‟s
structural conditions such as economic resources, legal status, social networks, and cultural and
religious beliefs affect how they respond to abuse (Bhuyan & Senturia, 2005; Pinn & Chunko,

4

1997; Waldner-Haugrud, Gratch, & Magruder, 1997). Understanding immigrant women‟s
decisions to seek help for abuse would help program staff and policy makers describe the
problems that women face and design effective intervention strategies. Thus, this study aims to
fill the gap in knowledge regarding domestic violence and help-seeking behavior among abused
immigrant wives in Korea. The specific focus will be on women from Vietnam.
According to the Korea National Statistical Office (2007), Vietnamese are the second
largest foreign wives‟ group in Korea, accounting for 33.5% of all immigrant wives in 2006 (see
Table 3). The number of Vietnamese women immigrating as spouses of Korean men increased
sharply from 95 in 2000 to 10,131 in 2006.

Table 3. Nationality of Immigrant Women Who Married Korean Men (Cases)
2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

Total
7,304 10,006
11,017
19,214
25,594
31,180
30,208
China
3,586
7,001
7,041
13,373
18,527
20,635
14,608
Vietnam
95
134
476
1,403
2,462
5,822
10.131
Japan
1,131
976
959
1,242
1,224
1,255
1,484
Philippine
1,358
510
860
944
964
997
1.157
Mongolia
77
118
195
318
504
561
594
Uzbekistan
43
66
183
329
247
333
206
U.S.A
235
265
267
323
344
285
334
Thailand
270
185
330
346
326
270
274
Other
509
751
716
936
996
1,022
1,421
Source: Korea National Statistical Office, Population Dynamics (Marriage and
http://nso.go.kr

% in
2006
100.0
48.4
33.5
4.9
3.8
2.0
0.7
1.1
0.9
4.7
Divorce).

Vietnamese brides were preferred by Korean bachelors because they were believed to
look “more Korean” than any other foreign wives groups (K. Kim, Tolliver, & Torres, 2010,
September 17). In addition, as shown in fliers advertising marriages to Vietnamese brides, with
claims such as “A Vietnamese daughter-in-law obeys,” the women were advertised as

5

submissive wives by international marriage brokers (A. Lee, 2007, May 14). Compared with
other immigrant wives groups, Vietnamese wives were concentrated in rural farming areas.
Among the 3,525 rural farming bachelors who had foreign wives in 2006, 68% (2,396 cases)
married Vietnamese brides in contrast to much lower numbers from countries such as from
China (718) and the Philippines (170). Vietnamese brides share “the tradition of agricultural
society and the extended family system” (C. Kim, 2007, November 5; S. Kim & Shin, 2007,
October, p. 6). Thus, they were believed to easily adapt to a Korean rural farming community.
The largest immigrant wives group is from China, but most of those are Korean Chinese
(ethnic Korean), who had themselves emigrated from Korea or who had been born to families
who had emigrated. Vietnamese women have actually emerged as the major immigrant group of
women who have a different cultural and ethnic background from their Korean husbands.
Vietnamese women differ considerably from other immigrant groups in terms of culture,
marriage immigration history, and social location. According to Ta (1981), Vietnam is a
patriarchal society that emphasizes women‟s subordinate roles and status in the family.
Vietnamese view domestic violence as a private matter and regard disclosing information about
the family to outsiders as inappropriate. Family harmony is highly valued in Vietnamese society,
and women‟s duty to obey her spouse is emphasized as the way to promote family harmony (Pan
et al., 2006). All of these cultural factors may have an impact on how Vietnamese women
respond to domestic violence. For example, the meanings constructed through their experiences
will be different from those of Filipino women who, consistent with social and economic gender
arrangements, historically have enjoyed relative equality with men (Hilsdon, 1995).
In addition, more than 55% of Vietnamese women met Korean spouses through
international marriage matchmaking agencies or brokers (Seol et al., 2005). In contrast, 67.9% of

6

Korean Chinese entered into a marriage with Koreans through personal introduction by friends
and relatives, and 92.1% of Japanese and 40.3% of Filipina women married to Korean men met
through meetings arranged by particular religious groups. This means that Vietnamese women‟s
human capital, resources, and adaptation experiences are unique.
Finally, compared with the case of Korean Chinese, the Vietnamese wives have the special
experiences of women with ethnic and cultural backgrounds different than their husbands.
Previous research regarding domestic violence in immigrant communities has shown that
perceived and experienced bias against groups can prevent immigrant women from seeking help
outside their families and ethnic communities because racial/ethnic minorities view “family as a
site of resistance of the dominant society” (Bui, 2003, p. 210). However, the influence of country
of origin and ethnicity on experience of and response to domestic violence in Korea will be
different from that within an immigrant community where men and women share the same ethnic
background in a multicultural society. Thus, this study focuses on the unique experience of
Vietnamese wives who marry Korean men with a cultural and ethnic background different from
their own, and who often come to Korea through marriages arranged by brokers.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to understand the decisions to seek help for Vietnamese
women who have been victims of domestic violence. Three more specific purposes of this study
are: first, to understand Vietnamese women‟s various responses to domestic violence, second, to
explore factors which may affect the decision to seek help, and third, to provide input for
program staff and policy makers to design effective interventions.
Research Questions
1.

To what extent do Vietnamese women seek help to deal with domestic violence by

7

Korean spouses?
2.

What are the help-seeking strategies used by abused Vietnamese women?

3.

What are the factors which affect help-seeking decisions of abused Vietnamese
women?

4.

What are the major processes that result in Vietnamese women‟s seeking help, and
what are the breakdowns in these processes that lead to their not seeking and not
obtaining help?

5.

How do social location, immigration, and social network affect help seeking
strategies?

6.

What are the expectations for and consequences of help seeking to deal with
domestic violence?

8

CHAPTER TWO:
LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, two main areas are discussed, (a) the cultural contexts (in Vietnam and in
Korea) that would influence Vietnamese-origin wives in Korea and (b) help seeking behavior
among Asian immigrant women. The first section of this chapter concentrates on marriage
migration history and cultural backgrounds for Vietnamese wives and the cultural context in
South Korea. The second section focuses on culture and ethnicity as explanations of help seeking
behavior among Asian immigrant women living in Korea and other countries.
For this study, domestic violence was initially defined as “the emotional, physical,
psychological, or sexual abuse perpetrated against a person by that person‟s spouse, former
spouse, partner, former partner or by the other parent of a minor child” (McCue, 1995, p. 3). It
was restricted to violence committed by men against women. However, like several qualitative
studies of South Asian women that demonstrated abuse from in-laws, Vietnamese women
indicated that their in-laws tolerate violence by their spouses or use violence against them
directly (Abraham, 1999; Dasgupta & Warrier, 1996; Mehrotra, 1999; Raj, Livramento, Santana,
Gupta, & Silverman, 2006). Thus, domestic violence in this study is considered within Asian
cultural context and includes physical and emotional abuse by in-laws.
Vietnamese wife is defined as a woman who has migrated from Vietnam to Korea as a
spouse of a Korean man and who now resides in Korea. Help seeking is defined as “the
disclosure of victimization in an effort to obtain some form of assistance” (Morrison, Luchok,
Richter, & Parra-Medina, 2006, p. 1495). Help seeking behavior includes calling the police, use
of a shelter, utilization of legal and social services, and telling someone about the abuse. Culture

9

is defined as the “customs, habits, skills, technology, arts, science, and religious and political
behavior of a group of people in a specific time period (Barker, 1987, p. 37). The terms race and
ethnicity have been often used interchangeably “to describe the experiences of non-White groups
and group members” (Kasturirangan, Krishnan, & Riger, 2004, p. 320). To capture different
experiences of Vietnamese women in Korea, ethnicity is used to refer to “groups that are
characterized in terms of a common nationality, culture, or language” (Betancourt & Lopez, 1993,
p. 631).
Vietnamese Wives in Korea
Women‟s experience of abuse and response to domestic violence might not be the same
for all groups. Battered women‟s social “location at the intersection of multiple systems of
power,” such as those of gender and culture, may generate a distinct experience (Collins, 1998, p.
926). However culture is not static, because individuals interact with their culture
(Kasturirangan et al., 2004). Migration may be related to the process of challenging or redefining
traditional cultural values. Thus, to understand help seeking behavior of Vietnamese wives
victimized by domestic violence, it is important to look at the marriage migration history and
cultural backgrounds of the Vietnamese wives‟ group and the family and community context of
women and the families they join in Korea.
Marriage Migration and Vietnamese Wives
The majority of Vietnamese women came to Korea from rural areas in the country‟s
southern Mekong Delta (Than, 2006). In 2005, the Korean Embassy in Hanoi issued just 720
marriage visas in northern Vietnam. In contrast, the much larger number of marriage visas issued
by the consulate in Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam was 3,853 (Yoo, 2007, March 27).
According to the World Bank (2004) which calculated the condition of poverty using

10

household income as well as housing and amenities in the homes, in the Mekong Delta only 10%
of the households are above the poverty level, 6.7% are at the cut off for poverty, 23.4% are
below the poverty level, and 17.8% have no property. Specifically, rural poverty rates in the
Mekong Delta are around 30%-46% compared to 12%-21% in urban areas. In the context of
rural poverty in the Mekong Delta, marriage migration with foreigners is considered as a strategy
of women for improving their own life situations as well as a strategy of households to overcome
economic hardships (P. Nguyen, 2007; Seol et al., 2005).
Compared with other foreign wives‟ groups in Korea, Vietnamese were generally
younger and less educated (Seol et al., 2005). Of Vietnamese women, 36.2% were below 20
years old and 57.5% were in their 20s. Also, 72% of Vietnamese women married Korean men
who were at least 10 years older than they (in contrast to 34% in other foreign wives groups).
Further indicating their disadvantages, only 10.8% of Vietnamese women had a college degree in
contrast to more than 22% of women in other foreign wives‟ groups; 56.8% were high school
graduates, and 27% were middle school graduates. Most Vietnamese-origin women married to
Korean men continued to suffer from economic hardship in Korea, because 52.9 % of the Korean
men whom they married were below the poverty level (Seol et al., 2005).
The typical Korean men who seek Vietnamese brides are older men with low social
economic status in rural areas. Specifically, 41% of 8,596 farmers and fishermen who married in
2006 had foreign wives, with 67.9% of them marrying Vietnamese wives (C. Kim, 2007,
November 5).
In general, rural is defined as “the areas of low population density, small absolute size,
and relative isolation where the major economic base was agricultural production and where the
way of life of the people was reasonably homogeneous and differentiated from that of other

11

sectors of society, most notably the city” (Bealer, Kuvlesky, & Willits, 1965, p. 255). Rural areas
in Korea appear similar to the definition above. Rural areas in Korea have low population sizes
as a result of massive out-migration of young people during the modernization process. Their
inhabitants work in agriculture, and the annual income of a farm household was about 75% of
the average income of urban households (C. Kim, 2007, November 5). Also, rural culture in
Korea has been described as socially conservative, traditional, homogeneous, and characterized
by strong kin networks. Men in rural areas who had found it difficult to marry a Korean spouse
began to seek wives from foreign countries. Although culture and ethnicity are diverse in rural
areas as a result of international marriage, rural communities are still conservative and there are
few support systems for foreign wives and their children (C. Kim, 2007, November 5).
Cultural Backgrounds and Women’s Status in Vietnam
Vietnam is a patriarchal country in which the practice of wife battering has been
supported by traditional legal norms for centuries (T. D. Nguyen, 2006). Confucianism, which
has dominated Vietnam for 1,000 year, has molded cultural values and practices related to family
life, marriage, and gender roles (Gold, 1992; Kibria, 1993; Ta, 1981). Various traditional cultural
values may influence women‟s attitudes toward and response to domestic violence.
The Confucian ideology stresses close family ties, hierarchy, men‟s dominance over
women, and female obedience and subservience (Jamieson, 1993; Truong, 2001). In Vietnam, the
family is more highly valued than the individual. Each family member is expected to keep
harmony, follow the hierarchical structure, and comply with social and familial roles. The
emphasis on close family ties reflects the Confucian concept of filial piety, which refers to
obedience and respect for parents and other elders without questions (Tran, 1997; Truong, 2001).
In addition, the individual and his/her family are viewed as interdependent. Thus, when

12

an individual family member causes dishonor or shame to the family, it is regarded as the
family‟s loss of status and respect in the community (Jamieson, 1993; Tran, 1997). As a result,
there are strong pressures for individuals to follow social norms, preserve harmony, and
minimize any conflict in interpersonal relationships (Tran, 1997). In this type of culture, women
as victims of domestic violence may be more likely to keep silent rather than seek outside help,
because exposure of problems would cause dishonor and shame to the entire family (Ho, 1990;
Rimonte, 1989).
Confucian ideology also emphasizes male supremacy and the subordination of women. In
Vietnamese society, the subordination of women is supported by the three obedience rules which
say that women should obey their father in their youth, their husband in marriage, and their
oldest son in their old age (Jamieson, 1993). In addition, four virtues were expected for women.
They were supposed to “be good housewives, to be physically attractive, to speak well but in a
careful and soft manner, and to be a person of good character” (Tran, 1997, p.14). Also,
suffering and persevering were greatly valued and sought in women in order to maintain
harmony and order in the family. Thus, women were given support for enduring hardships and
were discouraged from taking action to change their intolerable or problematic situations (Tran,
1997).
The inferior status of Vietnamese women was exhibited by various traditional cultural
practices. The birth of a son was celebrated whereas that of a daughter was viewed as a
disappointment by family members. Moreover, women who were unable to produce a son were
considered defective and suffered maltreatment by their husbands and in-laws. Traditionally, it
was legal for men to divorce their wives if the wives failed to bear sons (Ta, 1981; Tran, 1997).
There was often family or societal discrimination against women pursuing higher education. For

13

example, it was common to find that parents placed higher priority on sons than daughters being
educated (Kibria, 1993; P. Nguyen, 2007). In marriage, Vietnamese women were expected to join
their husbands‟ families. They were to serve their husbands and their in-laws (Tran, 1997;
Truong, 2001).
Gold (1992) argued that “Western feminist ideas that developed in Vietnam as a result of
European occupation, wars, and urbanization produced some changes in manners and customs,”
but many Vietnamese have maintained traditional cultures (Bui & Morash, 1999, p.776).
However, according to Nguyen (2007), the Mekong Delta, from which the majority of
Vietnamese women came to Korea, has very different traditions and cultures from the north. This
region is considered to have a diversified culture which has resulted from influences from Khmer,
Chinese, and Cham people. In addition, this region embraced French and American influences,
which make it less influenced by Confucianism than the north. Thus, we might expect to find
that some Vietnamese wives in Korea are not heavily constrained by the traditional values.
Family and Community Context in Korea
South Korea is also historically a patriarchal society where men have much of the
political, social, and economic power. As in Vietnam, Confucianism is one of the dominant
forces that influences traditional Korean values (Choi, 2004; Hyun, 2001). Thus, the composition
of society is described as hierarchical, based on “the vertical structure of superiors and
subordinates” (Hyun, 2001, p.205). Filial piety is emphasized as the cardinal value to guard
harmony and order in the family and society. Based on the Confucian conduct code prescribing
the basic duty of interpersonal relations - such as parent and child, husband and wife - obedience,
loyalty, and respect are expected of subordinates (Choi, 2004; Hyun, 2001).
Korean Confucianism supported the practice of Hyunmo Yangcho (a woman is supposed

14

to be a good mother and chaste wife), Namjon Yobi (men should be respected and women are
inferior to men), Samjong Jido (women should follow three men in their lives), and Chilgo Jiak
(men can expel their wives from their home on the ground of women‟s seven faults); all of these
practices have had a negative impact on the status of Korean women (H. Cho, 1998). In
practicing Hyunmo Yangcho, the expected role of a woman was to be a good mother and chaste
wife. Namjon Yobi, which refers to women‟s inherent inferior status to men, was a guiding
principle for gender relations. Samjong Jido, like the three obedience rules in Vietnam, identified
three men who have the power to determine a woman‟s fate: her father, husband, and eldest son.
Finally, the practice of Chilgo Jiak dictated that a woman must be expelled from her husband‟s
home on several grounds, such as failing to produce a son, lasciviousness, jealousy, incurable
disease, being talkative, committing adultery or robbery, and arguing with her husband‟s family
(H. Cho, 1998; Hyun, 2001).
These practices influence Korean women‟s vulnerability to domestic violence as well as
women‟s value and perspective. Especially, there has been strong ideology that a forced sexual
relationship with her husband is a wife‟s duty, and it does not constitute abuse (Postmur & Hahn,
2007). Moreover, patriarchal or patrimonial ideology has been found in the discourse on the
normative family (H. Cho, 1998). Specifically, the ideal family is expected to include a father
and his extended family. The thought that children need their fathers and should be attached to
their extended families has kept women from leaving abusive partners. When women leave their
batterers, they are blamed for not preserving the family (Postmur & Hahn, 2007).
Conclusion
Vietnam and South Korea are historically patriarchal societies based on Confucian
thoughts. Both countries have cultural values that provide hierarchical structure and role

15

definitions for each member of a family. These cultural values and practices may be related to
women‟s vulnerability to domestic violence or barriers to help seeking outside family.
However, social movements and new laws may shape available resources and expected
help for domestic violence (Morash, 2006). In Korea, along with the U.S. feminist movement in
the 1980s, there was increased awareness of women‟s rights and of domestic violence as a social
problem, and this awareness prompted the Korean women‟s movement. Korean women‟s groups
and coalitions have advocated for abused women, and have prompted the development of help
that has included individual counseling, legal and shelter services, a public awareness program, a
coalition of advocacy groups, and institutional change brought by new laws (Seo, 2006).
Consequently, two domestic violence laws for prosecuting batterers and for protecting
victims were introduced in 1997: the Act on Punishment of Domestic Violence and the Act on
Prevention of Domestic Violence and Victim Protection (Postmur & Hahn, 2007; Seo, 2006).
The Act on Punishment of Domestic Violence requires the police to instantly respond to a report
of domestic violence and stop the batterer‟s violent actions. Then, the case might be transferred
to the district attorney for further investigation and legal action and be treated as a criminal case
if the incident is serious (Park, 2000; Seo, 2006). Act on Prevention of Domestic Violence and
Victim Protection was intended to make it possible for battered women to access various
resources, such as shelters, counseling or medical services, and transitional housing (Park, 2000;
Seo, 2006).
In Vietnam, the term domestic violence was introduced into Vietnamese academic and
political debate in 1992. Although the Socialist Republic of Vietnam passed legislation that
prohibits physical violence against women (Law on Marriage and Family, 1986), there is
evidence that the law may not have had the desired results at the local level (Rydstrom, 2003).

16

In sum, Vietnamese women can be influenced by their traditional cultural values and the
social context created by new social movements. It is not, however, known whether either the
Vietnamese or the Korean social movements have affected Vietnamese women married to
Korean men either in how they define abuse or whether and how they seek help.
Help Seeking Behavior among Asian Immigrant Women
Previous research in countries other than Korea has demonstrated that there are several
factors that influence help seeking behavior of battered women such as severity of abuse,
available personal resources, and the sensitivity of formal support systems (Gelles & Harrop,
1989; Rhodes & McKenzie, 1998; Yoshioka, Gilbert, El-Bassel, & Baig-Amin, 2003). In
addition, scholars have recognized the effect of culture and race/ethnicity on Asian immigrant
women‟s response to abuse (Bauer, Rodriguez, Quiroga, & Flores-Oritz, 2000; Bui, 2003; Bui &
Morash, 1999; Dasgupta & Warrier, 1996; Huisman, 1996; Raj & Silverman, 2002; Yoshioka et
al., 2003).
Influence of Culture
A review of domestic violence and help seeking literature has found only a small number
of studies focusing on Asian immigrant women (e.g., Bui, 2003; Dupont, 2004; Yoshioka et al.,
2003). According to Huisman‟s study (1996), Asian immigrant women in the U.S. were less
likely than any other racial or ethnic group of women to turn to the police for help; they usually
waited until the abuse reached a crisis level of severity. This means that culturally bound gender
roles, norms, and values may significantly influence Asian immigrant battered women‟s
decisions to seek help from outside agencies, or family and friends.
For example, in their study of 12 South Asian battered women who sought assistance
from a U.S. Asian women‟s shelter, Dasgupta and Warrier (1996) found that adherence to

17

traditional gender roles affected women‟s willingness to seek assistance. The women in this
study shared the belief in the importance of being a good wife and mother and maintaining the
family‟s honor. They internalized their subservient role to men and were willing to sacrifice
personal autonomy in order to uphold their marriage for two reasons: to maintain a two-parent
household for their children and to avoid compromising their families‟ honor with a divorce.
Under this belief system, women simply accepted the abuse as “traditional” and suffered abuse
for an average of 7.4 years before they sought assistance from outside sources (p.249).
Similarly, Bauer et al. (2000) identified cultural barriers to seeking assistance from health
care organizations among abused Asian and Latino immigrant women in the U.S. Based on focus
group interviews with 28 battered women, they found that “dedication to the children and family
unity, shame related to the abuse, and the cultural stigma of divorce” were cultural barriers to
help seeking (p. 33).
For the Asian women in Bauer et al.‟s study (2000), the values of obligation and loyalty
to their families often interfered with patient and health care provider communication about
domestic violence, because these values were strongly linked to women‟s sense of shame.
Family conflict was regarded as shameful and expected to be kept within the family, which may
have prevented battered women from seeking help outside the family. Divorce was considered as
a violation of cultural values such as female submissiveness and selflessness. Victims can be
stigmatized and ostracized by their community (Bauer et al., 2000; Dasgupta & Warrier, 1996;
Huisman, 1996). Comments made by the Asian women in Bauer et al.‟s (2000) study were that
they endure abuse “for the sake of my children” and were “ashamed to tell anybody.” These
statements suggested a major role of cultural traditions in inhibiting them from seeking help from
medical providers (p.41). Understanding their cultural beliefs and help seeking behaviors would

18

make it possible to design effective intervention strategies.
Most previous research that has emphasized the effect of traditional culture on help
seeking behavior of battered immigrant women disregarded the influence of cultural changes
following immigration (Bui, 2003; Bui & Morash, 1999; Raj & Silverman, 2002). As immigrants
become more acculturated, changes in traditional culture, such as gender-based norms, may
occur. As traditional culture changes, immigrant women may no longer be willing to conform to
culturally influenced gender roles and norms (Raj & Silverman, 2002).
More specifically, immigrant women can be influenced by the culture of their countries
of origin, the dominant culture of their host countries, and social changes in their new countries.
The effect of each culture on the behavior of immigrant women may be different depending on
the adjustment process (Bui, 2003; Bui & Morash, 1999). Thus, it is important to examine how
both traditional and new beliefs influence help seeking behavior of abused immigrant women
(Bui, 2003).
Bui and Morash‟s (1999) and Bui‟s (2003) study are helpful in providing insight into
factors associated with Asian immigrant women‟ decisions to seek help. Based on in-depth
interviews with 34 battered women from four different Vietnamese communities, Bui (2003)
found that help seeking behavior of Vietnamese women is complex and diverse and influenced
by interaction among interpersonal and socio-cultural forces, including economic dependency,
social isolation, immigration law and race relations, and the sensitivity of social service.
Specifically, Bui (2003) demonstrated that both cultural continuity and change impacted
abused Vietnamese women‟s response to abuse, including their willingness to seek assistance.
According to this study, traditional culture such as “close family ties, family privacy, paternal
piety, and women‟s subordination to men” influenced help seeking behavior of abused

19

Vietnamese immigrant women (p.231). Traditional family values and gender roles made it very
difficult for them to talk with people outside the family about partner violence. Many women in
this study still feared the stigma of divorce. However, battered Vietnamese women may benefit
from increased acculturation, may be related to not only higher levels of education but also a
higher standard of employment. As a result, some women may have greater economic
independence and increased access to formal sources of help (Bui, 2003), and they may have
decreased tendencies to avoid seeking help for abuse.
Influence of Ethnicity and Race
In addition to cultural continuity and change, ethnicity and race can influence help seeking
behavior of battered Asian immigrant women. According to Chow (1987), Asian American
women experience “oppression not only as women in a society dominated by men but also as
minorities facing a variety of forms of racism” (p.290). From the perspective of racial/ethnic
oppression, they may be reluctant to utilize formal sources of help. For example, Bui‟s (2003)
study found that within the Vietnamese community, women whose partners are from different
racial/ethnic groups were less likely to seek help from other Vietnamese individuals due to
negative attitudes towards international marriages.
Especially women migrating to marry in a new country may be influenced by inequality of
power within the marriage and in the racial or ethnic hierarchy. Narayan (1995) suggested that
approximately 2000 to 3500 American men annually marry mail order brides from poor
Southeast countries. The majority of men who seek such arranged marriages are older White men
with higher than average income and experiences of divorce. Men looking for “beautiful,
traditional, faithful” Asian wives who are devoted to them and their families are often prone to
be very controlling of the women (Narayan, 1995). The mail order bride phenomenon is related

20

to men‟s desire for submissive wives and includes a power dynamic related to a racial/ethnic
hierarchy (Raj & Silverman, 2002). In addition, the man‟s selection of a wife and the marriage
relationship he tries to establish is often based on his desire for power over the wife (WoelzStirling, Kelaher, & Manderson, 1998). Thus, the response of women with arranged marriages in
foreign lands to domestic violence should be understood within the context of forces of racism
and sexism and power relation.
Summary
The researchers who have studied help seeking behavior among Asian immigrant women
have contributed to expansion of knowledge by identifying aspects of Asian cultural values that
impact battered women‟s response to domestic violence. The values they identify include: loyalty
to family, fear of losing face and bring guilt and shame to the entire family, male supremacy and
submission, and devotion to one‟s husband. Some researchers assert that immigrant women can
be influenced by cultural change following immigration. Thus, it is important to examine how
cultural continuity and change can influence help seeking behavior of abused immigrant women.
According to Dutton, Orloff, and Hass (2000), a woman‟s experience and response to
domestic violence reflect “her social conditions, resources and available options” (p.247). In this
sense, help seeking behaviors among socially and racially marginalized battered women are
likely different from those of most battered women in the general population. Thus, it is
important to recognize differences in the experience of abuse and help seeking related to social
contexts affected by an intersection of gender and race and ethnicity.

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CHAPTER THREE:
METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the research design and methodology used in this study. It includes
information on the overall strategy, development of the questions, procedures to select and
recruit participants and collect data, and techniques to analyze the data.
Overall Strategy
Feminist standpoint theory, which is an epistemological approach to how we know,
informed the choice of research methodology for this study. This epistemological theory
incorporates the view that “all knowledge is constructed in a specific matrix of physical location,
history, culture, and interests, and that these matrices change in configuration from one location
to another” (Sprague, 2005, p.41). Feminist standpoint theory puts emphasis on the standpoint of
women, located in diverse systems of race, class, and nation, and it uses women‟s experience as a
starting point to analyze social phenomenon (Harding, 1991). Thus, it can take into account the
unique social location of Vietnamese women married to Korean men, and can show how their
experiences influence their efforts to obtain help for abuse.
Feminist standpoint theory assumes that people interpret their situation and act in terms
of the meanings and perspective constructed from their particular location. Thus, in this
perspective, subjectivity is critical to understand social behavior and gives women voice to
describe their social reality (Gorelick, 1991). Qualitative data collection methods are best suited
to fully understanding the complex perceptions that the Vietnamese women have of their
situations, abuse, and available help. Qualitative inquiry is often used to explore areas about
which little is known and to understand human behavior that is affected by the meanings that

22

people construct through their personal experiences (Merriam, 1998; Strauss & Corbin, 1998).
The choice of help and the timing and strategies for seeking help are usually governed by a
person‟s values, beliefs, concerns, and the availability of relevant resources. With qualitative
methods, the detailed and descriptive data acquired can reveal reality as participants perceive it
and can give voice to study participants (Merriam, 1998; Strauss, 1987).
Since there is currently no theory to describe the process of help seeking by Vietnamese
wives in Korea, and indeed the phenomenon of Vietnamese women marrying Korean men is
recent, an inductive approach to explaining women‟s responses to abuse is appropriate. Study
results can add to the growing body of knowledge on abused immigrant wives around the world.
Further, the combination of semi-structured and open-ended interview questions can provide data
that reveals rich information and the cultural nuances of help seeking behavior.
Sampling Strategy
A purposive sample was taken of twenty-two Vietnamese women over age eighteen who
had experienced abuse by their Korean husbands or in-laws. Realizing that social services and
living conditions differ greatly between Korean urban and rural areas, effort was made to include
women from both types of settings. In addition, a purposive sample was taken of seven social
services providers and one marriage broker translator who were knowledgeable about a large
number of abused Vietnamese women in Korea.
Social service providers in this study were selected based on their professional work
experience with abused Vietnamese women. The social service providers had been actively
involved in counseling and shelter services, legal assistance, childcare services, or Korean
language education for Vietnamese women. Two social service providers and one Vietnamese
marriage broker translator were chosen to obtain information for rural areas.

23

During the data collection, I realized that marriage brokers tried to mediate marriage
conflicts between Korean husbands and Vietnamese wives when the wives turned to the
translators to preserve their marriages. This is the reason that one Vietnamese marriage broker
translator was selected as a study participant.
The initial research plan was to collect data from abused women between June and
August, 2008. To reach abused Vietnamese women, I contacted more than twenty social service
agencies and shelters for immigrant women. However, it was hard to get the initial referrals from
them. Many social service agencies and shelters did not allow researchers to access victims
because of safety issues of victims, potential harm against victims caused by the sensitive nature
of the study, and the issues of their trust in researchers. It seemed that agency and shelter staff
rarely trusted researchers who had not been working with them and victims in a volunteer
capacity for at least a year.
Through referrals from seven social service agencies and shelters, I was eventually able
to meet eleven abused Vietnamese women. Some social service providers who could not refer
abused women due to their policies on research introduced me to two Vietnamese women who
were working for migrant centers as interpreters. They helped to recruit eight additional women
for this study by explaining the study to eligible women and, if the women agreed, providing me
their names and phone numbers. After one of them revealed her own victimization, she became a
study participant. She ran her own business and was viewed as a „big sister‟ figure for other
Vietnamese women in the area where many immigrants lived. She was frequently at a restaurant
that was a common gathering place for other Vietnamese women to hang out and share
information. During the summer of 2008, I spent much time commuting to the restaurant twice a
week and spending time with Vietnamese women and trying to learn more about them. Finally, I

24

was able to gain trust from the Vietnamese women, who then introduced me to other abused
Vietnamese women. Three additional abused women were recruited through these women‟s
referrals.
I wondered if I would ever get a sample at one point. However, at the end of the summer,
it was possible to interview six women referred by social services agencies just before my
departure for the United States. Also at the end of the summer, I contacted a Vietnamese priest
who provided migrant workers counseling. He introduced me to staff in several social service
agencies and shelters operated by the Catholic Church. Two of those agencies referred women to
me.
Gaining access to abused women was especially difficult in the rural areas of South
Korea. The rural culture in Korea is extremely communal. For example, residents joke that your
neighbor knows how many spoons or chopsticks you have in your household. Abused women in
rural areas feared very much that their Korean families might hear about whether they met with a
stranger like myself and disclosed their abuse experiences. Therefore, they often changed their
minds and decided not to meet right before a scheduled interview. This was the main reason why
I was not able to include a more balanced number of participants from rural and urban area.
During the data collection, I realized that women experienced abuse by in-laws or had
conflict with in-laws. Following a grounded theory approach (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) I
therefore decided to include women who experienced abuse by in-laws, although some of them
did not experience abuse by their husbands. I also added questions about abuse by in-laws and
conflicts with in-laws.
Sample Characteristics
Twenty-two Vietnamese women participated in the study. Most immigrated to South

25

Korea in order to marry (20). Two immigrated as industrial trainees, who are unskilled foreign
workers in Korea for training in jobs where they earn below minimum wages; they met and
married Korean men. Women‟s ages ranged from 20 years old to 38 years old. The average age
was 26.9 and the median age was 25.5. The women in this sample disclosed that their husbands
were substantially older than they were. The average age of their husbands was 45.0 years, 18.2
years older than that of wives. The husbands‟ ages ranged from 35 years old to 53; the median
age was 44.5. For all couples, husbands were older than the women. The median age difference
was 19 years and the range was 5 to 29 years.
In Vietnam, fifteen women (68%) did not graduate high school because they were
expected to help work in a family business, to take care of their siblings, or to bring in income.
Five women (23%) completed their high school education; two women (9%) either completed
college or at least attended college. The husbands seemed to have more education than their
wives. Although 31.9% of the women did not know their husbands‟ education level, women
reported that the remainder of the men either completed high school (9 or 40.9%) or college (2 or
9%).
At the time of the interview, nine women (40.9%) were employed; six of them had started
working either right before or after leaving their husbands. Current employment included
positions in manufacturing and factory work and part-time jobs as a restaurant delivery person,
and a babysitter. One woman was self employed. Thirteen women (59.1%) were not employed.
At the time of interview, they were staying at home because their husbands did not want their
wives to work outside the home, they were pregnant, or they were looking for a job. Five of the
unemployed women had prior work experiences in Korea.
Sixteen women (72.7%) had marriages arranged by marriage brokers, and two women

26

(9.1%) women met their husbands through introductions of their friends or relatives. Only four
women (18.2%) had so-called “love marriages,” in which man and woman freely chose each
other, and two (9.1%) of those met their husbands in Korea. The other two women met Korean
men who were in Vietnam for either work or travel.
Women had been with their spouses an average of 2.5 years, with the minimum union
being 1 week and the longest union lasting 9 years. The median length of the relationship was
1.8 years. Women‟s length of time in Korea ranged from 4 months to 13 years, with an average
length of 3.0 years; the median length in Korean was 2.1 years.
It was difficult to determine household income because over half (12 or 54.5%) of the
women lacked this information. A typical response to questions about household income is, “I
don’t know about annual household income because I had no access to the money. He didn’t give
me the money at all and always paid directly at the grocery store” (Hiền; all names are
pseudonyms).

Husbands often withheld information about finances from their wives. For

women who knew the household income, it seemed to be relatively low compared to the average
monthly household income in Korea. Although four women (18.2%) had a monthly household
income of 2,000,000-3,000,000 won (about U.S. $2,000-$3,0001), three women (13.6%) had a
monthly household income of 1,000,000-2,000,000 won (U.S. $1,000-$2,000). Two women‟s
(9.1%) monthly household income level fell under 1,000,000 won (U.S. $1,000). Only one
woman (4.6%) had a monthly household income of more than 3,000,000 won (U.S. $3,000).
According to Cho (2009), the average monthly income for a household in Korea was 3,224,800
won ($3,224.8) in 2007; the median income for a household in Korea was 2,798,700 won
1

Average annual currency rate for KRW/USD in 2007 was 929. The currency rate for
KRW/USD was 1015.05 in July, 2008 when the interviews with Vietnamese women were
conducted. (http://www.forecast-chart.com/usd-korean-won.html) So for convenience, Korean
Won per 1 U.S. dollar was converted as 1,000 won in this dissertation.
27

($2,798.7). In addition, the 2005 survey by the Ministry of Health and Welfare indicated that
52.9% of internationally married families fell under the absolute poverty line with income of less
than the minimum cost of living, which was about 1,136,000 won ($1,136) for a family of four
people.
Nine of the twenty-two women did not have any children with their husbands. Thirteen
(59.1%) had either one (9) or two children (4) with their spouses. The average age of children
was 3.2 years old. Of the twenty-two women, three (13.6%) were pregnant at the time of
interviews. Eight (36.4%) husbands were previously married, seven women (31.8%) had stepchildren, and three of those had step-children living in the household. Only one woman (Mai)
had a child who lived in Vietnam from a previous marriage.
With regard to marital status, nine women (40.9%) were living with their spouses and
twelve (54.5%) were separated at the time of interview. One woman (4.5%) was divorced.
Six of the women (27.3%) resided in rural areas during their marriage. As noted, the
difficulty in recruiting rural women probably means they are quite under-represented in the
sample, and women who were most fearful of abuse most likely are not included.
Overall, women were substantially younger and less educated than their husbands. Over
two third of them met their husbands through introductions by marriage brokers.

The

households tended to be economically disadvantaged, though more than half of the women were
denied access to or knowledge of finances in their marriage.
Data Collection Instrument and Procedure
In-depth interviews guided by a semi-structured interview schedule consisting of mostly
open-ended questions were conducted between June and August 2008. The instrument and
consent forms were initially developed in English and they were available to study participants in

28

both Korean and Vietnamese.
A back translation process was used to prepare instruments and consent forms in multiple
languages. First I translated the English versions into Korean. Two criminal justice Ph.D.
students separately translated the Korean back into English. Dr. Morash, who studies wife abuse
among immigrant women, then checked the English translations and the original English
versions and discussed any problems so that I could adjust the Korean versions. Dr. Morash and
three additional people were involved in the back translation process for Vietnamese. An
interpreter in the Department of Foreign Affairs in Vietnam translated the English materials into
Vietnamese. Dr. Bui, Associate Professor at the University of Tennessee, whose first language
was Vietnamese and who studies wife abuse among Vietnamese immigrants to the United States,
checked the English version against the Vietnamese version and made corrections. Finally, a
Vietnamese master student studying Korean language in Korea translated the materials back into
Korean, and I examined her translation and made final corrections. All of the consent forms and
questions are included in Appendix A through F.
The interview with each participant lasted from one to two hours. All participants
provided written informed consent. I assured privacy and confidentiality, ensuring that no data
would be presented in a way that it was possible to identify any individuals. All interviews were
conducted either in Korean or Vietnamese. For interviews with women who preferred to use
Vietnamese in the conversation, interpreters (Vietnamese to Korean) were used. Three
interpreters for this study were used. They all were Vietnamese and fluent in Korean. One of
them worked for migrant center as an interpreter and was a college graduate. Another was a
master student studying Korean language in Korea and the third was a high school graduate who
had lived in Korea for more than 10 years and worked in a company. She often worked for the

29

migrant center as a volunteer interpreter.
Social service providers advised me that I should seek Vietnamese women who had
children and who were older than study participants as interpreters to get good responses from
interview participants. They told me that if I used a student interpreter of the same age, women
participants would not be willing to give their voice. During the interview, I also realized that
women victims felt most comfortable when they were with the two interpreters other than the
master student. Thus, of 15 interviews conducted in Vietnamese, the two most effective
interpreters were used in 13 interviews.
The interviews were audio-taped with consent (20 or 91%) or I wrote down the responses
in Korean (2 or 9%). Topics addressed in the interview included: women‟s migration history;
women‟s attitudes towards and perceptions of family, marriage, gender roles, and domestic
violence; women‟s experiences of domestic violence; social contextual influences on women‟s
decisions; and women‟s help seeking and support networks. As a compensation for participation
in the study, all participants received a 15,000 won ($15) international phone card at the end of
the interview.
Data Management and Analysis
I transcribed audio-taped interviews into word files in Korean and also prepared word
files for the hand-recorded interviews. I then translated the responses into English. The
transcriptions in Korean and English were inputted into QRS Nvivo8 software for data analysis.
This made it possible for me to directly examine the Korean versions of responses as I carried
out the coding, interpretation, and analysis of the English version.
While in the field, I coded every line in the first set of interview transcripts and began to
identify themes in the data. After initial reading of the transcripts, I categorized demographic

30

information such as rural and urban location. During the process of collecting, preparing,
translating, and reading the data I realized that there were several themes that characterized the
context of women‟s marriages. These included the involvement of the marriage brokers in setting
up marriages, the different reasons that women had for marrying Korean men, unfulfilled
expectations of all parties involved (husbands, wives, in-laws), the causes of marital conflicts
and abuse, evidence of husbands‟ efforts to exert power and control in marriage, in-law
involvement in abuse, and the types of abuse that occurred. The data also contained considerable
information about the negative effects of abuse. Through a process of rereading the data
numerous times, I coded these themes and then identified and coded subthemes. Dr. Morash
examined the outline of themes in the NVivo8 software and examples of coded sections, and
suggested areas for improvement. (She also did this for the additional coding described in the
next paragraphs.) I used this analysis of contextual factors to describe women‟s marriages and
experiences and thus to establish the settings in which they tried to obtain help for abuse.
I also coded passages in the data relevant to the different sources of help with abuse and
women‟s actions to obtain help. For each woman, I developed a diagram of the series of
sequential steps in her help-seeking. From these diagrams, I identified distinct patterns of help
seeking. I also read the data for each woman to determine whether and how one type of help
seeking was connected to another, for example, if one source of help referred women to another.
I coded passages in the text that revealed the outcomes of trying to get help. The most
common help-seeking efforts were to obtain police intervention, to obtain social services
intervention, to file for divorce, and to seek informal support, for example from friends. I
examined the outcomes separately for each type of help-seeking.
The final type of coding was for information explaining why women did or did not try to

31

get help. I recognized several factors that might affect women‟s help seeking such as supportive
network, access to information, capacity to survive financially after leaving an abusive
relationship, language barriers, fear of discrimination, rural isolation, issues related to children,
and abuse severity. For possible influences identified in the data, I compared women with the
different patterns of help seeking in an effort to link the pattern to the possible influences. In
some cases, I found that possible explanations actually did not affect women. For example, since
all women‟s abuse was quite severe, the small differences between the women in severity of
abuse did not have anything to do with their help-seeking behavior.
The focus of the analysis was to look for patterns in the narratives. As I worked with the
data, I added themes and subcategories revealed in the transcripts. After all the sub-categories
and themes had been identified and coded, they were grouped into a smaller number of central
themes.
In addition to identifying individual themes in the data, I also figured out whether
multiple themes characterized some women or their experiences. For example, I not only
considered each reason women had for marrying Korean men, but I also determined which
combinations of reasons were most common. I also examined combinations of reasons for
conflict and abuse in the families.
During the analysis, I systematically compared subgroups of women to see how different
themes were connected. For this, I used the matrix function of Nvivo8 to examine patterns
involving similarities and differences within sub-samples. For example, I ran a matrix of type of
abuse by police involvement to see if the type of abuse was connected to whether women called
the police. As other examples, I always compared the experiences and the help-seeking of rural
and urban women, and of women who did and did not seek a particular type of help. I used these

32

comparisons to establish interconnections between women‟s circumstances and their helpseeking.
Validity
This study used triangulation of data sources to improve the credibility of findings.
Triangulation refers to a process of using multiple perceptions and includes using multiple data
sources, multiple methods, or multiple researchers (Merriam, 1998). A second source of data for
this study was telephone interviews with key informants. Key informants were chosen based on
their knowledge of domestic violence among Vietnamese women. They included seven social
service providers and one interpreter who worked for a marriage broker. The social services
providers worked for hot lines, the marriage immigrant center, a daycare facility that served
immigrant women, and a domestic violence shelter. One was a nun working as a marriage
conflict mediation counselor,
Social service providers were interviewed after most Vietnamese women had been
interviewed and based on the initial analysis of data. Social service providers were asked about
experiences offering services, support, and information to Vietnamese women. In addition to
these general areas of questioning, since many Vietnamese women lacked information on their
annual household incomes, I confirmed through social services providers that many of the
women lived in families with financial hardships. Because many study participants described
being referred to social services by people in their social networks, I asked the social service
providers about the process through which women came to use their services to provide a second
source of information. I had not expected the degree of in-law involvement in abuse that the
Vietnamese women described, so I questioned the social service providers about this and
obtained further evidence of the extent of this problem. As I analyzed the data from the

33

Vietnamese women, I examined what the service providers and also the marriage broker
translator said. Their responses were particularly helpful in adding corroborating and adding to
what abused women said about the activities of marriage brokers and on the influences on
women‟s help seeking.
Another important way to improve the credibility of a qualitative study is to see whether
findings are supported by other research on other women in similar situations. As I wrote about
the study findings and in the concluding chapter, I noted other research that was similar or
dissimilar to what I found from my data.

34

CHAPTER FOUR:
THE NATURE OF THE ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS

This chapter describes the women‟s perceptions of the causes and the nature of the
abusive relationships. Women‟s experience of and explanations for abuse were part of the context
in which they made decisions and took actions related to getting help. Many problems in
relationships seem to come from the circumstances under which Vietnamese women enter into
marriage. Thus, this chapter addresses how marriage relationships were formed, the nature of
marital relationships, and the reasons for and nature of women‟s abuse. Often unfulfilled
expectations and needs characterized marital relations.
Circumstances Leading to Marriage
Twenty women (91%) met their husbands in Vietnam. Sixteen (72.7%) of them had
marriages arranged by marriage brokers. Two of them (9.1%) met their husbands through
introduction of their friends or relatives who married Korean men. Only two of the twenty
women who met their husbands in Vietnam (9.1%) had love marriages. The women with love
marriages married Korean men who were in Vietnam either traveling or working. The two
women (9.1%) who met their husbands in Korea came to Korea as industrial trainees and met
and married their husbands. They also can be described as having love marriages.
The Role of Marriage Brokers
The specific procedure of a marriage arranged by marriage brokers is as followed. The
Vietnamese brokers travel the rural areas in Vietnam and gather women from villages. After
gathering several women, the brokers take the women to large cities such as Ho Chi Minh. Until
married, the women live at a lodging facility operated by the Vietnamese brokers and meet

35

Korean men who have come for matchmaking-meetings. The Korean brokers arrange six day
matchmaking tours to Vietnam for Korean bachelors. In the process, Korean men are regarded as
clients with the right to select their brides; they meet with at least twenty to thirty women and
with up to 200 or even 300 (Ko, Kim, So, Kim, & Kim, 2005).
Women explained this process,
I met and married my husband via introduction from a marriage broker…. Brokers
collected women from local places in Ho Chi Min City. They had the girls stay together
and arranged meetings for marriage opportunities.… I stayed with many other
Vietnamese girls who came to Ho Chi Min City from various local places to have
meetings with Korean men with a view to marriage. The meetings took place with many
Vietnamese girls and a few Korean men attending. My current husband chose me after
several meetings, and we got married right after the final meeting. I liked my husband
when he chose me. (Phương)
The marriage broker in Ho Chi Min City sends recruiters to rural areas to find girls. The
recruited girls are provided with accommodation. They pretty themselves up and go to
meetings with Korean men. I had these meetings for one month staying in Ho Chi Min,
but nobody liked me. So I had to go back to my hometown. Later, when I came to a
meeting in Ho Chi Min, my current husband liked me among other girls and we married.
He stayed in Vietnam for one week. During this period, he had several match making
meetings with other girls and finally picked and married me. Then, he went back to
Korea. With help from the marriage brokers, he prepared the documents for my entry
into the county and sent them to me. I was able to come to the country four months after
our wedding. (Quỳnh)
36

Although most women who had marriages arranged by brokers met their husband at the
match making meetings, one woman met her husband in a slightly different way. The marriage
broker took pictures of women and uploaded their photos on the website. Her husband, who saw
her photos in Korea, came to Vietnam to meet her. Hiền described what happened,
Someone who was acquainted with my mother introduce me to a marriage broker in
Vietnam. He took a picture of me and uploaded my photos on the website. My husband,
who saw my photos, came to Vietnam to meet me. I appealed to him. We got marred after
a one-time meeting.
A majority of women (15 or 68.2%) stated that marriage brokers gave them inaccurate or
insufficient information on their future husbands. At the time of migration of the women in this
sample, in Korea, marriage brokerage did not require registration or authorization (Presidential
Committee on Social Inclusion, 2005). In 2008, the Korean government set up legal regulations
for international marriage brokers which required them to register with state authorizes to open
their business. In 2010, a new regulation requiring sharing of accurate information to both parties
in the international marriage process was established (Chosunilbo, 2010, July 16)
Women described their experiences before the new regulations were established,
The brokers told me at first that my husband owned a restaurant. I was told that he made
about 1.5 million Won ($1,500) per month. But later, they changed their words and said
that he ran a fruit shop. But in fact, my husband was a stall keeper selling vegetables and
fruits. I was informed that it would be his second marriage and that he had two kids,
which was true. (Ngọc)
I heard from the marriage broker that my husband was making a good salary and
possessed a landed property, but he lived in a rented room. (Thúy)
37

The broker did not tell me that my husband was re-marrying and had two girls with his
ex-wife. I found this out only after I came to Korea. (Huyền)
It is not known whether the new regulations have indeed resulted in the sharing of more accurate
information about potential husbands; this change would be an important focus of future research.
Women stated that their husbands paid a fee of between US$10,000 and $12,000 in the
process of international marriage. They noted that several costs were involved,
The husbands pay when requested for living expenses while boarding [the women lived at
a lodging facility during matchmaking-meetings], wedding expenses, a fee to parents,
and airfare. My husband said that he paid 12 million Won ($12,000). (Cúc)
I didn’t pay a commission. I got $100 after I let them take a picture of me and upload my
photo. I heard that my husband paid a commission of about $10,000 to the marriage
broker agency. My family received $1,000 from the marriage broker and my husband
gave my mother $500 when I married him. (Hiền)
Some husbands or in-laws seemed to have the idea that they should have control over
their wives or daughters-in-law because they paid all costs for the marriage. For example, Oanh
said,
She [mother-in-law] told me to pay all the money spent for the marriage if I wanted to
divorce and return to Vietnam. She said that she would return my passport and visa only
when I gave her the money.
Overall, the process leading to marriage included the men‟s selection of a bride, inaccurate
information provided to future wives, and a commission fee that husbands paid for their marriage.
This process may affect the distribution of power and tendencies towards men‟s and their
38

families‟ control of women after the marriage took place.
Reasons for Marrying Korean Men
Women identified several types of reasons for their decision to marry. Fifteen (68.2%)
married Korean men to help their families in tough financial situations in Vietnam. Liên and
Hiền were two of the women who wanted to help their natal families.
My hometown is located in southern Vietnam. My father passed away much earlier and I
have a mother, one younger sister, and one younger brother. At home I helped my mother
selling coffee and also worked as a sewing machine operator. My mother had much debt
and the living was so hard. So I married a Korean man to make money in Korea and help
my mother. (Liên)
Our family was heavily in debt and my father, who had suffered from high blood pressure,
became worse and went to the hospital. My mom and the people around me persuaded
me to marry a Korean man. My brother went to Ho Chi Minh City to seek a job in 2003
and in 2004, but he didn’t get a job. He heard from brokers that he would earn money if
he could go to Malaysia as a worker. To send him to Malaysia, our family incurred a lot
of debt (more than $2,000; workers usually earn $100 per month), but he didn’t send us
money for one year while he was in Malaysia. Creditors pressured my father for
immediate payment, and my father’s illness got worse. My father opposed my choice to
marry a Korean man because he believed I would have various hardships. (Hiền)
The next most common reason for marriage was expectation of a better life in Korea.
Nine women (40.9%) said they considered international marriage as a way to improve their lives.
Examples illustrate the advantages they associated with marrying Korean men.

39

Living in Vietnam was so difficult. My father was sick and all my family members relied
on my income. Through hearsay I learned that I could make money myself and become
well-off if I married a Korean man. So I made a decision for international marriage.
(Vân)
I married him as I thought that marrying a Korean man would make me live a richer life
compared to marrying a Vietnamese man, as Korea is a wealthier country. (Cúc)
I had this fantasy about Korea: The Korean Dream. I thought that I could be
economically more comfortable. In my village, there were more and more Vietnamese
women marrying Korean men and I heard of only good words about married life in
Korea from them. (Bình)
I thought that I wanted to marry a Korean man as I heard that my friends in the
neighborhood married Korean men and were happy. (Lý)
Some women held conflicting perceptions of whether an international marriage would
turn out well.

Marriage to Korean men was seen to offer economic security. Korea was

perceived as wealthy and free of poverty. Eighteen women (81.8%) married Korean men to make
money and help their families in Vietnam or for a better life in Korea. However, several women
heard about negative international marriage cases. Despite these cases, international marriage
was considered as an opportunity for the women and their families to escape from extreme
poverty. Hiền, whose dire economic circumstances and fathers‟ concerns about her marrying a
Korean man are described above, explained how she balanced positive and negative outcomes in
her decision to marry,

40

I have thought about international marriage negatively because it was not often
grounded on love. Usually, Vietnamese women got married with Korean men for money
and Korean men got married to meet their needs. So, I didn’t want to marry a man of a
different nationality because it was an undesirable thing for me. In addition, I have heard
about several problems including domestic violence among Vietnamese wives in Korea.
However, we were in dire need of money and thus we have no choice. I thought I should
go to Korea and I was ready for death. (Hiền)
Liên had a different explanation of how she discounted concerns about domestic violence,
I learned from the news that Korean husbands beat Vietnamese wives. I thought that it
was horrible but I came thinking that not everyone would be that bad. (Liên)
Negative information did not always prevent women from marrying, in Hiền‟s case, even when
she thought the outcome could be as serious as death.
The increase in international marriage with Korean men as a way to improve one‟s life is
related to what is called the Korean Wave, although this alone might not be the determining
factor. The Korean Wave is the phenomenon that South Korean culture has become immensely
popular in other Asian countries. According to a newspaper report (A. West, 2008, February 14 ),
the Korean Wave, which began in Vietnam with the export of Korean TV dramas, still rages on.
The paper also reported that “Korean dramas‟ topics of family struggles, love, romance, and filial
piety in an age of changing technology and values quickly struck home for Vietnamese viewers”
(p. 11). Women in the present research said that the Korean films and TV soap operas gave them
the impression that Korea was an industrialized and advanced nation, and that Korean men were
kind, romantic and handsome. For example,
I watched TV and just thought that Korea was a wealthy and good country. (Lý)
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I saw Korean soap operas a lot when I was working in Ho Chi Min City. Seeing them, I
thought that Korea was a beautiful country and Korean guys were wonderful. I expected
that life in Korea would be fine. (Oanh)
I saw Korean television programs which showed Korean people living in a wonderful
house and having a wealthy life. It looked good so I wanted to come to Korea. (Giang)
Connected with desires for a better life and perhaps the Korean Wave, a few of the
women (3 or 13.6%) disclosed that they married Korean men because they lacked the
shortcomings of local men. Women explained,
I saw men hitting their wives many times in Vietnam. I heard that in Korea, unlike
Vietnam, husbands did not hit wives. It was alright for me for a husband to drink a little
but I wanted a man who would not hit his wife. (Bình)
I had a favorable sentiment toward Korea. I heard that Korean men didn’t drink much
while Vietnamese men drank and got into fights so frequently. (Phương)
Other women had personal reasons for seeking Korean husbands. Four women (18.2%)
stated that they married Korean men because of love. Two of them came to Korea as industrial
trainees and met their husbands in Korea. One of them said,
I received an industrial trainee visa in 2001 and came to Korea to learn technology and
make money. The visa was for 6 months stay. After 6 months in Korea, I became an
undocumented worker. Then a Vietnamese female acquaintance with whom I lived as an
industrial trainee introduced me to my husband. We fell in love and got married in 2002
after about five months of dating. The Vietnamese roommate's boyfriend was an older
cousin of my husband. (Hạnh)

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Two women had love marriages in Vietnam. They stated that they persuaded their parents,
who opposed their marriages with Korean men, to allow their marriages. Thảo, who met her
husband by chance at a beauty shop and married him after four months of dating, said,
My parents persisted in their opposition to my marriage. They mentioned the difficult life
faced by marriage-based migrant women. Then, I told my parents that I was different. I
told them that we met in a different way and there would be no problem as we were in
love. I thought that our encounter was an act of providence.
One woman (Mai) considered international marriage due to the failure of her first
marriage in Vietnam,
I married once in Vietnam. My ex-husband in Vietnam raped a 12-year-old girl and was
imprisoned. My child, now a high schooler, lives in Vietnam and is being raised by my
mother. I have been separated from my ex-husband for a long time. I thought that I
wanted to live far away from Vietnam if I'd marry again to start a new life….I wanted to
start a new life in a place far away from Vietnam. So I thought of international marriage
with a Korean man and expected to have a lucky chance to meet a nice person.
About half of the women, including those described above, gave multiple reasons for
marrying Korean men. Ten noted two explanations. Most typical in this group, six of them
explained that “desire to help the family in Vietnam” and “expectation of better life in Korea”
were the two reasons they married internationally. The combination of poverty in Vietnam and
expectation of a life of better quality and stability in Korea contributed greatly to them marrying
Korean men. Cúc combined the two reasons in her explanation,

43

Although I didn’t know much about living in Korea or marrying a Korean man, my family
was so poor and I thought that I could become rich by marrying a Korean man and help
my parents in Vietnam.
Three women explained that “not liking local men” (due to their drinking and fighting) was
combined with “desire to help the family in Vietnam,” “love,” or an “expectation of a better life
in Korea.”
For women who had favorable sentiments toward Korea and Korean men compared to
Vietnamese men, expectations of a better life in Korea, desire to help the family in tough
financial situation in Vietnam, or a feeling of love were additional motives for international
marriage. Exemplifying how a complex set of factors combined to influence many women‟s
marriage decisions, Mai explained that the “failure of my first marriage in Vietnam” and
“expectation of a better life in Korea” were the two reasons for marrying a Korean man. As
mentioned before, she wanted to start a new life in a place far away from Vietnam after her first
marriage in Vietnam ended in divorce. For her, Korea was a land of opportunity to pursue a new
life with financial stability. She stated,
I heard from someone in Korea I was acquainted with that good Korean people were nice
and helpful to foreigners…. I was advised [by the broker] that I wouldn't have to live
worrying about living expenses and that my husband would be nice to me.
Although multiple reasons for international marriage were common, twelve women (54.5%)
noted just one explanation, such as “to help the family in Vietnam,” “love,” or “for a better life.”
Unfulfilled Expectation in Marriage
Unfulfilled expectations and needs were dominant themes that characterized women‟s
marriages. As mentioned earlier, eighteen women (81.8%) considered international marriage as a
44

way to help the family in Vietnam or improve their own lives once they were living in Korea.
However, Vietnamese women‟s expectations of Korea were not always matched by their social
and economic realities. Their husbands earned low incomes or had limited financial contributions
to the household. Hồng described a typical example of this,
The broker told me that my husband had worked for an insurance company after
graduation from a university but resigned when he was 35 years old to start farming.
Also I was told that he was well off in Korea earning about 5 million Won ($5,000) a
month. But when I came to Korea, I saw my husband drinking everyday and never
working. While it was true that he was a university graduate, he was an alcoholic and
looked like a loser in life.
Giang felt frustrated when she discovered that her marriage destined her to live in a farming
village. She wanted to work outside of the home to earn money and send money to her mother in
Vietnam, but she could not even tell this to her husband and mother-in-law. She described her
situation,
The marriage broker told me that my husband was an automobile engineer and lived in
Pusan [the second largest city in Korea]. But I was disappointed to come to Korea only
to find that he was living in [a rural area] as a farmer…. When I first met my husband,
who he was didn’t matter so much. I just wanted to help my mother in Vietnam when I
came to Korea. As I spent much money to come to Korea, I wanted to go out and make
money. But all the family members including my mother-in-law didn’t like it when I went
out. So I just could not tell them that I wanted to go out to work.
Bình was shocked to discover that she was expected to serve as a dutiful daughter-in-law and
wife.
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I thought that I could be economically more stable [in Korea]… I heard that my husband
worked for a company in Seoul with 2.5 million Won (U.S. $2,500) of monthly income
and that my mother-in-law was running a business. But when I came to Korea, I found
that the mother-in-law was well over eighty and was unable to move her body. I had to
live with the mother-in-law, whose legs were crippled, and I had to take care of her as
she could not move her body. It seems to me that instead of taking care of his own mother,
my husband’s older brother was looking for a woman that would marry his brother [my
husband], who had mental disorders, and take good care of his disabled mother. It turns
out that my husband’s older brother provided the money to arrange the marriage
between myself and my husband.
The story of Bình was an extreme example of an unfulfilled expectation for both the
Korean husband and the Vietnamese wife. Bình migrated to the Korea, which she saw as a land
of economic opportunity where she could pursue a life of better quality and financial stability.
However, when these expectations were not met, she felt deprived and frustrated. Bình‟s husband
and family expected that his Vietnamese wife would focus on domestic duties and housework,
give birth to his children, take care of his elderly parents, and remain submissive and obedient to
him. Much conflict arose when each party to the marriage failed to meet the other‟s expectations
and needs. When Bình attempted to let her needs be known, she met with resistance by her
husband and in-laws.
I wanted to go out and make money but all the family members including my husband
were opposed to my working outside and this was the main cause of conflicts.… My
husband’s two sisters came and, while seizing me by the hair and beating me, said, “You
want to run away. You want to go out and live together with another man.” My mother46

in-law told the sisters that I was not cleaning and making the home tidy. So, they came
to beat me.
As this extreme case illustrates and as I further explain next, domestic violence was frequently an
outcome of unfulfilled needs and conflicting expectations.
Reasons for Marital Conflicts and Abuse
Women described several types of reasons for conflict in their marriages that led to their
abuse. Women had conflicts with their husbands and in-laws over financial matters. In-laws and
in some cases husbands disagreed with women not only about money, but also about parenting,
housework, and the women‟s working outside of the home. They sometimes accused women of
having extramarital affairs. Men demanded sexual activity that women did not like and more
frequently than women wanted. Finally, men criticized their wives for not understanding and
speaking Korean at the same time that they left wives with no idea why they were angry and
abusive. Many women felt that in-laws incited their husbands‟ abuse. Often (mentioned by 11
or 50% of women), violence erupted during conflicts and disagreements when husbands and inlaws perceived wives to be “talking back” or “arguing.” At other times, lengthy periods of men‟s
extreme intoxication seemed to account for the abuse. Examples provided below illustrate the
various issues central to conflicts, in-laws‟ involvement in abuse, and women‟s perception of
men‟s intoxication as contributing to abuse.
Conflicts over Money
Almost half of the women (10) described conflicts over money that centered on such
things as inadequate income and sending money to Vietnam. They described financial problems
as a frequent root cause of problems in the household, because their husbands were not employed
or earned low incomes. The husbands often beat their wives if they complained about husbands‟
47

limited contributions to the household.
The serious financial difficulty that grew out of my husband being a daily worker living
from hand to mouth instead of having a stable job is the major cause of all conflicts… We
often had fights. He comes home drunk two or three times a week. He cannot go out to
work the next day due to drinking. Then, he does not make living expenses for the day.
When I complained about how we would manage our life if he drank and missed work,
and when I told him that 1 million Won (U.S. $1,000) a month couldn’t cover our living
expenses, including the baby’s powdered milk, he got angry and hot-tempered, and beat
me. (Vân)
We often fought as my husband didn’t work and we were badly off. When I told him that
it was very difficult even without a kid and asked what we would do with a kid later, he
got angry and beat me. (Bình)
He didn't go to work for many days and this led us to fight a lot. When I told him that he
was supposed to go to work and make money, he said, "You make your own money for
your life." When I talked back saying "I am making my own money," he said that I
behaved condescendingly and got angry. Then he threw things and shouted at me so
loudly. (Mỹ)
Several women had to take over family financial responsibilities because their husbands
lost their jobs or did not want to work. Even when women were the sole wage earners, husbands
often took all of the earnings. Some –like Anh and Hạnh‟s husbands – used force against their
wives if they complained about it.

48

My husband made little money. I worked in a restaurant, but all the money went to his
bank account. He gave me only 50 to 70 thousand Won (50 to 70 dollars) for allowance. I
spent the money to fuel my motorcycle and to buy clothes for my kids. After that, I had
nothing left. When I asked him why he gave me so little money, I was beaten almost to
death. (Anh)
I had fights with my husband because of financial problems….When we came to this city
and I was working, he was not. He asked me for money every day. He took the money, left
home and then came home drunk and shouting at 2or 3 a.m. My kids were woken from
their sleep. He yelled and asked for money in the early hours. I had fights with him
asking why we had to have such a difficult life. When I asked him why he was not helping
with housework or child rearing, he grabbed my hair saying that I was rudely talking
back to him. He pulled out half of my hair. He usually beat on my face with his fists. He
pushed and I fell. But he still kept beating on my face, which had torn and bleeding skin
around my eye. (Hạnh)
Women also described abuse resulting from their desire to send money to Vietnam. They
wanted to remit funds to Vietnam, but they were often unable to do so because it was against
their husbands‟ or in-laws‟ wishes or because their Korean families had limited cash resources.
Quỳnh said,
Once I needed money for my father’s hospitalization as he was very sick. I told my
husband who told his sister about it. She said that we had no money and couldn’t help my
father. I had angry words saying that I worked and made money and how come I had no
money with me and how come I was not allowed to send money. Then I was beaten
because I was talking back to my husband and mother-in-law.
49

One woman‟s husband did send money to her father in Vietnam, which made the mother-in-law
very upset.
After I came to Korea, when my father got sick in Vietnam, my husband sent $500 to my
father without letting his parents know. My mother-in-law found out about this later, got
angry, and yelled at us about it. My husband told his parents that the sum was small
(about $100 or $200). (Oanh)
Thanh told a similar story, though her in-laws were not involved.
We had fights because of my remittances to Vietnam. At first, he promised that I would
send the money I earned, but later he was opposed to remittances, telling me that a
couple shares everything and there is no such thing as mine or yours, so my money was
his.
Conflicts with Husbands and In-laws over Child Rearing and Household Chores
Women did not unanimously buy into expectations that they were responsible for
household chores. They may have been affected by breaks with the traditional view of women‟s
subservience in Vietnam or changing views after they arrived in Korea. The data provided two
examples of how husbands reacted with abuse to wives‟ requests that husbands help with chores.
I have to do kitchen work again after I come back from farming. And my husband
wouldn’t take care of the baby and we fought many times because of this. (Lý)
When I asked him why he was not helping with housework or child rearing, he grabbed
my hair saying that I was rudely talking back to him. Half of my hair fell out. (Hạnh)
Even more common than women‟s demands that men help with housework, women felt
that conflicts with in-laws over parenting and household chores led to tension in their marriages.
50

Ten of them (45.5%) indicated that these sorts of disagreements with in-laws were the main
reason for physical and emotional abuse by husbands or in-laws. Women and their mothers-inlaw often had different opinions about how to do the housework and how to rear children. In
addition, they disagreed about whether wives should work outside the home and, as already
noted, send money to Vietnam. Most women described abuse involving in-laws that occurred
while they were residing with the in-laws. Usually the mother-in-law was abusive, as illustrated
in the comment,
My conflicts with her mostly came from childrearing. There were many clashes of
opinions as we had different thoughts and, when I told my husband, he always instructed
me to listen to his mother. For example, when cooking for my baby, she maintained that I
could cut meat large while I told her that the meat should be cut into small pieces for
convenient eating. We always quarreled because of these matters. When my baby had a
fever and was sick, I tried to alleviate the fever with a damp towel as we couldn’t go to
the hospital. Then, she maintained that I should stop doing that but should cover him with
bedclothes. When I kept giving her my opinion, my husband shouted and swore at me.
(Thảo)
It was 2 months after I gave birth when I lived with my mother-in-law that the situation
worsened even more. Koreans seem to take much interest in their family. But my motherin-law’s intervention was too much. Her behaviors or standards of judgments were
arbitrary and changed all the time. And she frequently got mad when she didn’t like me.
Normally, I cooked rice at 7 p.m. first and then my mother-in-law made side dishes. Then,
she got angry saying that I cooked rice when there were no side dishes ready. When I
didn’t cook rice but waited for her to make side dishes the next day, she got angry
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because I didn’t cook rice. Her behaviors were inconsistent and I never figured out how
to behave. She always changed her mind arbitrarily. (Dung)
Women also described abuse by husbands after their in-laws‟ visits to their homes or after
husbands spoke to their relatives on the phone. Examples of in-laws inciting husbands to be
abusive are,
Most of the conflicts with my husband came from problems with my mother-in-law.
Before I had a baby, I didn’t live with her. I didn’t know how to handle old Kimchi or
side dishes in Korea. After I didn’t properly dispose of old side dishes, my mother-in-law
dropped by, called my husband separately later and told him about it. He came home
later, picked out old Kimchi and side dishes, and beat me. I told him that I didn’t know
how to keep house and I wanted him to let me know how to do it. I told him that I wanted
to become a good wife and an excellent mother. But even after that, he beat me so hard
without explanation when I made a mistake. (Dung)
My mother-in-law told my husband’s sisters on me that I was not cleaning to keep things
tidy and they came to beat me. When the mother-in-law called them, they would travel to
visit me from far away, from Incheon or Seoul. It took only 3 hours to arrive to beat me
after the mother’s call. (Bình)
Women described their husbands using force to control them when they had
disagreements with their in-laws, talked back to their in-laws, or when they blamed their
husbands for standing by their-in-laws.
My husband slapped me on the face and hit me in the tummy. Especially, when I was
pregnant and had a fight with his mother, he listened only to her and hit me in the tummy.

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My stomach ached so much. ….. He beat me mostly based on the reason that I had
problems with his mother. She always made up pretexts to scold me and I often inquired,
asking what have I done so wrong? My husband, hearing this, beat me saying that I was
not supposed to talk back to his mother. (Quỳnh)
My husband said that I was never supposed to talk while his mother was talking and that
I wasn’t supposed to talk back. (Hạnh)
This last citation provides an example of how, in addition to husband and in-law perceptions that
women were failing in such areas such as housekeeping and child rearing, when women tried to
explain or defend themselves, they might be accused of “talking back,” and thus beaten or
otherwise abused for that transgression.
Conflicts over Women’s Work outside the Home
Although some women were expected to work outside the home, a few (4 or 18.2%) who
wanted to work and earn income joined Korean families that prohibited or discouraged this.
He didn’t like it when I went to work at his oldest sister’s sliced-raw-fish restaurant and
was reluctant to allow me to go. This often elevated his violence, too. Especially, on
Sundays, he hated it, asking me why I was going out to work when he was resting at home.
When I was preparing to go out, he beat me saying that I must not go out. (Liên)
I often quarreled with my husband. I fought because my husband was not interested and
would not help me when I wanted to do something. I want to go out and make money but
he just ignores this. When we quarrel, I shout as my husband tends to be quiet and does
not speak. Then my husband stealthily went out and I would ask him where he was going

53

when we were arguing. I asked him to send me back to Vietnam. When I said that I
wanted to go back to Vietnam, my mother-in-law yelled at me. (Giang)
Some husbands and their relatives appeared to have very traditional ideas about family life. As
mentioned before, they expected that Vietnamese wives would focus on reproduction and
housework and did not tolerate it when their wives rejected these expectations. They also
expected that the wives would not express opinions and would not explain their point of view.
When wives refused to be silent, husbands and families abused them. These patterns, including
prohibitions against women‟s work outside the home, are based on marital family members‟
expectation of extremes of patriarchal family arrangements.
Conflict over Women’s Sexual Activity
Men‟s accusations that women were having affairs and their requirements for “on
demand” sex to serve themselves were the basis for some men‟s anger and abuse. Four women
reported accusations of having affairs with no grounds for suspicion as the main source of
conflict within their families. Due to husbands‟ suspicions about affairs, the women were not
allowed to contact others or work outside the home.
Last summer, I had an outing with a close Vietnamese friend who was my neighbor who,
like me, had one daughter. He suspected I cheated on him and hit me severely. “Why did
you go out? Don’t you play with your boyfriend? You’re cheating on me. I already told
you, you stay home.” (Thúy)
When I told them [husband and in-laws] I would go out to make money, everyone was
opposed. Seizing me by the hair and beating me, my husband’s two sisters came and said,
“You want to run away. You want to go out and live together with another man.” (Bình)
Two additional women were restricted from socializing with friends or forced to quit their jobs,
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because of suspected sexual activity. For instance, Mỹ‟s husband doubted the relationship
between her and her employer and urged her to leave the job. The resulting argument culminated
in her husband‟s abuse against her and finally, she left the job.
At the same time they demanded that women avoid sex or even contact with other people,
men insisted on access to women‟s bodies for sex regardless of women‟s desires. One of the
three women (13.6%) who attributed marital conflict to unwanted sexual activity explained her
situation,
My husband forced me to have sex with him too much when I didn’t want to. It was
almost every day that we had sex. Later, it was so hard and I expressed that I didn’t like
it. Then, he bullied saying that I was not supposed to avoid sex as we were married and it
was a natural thing to do. He also asked me if I had another man. He would beat me if I
said I didn’t want to when he asked me to have sex. (Phương)
Phương‟s comment is telling, for it explicitly links restrictions on women‟s sexual activity to
requirements for sexual activity with husbands. Husbands seemed to have ideas about their
sexual ownership of their wives. As has been observed in Lichtenstein‟s study (2005), husbands
exerted sexual ownership through sexual coercion, threats, beatings, and name-calling. Jealousy
or accusations of having affairs with no grounds for suspicion were another way for husbands to
exert sexual ownership. This often involved isolating women from their friends and families and
keeping them from working as a part of a pattern of control and abuse.
Communication Problems Related to Abuse
At times women‟s inability to speak and understand Korean enraged their husbands and
prompted abuse. As Ngọc put it “He would beat me because he was stressed and I did not
understand Korean and we could not communicate.” Limited language ability also left some
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women bewildered about why their husbands were angry and abusive. Nine of the women
(40.9 %) talked about such communication difficulties as reasons for tension in marriages.
Women said they had a hard time communicating with their husbands because they could not
make themselves understood in Korean or find the appropriate Korean words to express
themselves. Thus, some of them stayed quiet when their husbands became angry with them. In
specific examples, women with limited Korean language ability explained that they had
absolutely no idea why their husbands beat them, but if they did know, they would do their best
to act in ways their husbands approved of.
He got uncomfortable and hit me wildly when we could not communicate because I didn’t
understand Korean. Not understanding Korean, I did not know in which way he wanted
me to behave or what the problem was. When I didn’t understand him, he tried to
strangle me, threw things at me, and threatened me while brandishing a knife. (Liên)
He didn’t let me know how I should act and when he didn’t like me, he used force wildly.
As I did not speak Korean, I expected that he would teach me Korean and how to act
when I first came to Korea. However, he suddenly got angry for no reason, yelled and
beat me. I did not know what the problem was. (Huyền)
However, Dung was more critical about her husband,
He spoke in Korean when we fought and when we could not understand each other, he
went mad, again asking why I didn’t practice Korean when I was staying at home. He
does not speak Vietnamese at all. He never tried to learn. (Dung)
Dung blamed her husband for contributing to the couple‟s misunderstandings due to language.

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Intoxication as a Cause of Conflicts and a Trigger for Abuse
The literature on domestic violence presents a complex picture of the connection of
men‟s intoxication to their abusive behavior. Some early work suggested alcoholism caused men
to be abusive (Kantor & Straus, 1987). However, there are substantial disagreements about
whether intoxication plays a causal role in abusive behavior (Klostermann & Fals-Stewart, 2006;
Leonard, 2005). Some suggest that there is no credible evidence that intoxication is a major
cause of domestic violence, although excessive alcohol use may increase the severity of abuse
and serve as an excuse men make for their own behavior (Giancola, 2002; Rice & Harris, 1995;
Zubretsky & Digirolamo, 1996).
Although some critics reject the notion that men‟s intoxication accounts for their abusive
behavior, eight women (36.4%) felt that alcohol intoxication was at least one influence leading to
marital conflicts and abuse. Here are a few examples,
My husband drinks every other day. When drunk, he always gets crazy, throws away
things and beats me for no reason. (Cúc)
He did not have problems when he was sober but when drunk, he was a totally different
person. He shouted, swore, and beat me wildly. This gradually worsened…. My husband
yelled and swore at me whenever he was drunk. Once he got home drunk and wanted
cigarettes. But there were none. I had no money and could not buy any for him. So I
made a cup of coffee for him. Then, he threatened me with a knife asking me why I was
giving him coffee. (Hồng)
As Hồng described, alcohol intoxication often led to violence and increased the severity of the
violent episode. However, five of women who pointed to their husbands‟ intoxication as a reason
leading to abuse provided multiple explanations of abuse by their husbands. This suggested that
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an association between alcoholism and abusive behavior by husbands does not indicate a primary
causal role of alcohol in domestic violence.
Multiple Reasons for Conflicts and Abuse
As found for reasons for marriage to Korean men, women usually gave multiple
explanations of why men and in-laws argued with and abused them.

Just three women (Mai,

Cúc, and Hồng) reported that alcohol intoxication was the only reason for marital conflicts or
abuse. For all other women, there were multiple reasons. As illustrated above, conflicts over
money, conflicts with in-laws, conflict over work outside the home or household chores, and
efforts to control women‟s bodies and sexual activity were most often combined with each other.
They often resulted in women‟s talking back and arguing with Korean family members, which
led to abuse.
Women Exercising Their Agency
As mentioned in Chapter Two, cultural values and practices based on Confucian thoughts
provided Vietnamese women with a specific cultural context in Korea: patriarchal family, male
supremacy and the subordination of women, and the duties as a wife, a mother, and daughter-inlaw. However, many women from Vietnam did not expect to follow very strict traditional ideas
about their role in the family. As mentioned before, they often came to Korea to enjoy a better
life including more freedoms, such as avoiding marriage to patriarchal abusive men and
becoming employed. Thus, women exercised their agency to try to improve their status in the
family and/ or economic standing in Korea. This often led the conflict between them and their
husbands or in-laws. Thus, Vietnamese abused women in this sample were not passive.

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Nature of Abuse
As a result of family discord, women in the sample experienced a broad range of abusive
behavior by their spouses or in-laws, including emotional, economic, physical, and sexual abuse.
Since the type of abuse can influence women‟s responses to it, the elements of abuse and their
interconnections are described next.
Physical Abuse
Twenty (90.9%) women had experienced physical abuse by their husband, four (18.2%)
by both husbands and in-laws, and one (4.5%) by just in-laws. Physical abuse that women
reported included but was not limited to such acts of violence as hitting with objects, punching,
slapping, kicking, pulling hair, grabbing, choking, throwing objects, and threatening with a knife.
Four women (18.2%) indicated being physically abused while pregnant. For nineteen women
(86.4%), physical abuse by their husbands or in-laws began within a year after immigration to
Korea and/or coincided with early communication problems due to language barriers, conflicts
with in-laws, or pregnancy. Women revealed this pattern of abuse,
His violence began right after our marriage and he beat me twice for one week during
which I lived with him. (Ngọc)
My husband’s violence began soon after my arrival in Korea which was at the same time
when my conflict with my mother-in-law became serious. After we lived separately from
her, the situation improved a little. (Quỳnh)
My husband became violent when I was five months pregnant. Then, he usually knocked
me on my head with his fists and arms. Later, he hit my arms, kicked me and hit me in my
stomach. (Dung)

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Physical abuse for the other two women (9.1%) began between one and three years after their
arrival in Korea and/or after they had a child with their partners or started work outside the home.
For two women, the start of the abuse was linked to their husbands‟ suspicions that they were
having relationships with other men. Mỹ‟s husband suspected a relationship between Mỹ and
her employer after she began to work as a clerk at a shop. She explained,
I began working as a clerk at a shop starting in fall 2006. My husband didn't want me to
go out to work. He frequently doubted the relationship between me and my employer and
urged me to leave the job… It [his violence] began in August, 2006 and continued… In
the middle of a quarrel about his doubts about the relationship between me and my
employer, I went to work. My husband called me and told me to resign and come home
immediately. I talked back, saying that he could not force his own way on me. Then, he
came to the shop, shouted and swore at me, and told me to get out of the shop
immediately. (Mỹ)
Hạnh‟s husband suspected she had a son from another man after their first child was
born; his suspicion worsened their marriage conflict. She said,
My husband was good to me until our first child’s birth. After our first child was born,
my husband began to suspect me [that I had my son from another man] and this broke us
apart and worsened our situation…One of my husband’s friends had a bad idea about
our son. He said that my son, with large eyes, didn’t have the look of my husband. So he
assumed that I met a Vietnamese man, cheated on my husband, and gave birth to this
man’s child. My husband began suspecting me after he heard this. I told him that I never
cheated on him and that I was neither a bad person nor a bad woman. I also told him that
I would not leave home but would live together with him and our child. But he didn’t trust
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me. We often had fights because of this. My husband went mad, grabbed me by my hair
and beat me wildly. (Hạnh)
Women reported that their in-laws were often aware of abuse being perpetrated against them, but
contributed to the abuse by tolerating or participating in it. For example,
When my husband got drunk and angry, he would grab my hair and smash my head on
the floor. He boxed me on the ears many times. He swore, tried to strangle me, and told
me that I must leave the house. I got scared and screamed. I tried to escape and wanted
my mother-in-law to stop him. But she would pretend she didn’t know or would yell
beside me, get angrier than him and swear. (Anh)
My husband’s parents lived next door to us in the past but didn’t stop my husband when
he beat me. My mother-in-law said that I should be sent back to Vietnam. (Cúc)
I normally used a calling card when I called Vietnam. That day, I had no card and called
from home for just one minute and this was a problem. I called as I had an urgent issue.
But my husband knocked me on the head in front of his mother accusing me of making an
international call on the home telephone when it was expensive…. But she didn’t stop
him beating me. (Dung)
Five women (22.7%) suffered some degree of abuse at the hands of their in-laws; just one
of them did not also experience physical abuse by her husband (Oanh). Abuse occurred while the
women lived with their in-laws, and the perpetrators of abuse were mainly mothers-in-law. Four
women stated that their mother-in-laws or sister-in-laws had complete control of the finances and
managed everything because their husbands were financially incompetent or mentally ill.

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My husband is economically inefficient. So, his mother or sister takes care of the
money… My husband works for a company. I don’t exactly know how much he earns.
Maybe around 900,000-1,000,000 won (about $900-1,000) but his sister takes care of his
salary and bank account. My husband told me that he ran into debt to marry me
(preparing for the commission)…. My husband seems to have borrowed money he needed
to marry me from his sister. (Quỳnh)
My husband’s mental state seemed abnormal. He said he often had a headache and took
an anodyne (Geborin). Normally, he spoke little and seemed vacant. He had no friend
and there were no phone calls for him. When he was 20 years old, he tried to kill himself
by drinking agrichemicals but survived in the hospital. The family and neighbors said
that he lost his mind then. The staff at the Shelter also said that my husband was mentally
ill….He would not work or make money. He always listened to his mother. (Bình)
Oanh, who didn‟t experience physical abuse by her husband, was beaten and whipped by
both her mother-in-law and her father-in-law. Her husband did not stop the beatings, and once his
father beat both Oanh and her husband. Oanh‟s father-in-law said he beat her because she was
not polite to him. He thought she did not respect her in-laws. The mother-in-law disliked her
because she was unfamiliar with Korean foods and customs. Oanh said,
My husband was alright and I had no serious problem with him. But I had many with my
parents-in-law. I was under too much stress as they kept disapproving of me. Each of
them beat me once …. Although my mother-in-law beat me just once, it was difficult for
me as she never liked me but often expressed her disapproval. She kept criticizing
whenever she didn’t like the most minor thing in our life. For example, I normally used
my left hand when cutting but she told me to hold the knife with my right hand. Although I
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listened to her, I could not make it move fast. She accused me again as she didn’t like me
being slow…I came across my father-in-law coming back from somebody’s wedding
ceremony in front of the apartment elevator. Then he accused me of not greeting him
before I was going to. When we came home, he whipped me on my calves with a
measuring stick saying that I didn’t greet him and it was very rude…My husband was
with me when his mother beat me. But he wouldn’t stop her but just kept quite. When my
father-in-law beat me, he beat my husband, too. When my mother-in-law beat me and I
was too hurt and upset, I told her that I would divorce and return to Vietnam. …I
weighed 48 kg [106 pounds] when I first came to Korea. But I couldn’t eat well as my
parents-in-law kept accusing me of things and I was too stressed, so I lost weight. I
weighed 37kg [82 pounds] when I was leaving home.
Overall, physical abuse by husbands or in-laws was used to control wives or daughter-inlaws. However, most women did not strike back with violence against their husbands or in-laws.
For example,
My husband battered me all over my body with his fists and also hit my arms with
umbrellas or books. When he beat me, I was just quiet, being beaten without saying a
word. As he always locked the door when he beat me, my neighbors could not help. I had
to hold my breath as he said, “shut up and be quiet.” I had to keep quiet even when he
battered me wildly with his palms. While it hurt, I couldn’t cry. I just had to bear it all to
live. (Huyền)
Emotional Abuse
All women in the sample experienced emotional abuse by their husband or in-laws.
Women reported that they were abused verbally and that their husbands or in-laws controlled
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their behavior, for example by keeping track of their whereabouts, and not allowing them to talk
to anyone else. As noted in the section on causes of conflicts, when women resisted these
controls, families increased the control and abuse.
Women complained that their husbands or in-laws had taken away their passports, which
prevented them from leaving home, and verbally abused and belittled them. Sometime, women‟s
husbands and in-laws insulted women by saying that they married their husbands for money or to
obtain Korean citizenship. Examples of women‟s accounts are,
I just wanted to die when I heard my husband arguing that I came here for money and
asking me for what purpose I married him. Of course, I came to Korea because I wanted
to help my parents at first. But I tried to settle down and give birth to his child. But he
never thanked me for anything but swore at me and doubted my intentions, which was
upsetting to me. (Thanh)
His mother insulted me saying that I married to acquire citizenship. I protested that I did
not marry for the citizenship but I was living in the country because I loved my husband
and kids. (Hạnh)
Women also reported that they were not allowed to go outside, meet other people, and
make calls to Vietnam. Husbands or in-laws monitored women‟s movements and associations.
Many women never used public transportation by themselves and were therefore housebound.
Women stated that their husbands or in-law were afraid that they would run away from home
after they gained information and learned Korean. Lý described the controls that she experienced,
There are several Vietnamese women in my neighborhood, but I do not see them often as
my husband’s parents do not like it when I see Vietnamese friends. They don’t want me to
visit other places to have some fun. Once I cried as my father-in-law rebuked me when I
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came back home late from my friend’s with my baby…. There was a Vietnamese girl who
married a Korean man but she left home. I was told that my mother-in-law’s
acquaintances told her that I shouldn’t be allowed to go for a meeting. They think that I
might hear of such bad situations and leave home.
Economic Abuse
All women experienced economic abuse. The two women who came to Korea as
industrial trainees were economically independent, but they were also economically abused
because their husband did not contribute financially to the household and beat them if they
complained about it. The husbands or in-laws of the other women controlled and limited the
women‟s access to financial resources. Twenty women reported being kept financially dependent.
Some said they were not given any money, were forced to ask for it, and were not allowed to
work. For example, they said,
My husband is an assembling engineer. I do not know anything about my husband’s
income. My mother-in-law manages everything including living expenses and my
husband’s monthly income. My husband gave me 10,000 Won ($10) for transportation as
I went to the Korea Women’s Hot Line in Incheon to learn Korean. (Thảo)
He controlled expenditures and didn’t give me any money except for infant formula costs.
Specifically, he went to the market to buy some kinds of goods and paid directly. He
dislikes my working outside the home. (Thúy)
My husband never gave me any money for quite a long time after I came to Korea. He
said that he couldn't give me any money as he had to spend too much money on his
daughter, a college student, with his ex-wife. While I wanted to eat many kinds of food

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while being pregnant, I couldn't buy anything as I had no money. I also wanted to have
Vietnamese food but he wouldn't buy any. Once I wanted to have corn so much and I told
my husband. But he didn't buy this saying that it was too expensive, 2,000 Won ($2) for
three. I agreed that it was expensive considering that 2,000 Won ($2) would be about
20,000 Won ($20) in Vietnamese currency. The monthly wage for a laborer in Vietnam is
about 100,000 Won ($100). When my husband went to Jejudo Island on his business trip
and I told him that I wanted to have corn so much, he told his daughter to draw money
from the bank to buy me corn. I felt so miserable and ashamed. I had to eat food bought
by his child when I was his wife, because I did not manage money on my own. So when I
told him that I was his wife and couldn't live like that without any money after I gave
birth, he gave me 50,000 won ($50) and asked me to keep a housekeeping book. He
thoroughly checked the book I kept. After 3 months, I was so angry and told him that it
was so unbearable to keep all detailed records for 10 Won or 100 Won. I thought that I
needed to have my own job as I had no money and couldn't even buy a pair of socks that
cost 500 won ($.50) on my own. (Mỹ)
As mentioned before, for other women who worked outside of the home, their husbands
or in-laws controlled the money they earned. Quỳnh said,
My husband told me that he ran up debt to marry me [to pay for the commission charge
to the marriage broker] and I had to work to pay his debt. I worked at a factory with my
sister-in-law who took away my salary and gave it to my husband little by little.
Women felt humiliated that they had to live with very little material resources and had to ask for
money and they were not treated as adults. Husbands and in-laws were able to control women
because women remain dependent for economic needs.
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Sexual Abuse
Nine of the women (40.9%) disclosed some form of sexual abuse and three avoided
answering the questions about sexual abuse experiences. Given the sensitive nature of the topic,
it is likely that additional women were forced to engage in sexual acts, including those they saw
as perverted or distasteful. Sexual abuse went beyond being forced to have sex frequently to one
husband‟s refusal to use birth control, resulting in her having two abortions.
I was abused sexually. He always forced me to have sex and did it if he wanted. It was
not two or three time per week. He did it even if I was so tired or sick and didn’t want to
have sex. He got extremely angry, if a look of unpleasantness came to my face, and he
said to me, “Just sleep, I can do this alone while you are sleeping.” I was afraid of
having sex. He made me follow the porn video. He forced me to have oral sex and eat his
penis and sperm. If I resisted eating, he pulled my hair severely and gave a shout, “Eat.
Eat. Eat. ” He got angry and called me names if I studied Korean language till late at
night, while he wanted to have sex…. He told me that he kept having sex because he
loved me so much. However, he didn’t use birth control and thus I had to abort my child
two times. He didn’t want to have a baby with me. He only wanted to serve his sexual
needs…I had to abort my second baby by an illegal operation. I heard that I could have
sex twenty days after the operation, but had to have sex before then because he put his
back up on me and called me names. (Hiền)
Women did not have the ability to control sexual activities in abusive relationships. Women‟s
descriptions of forced sex often involved their husbands‟ sexual ownership of their bodies and
the resulting forced sexual relationships with their husbands that were viewed as wives‟ duty.

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Negative Effects of Abuse
Twenty-one women reported some sort of injury as a consequence of violence against
them such as bruises (14), body aches (9), bleeding (6), scars (6), headaches (5), and loss of hair
(4). Seven of them sought medical assistance. Women said,
I have seen a doctor because of my husband’s violence. He grabbed me, pushed me on
the floor and hit my head against the wall. After a few days, I felt dizzy. I went to the
hospital with my husband being afraid that there may be a problem in my head. My
husband told the doctor that I fell and was hurt. They x-rayed and found that there was
no serious problem but for blisters in my head. So I took a rest for a few days taking
medication. (Thanh)
Once my head broke and I had to have a doctor sew up the wound. (Anh)
My husband pushed me and I fell. Then he kicked me, which tore my skin and drew blood
around my eyes… When my torn injury was bleeding so much, I called the landlord and
went to the hospital. I told them that I was kicked by my husband and my injury bled. I
had the injury stitched, which cost 380,000 Won ($380). The hospital didn’t call the
police or introduce me to a Shelter based on my husband’s violence. (Hạnh)
Abuse also had severe psychological consequences to women. Most experienced fear and
anxiety after their husband abused them. For example,
I always felt insecure and anxious. I was upset. I thought that I couldn’t live like this
anymore and wanted to divorce. (Anh)
Some women became anxious whenever their husbands would come home drunk.

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My heart throbbed wildly and I felt so insecure whenever he was drunk because of his
repeated violence. Also I was so worried that he might beat me, shout or swear (Mai).
Three women expressed the view that their self-esteem was eroded as a result of abuse by
their husbands or in-laws.
He had me kneel down to ask for forgiveness… I feel ignored...I thought it was beastly.
(Anh)
I was so upset and troubled. When my mother-in-law beat me, my heart ached too much.
So I kept crying without eating for three days. I felt so powerless and broken down.
(Oanh)
Two of the women had attempted suicide as a result of violence against them. One of them said,
I was so upset and angry to the extent that I wanted to die. I took twenty pills of Geborin
[Korean painkiller medication] saying that I would kill myself in front of my husband
after we fought, and I was beaten. (Bình)
The Nature and Pattern of the Abuse
Based on general patterns of control, Johnson and Ferraro (2000) identify four types of
intimate partner violence. Common couple violence involves either or both the husband and wife
using non-controlling violence. Within the context of a specific issue, there are one or two
incidents, but no pattern of abuse. It rarely involves emotional abuse. Intimate terrorism is a form
of violence used by one individual to control his or her partner. It is often accompanied by
emotional abuse. In intimate terrorism, the perpetrator attempts to gain general control over his
or her partner, but the partner does not try to control the aggressor. Violent resistance involves
one person using non-controlling violence against a partner who uses violence as one tactic in a
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general pattern of control. Mutual violent control involves both individuals using violence to
control each other. The data analysis has shown that power and control were dominant themes in
the marriages and experiences of abuse for Vietnamese wives. In the process leading to marriage,
men were able to select brides who had inaccurate information about the men and their
circumstances. Men paid a commission fee for their marriage. This process affected the
distribution of power and tendencies for men and their families to control women after the
marriage took place.
The husbands or in-laws controlled and limited the women‟s access to financial resources.
Most women were financially dependent. They were not given any money, had to ask for it, and
were not allowed to work. They were isolated from other people. Vietnamese wives were not
allowed to go outside, contact other people, and make calls to Vietnam. Their husbands or inlaws monitored women‟s movements and associations constantly.
The husbands or in-laws often used violence to exert general control over wives or
daughters-in-law/sisters-in-law. Talking back to their husbands or in-laws or arguing were the
most common immediate reasons for abuse. Women had conflicts with their husbands or in-laws
over financial matters, parenting, family chores, or work outside the home. The husbands or inlaws screamed at them and beat them when the women argued or resisted controls. Most women
did not use violence against others, even when their husbands or in-laws used violence as one
tactic in a general pattern of control. Overall, the type of violence against Vietnamese women
included in the present research is best characterized as intimate terrorism.

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CHAPTER FIVE:
HELP-SEEKING BEHAVIOR AMONG VIETNAMESE WIVES

This chapter opens with a description of the sources of help that Vietnamese women in
Korea turn to in an effort to address abuse. It also considers the process and outcomes of
women‟s help seeking and develops explanations of why they seek certain types of help at
particular times. Finally, it explores factors that affect the decision to seek help.
Sources of Help Used by Vietnamese Women
Women indicated the types of places where they sought help to deal with the abuse by
their husbands or in-laws (see Table 4). All but one of the twenty-two women sought help from
one or more sources. Formal helping sources that women used included the police, the court, and
social services such as domestic violence shelters, Hotline (Migrant Women‟s Emergency
Hotline 1577-1366), and other social services agencies. Informal sources of help included friends,
family/relatives, and neighbors. Only one women in the sample never sought help from any
source.
As Table 4 indicates, ten (45.5%) of the women had interactions with the police at some
juncture. Eight of them called the police for assistance, and for one of those, a neighbor also
called at a different time. Five of the women called the police repeatedly. A neighbor made the
only call for one woman, and a family member made the only call for another.
Seventeen women (77.3%) reported contact or experience with victim service agencies.
Specifically, sixteen (72.7) of them used domestic violence shelters, five (22.7%) utilized
telephone assistance through Migrants Women Emergency Hotline (1577-1366), and five
(22.7%) contacted other social service agencies, such as branch offices of the Korea Women‟s

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Hot Line and Migrant Workers‟ Center. Of course, the high proportion in contact with social
services agencies may be a result of these agencies‟ assistance in recruiting study participants.

Table 4. Helping Seeking Sources Used by Women in the Sample (N=22)
Source of help used

Frequency

Police
Woman called
Neighbor called
Family member called
Victim and social service
Shelter
Hotline (1577-1366)
Other social service agency
File for divorce
Talk to someone
Friend
Family/relative
Neighbor
Marriage broker
Korean language teacher
Pastor
No help seeking

10
8
2
1
17
16
5
5
7
17
12
4
3
2
1
1
1

Percentage of
Women
45.5
36.4
9.1
4.5
77.3
72.7
22.7
22.7
31.8
77.3
54.5
18.2
13.6
9.1
4.5
4.5
4.5

Seven women (31.8%) were involved in filing for divorce. All women obtained
information on divorce or legal support and advice while they stayed in a shelter. For four
women, divorce suits were being prepared for filing or were pending at the time of interview.
One woman obtained the final decree of divorce, but reunited with her former husband. Another
woman was waiting for the final decree to be issued. One woman dropped the case before her
divorce suit had been fully processed.
Seventeen women (77.3%) disclosed abuse to others. Women talked with friends (12 or
54.5%), relatives (4 or 18.2%), or neighbors (3 or 13.6%) about their abuse experiences and
hardships. They asked for emotional support, advice, and assistance. In a few cases, women
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sought help from marriage brokers (2 or 9.1%), a Korean language teacher (1 or 4.5%), or a
pastor (1 or 4.5%).
Help Seeking Process
Turning to informal sources is often the first step in the process of seeking help, and
women‟s experiences with informal sources may affect abused women‟s subsequent help-seeking
decisions. Consistent with findings in other research (Meyer, 2010), most women in the present
study did not first contact the police or victim service agencies to deal with the violence. Of
twenty-one women who sought help, seventeen women had previously disclosed their abuse
experience to someone prior to informing social services or the police about the incident. Four
women had initial contacts with the police or victim/social services or, as noted above, one
woman sought no help. Based on the data analysis, I identified several distinct patterns of
seeking help. These are described below in sections on women who first used their personal
networks, and then for women who had initial contacts with formal sources or no help seeking.
Women Who First Turned to Personal Networks
Seventeen (77.3%) women began by seeking assistance from their immediate social
networks. Women seeking help typically first made contact with friends, relatives, or neighbors.
Sometimes, women sought help from marriage brokers, Korean language teachers, or a pastor.
Four sub-patterns of the help seeking process were identified in this group: (1) primarily personal
network help seeking, (2) personal network and social service help seeking, (3) personal network,
police, and social service help seeking, (4) full range of help seeking.
(A) Seeking Help Primarily from Personal Networks
Three (13.6%) women primarily relied on their personal networks for assistance (Giang,
Lý, and Quỳnh). They sought help from just the personal network because they had obstacles to

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accessing formal resources or failed to get the hoped for help from their social networks.
Two of these women (Giang and Lý) lived in rural areas characterized by limited access
to appropriate social services and geographical isolation. For two women, Vietnamese friends in
their area were their only escape. They left home to avoid abuse, spent a day or two at their
friends‟ places, and returned back home. They described how, after their return, their husbands
exerted more control over their movements and associations than ever before. For example,
Once I ran away to my friend’s when my husband beat me. I meant to go back home
when his anger had subsided….My parents-in-law would not let me go anywhere after I
came back home. Going out became even more difficult… My husband and his parents
never changed their attitudes toward me even after I ran away. I thought that this would
never change and I was frustrated. (Lý)
Giang and Lý were unaware of other options to deal with abuse and did not know how to
access social services. Quỳnh reported that she failed to get needed help from her personal
network, which consisted of her mother in Vietnam and the marriage broker. Specifically, the
marriage broker advised her to just tolerate the situation when she disclosed her problems and
asked for help. The broker told her she might not be able to see or raise her child if she divorced.
Her mother also did not assist her when she said she wanted to leave her husband and return to
Vietnam. Quỳnh feared that if she called the police, she would end up divorcing her husband and
losing custody of her child. She lacked information about other social service agencies. Thus, her
efforts to obtain assistance were limited to help seeking only in her close, personal network,
which consisted of people who did not refer her to other sources of help.
(B) Seeking Help from Personal Networks and Social Services
The second group of eight (36.4%) women (Anh, Liên, Mai, Phương, Dung, Hồng,
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Huyền, and Hiền) began by seeking help from their personal networks, and then were referred to
victim or other social services, or contacted them on their own. Of the eight women in this group,
four (Anh, Mai, Phương, and Hiền) disclosed abuse experiences to a Korean language teacher,
pastor, or staff of social service agencies and were referred to social services. For example, after
being beaten by her husband, Phương sought assistance from the pastor of the church she
attended. The pastor referred her to the shelter. The Korean language teacher provided Hiền with
advice about problems with spouses and information about finding resources. When Hiền later
ran away from home, the Korean language teacher referred her to the shelter
Mai‟s situation was slightly different. She obtained some information on social services
from a Korean language class and sought help from the Hotline, but all the phone lines were busy.
She did not call the Hotline again. However she was able to contact the shelter after the public
health center referred her due to her husband throwing her out of the home. Mai‟s husband told
her to leave with their baby, and when she said she had no place to stay, he called a taxi and took
and left her, the baby, and her suitcase in front of the public health center. The staff there referred
her to a shelter.
Two (Hồng and Huyền) of the eight women contacted the shelter when they left home
after they received information on social services from their friends. Lý provided an example of
this process,
In 2007, my husband got drunk, came home and threatened to kill me with a knife, so I
ran away from home because I was too scared. I called my cousin, left home and took a
taxi without a second thought. I went to the terminal and took an express bus driving
[between cities] …I received a telephone number of a shelter from a Vietnamese friend….
I called the shelter and my cousin’s Korean husband took me to the shelter. (Hồng)

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Liên disclosed her husband‟s abuse to her friend, and then went with her friend to the
hospital. Hospital staff referred her to a shelter. Dung was referred to the shelter by friend of her
cousin after she sought help from that cousin because she was “kicked out” of the home by her
mother-in-law.
Although there were variations in the process of referrals, experiences of women in this
group showed that help seeking from women‟s personal network often provided links to formal
social agencies. They received emotional and informational support from their social networks.
Referrals from informal or formal networks led these women to social services.
(C) Seeking Help from Personal Network, Police, and Social Services
Four (18.2%) women sought help from their personal networks, contacted police, and
then used social services. There were two variations in this group. Ngọc and Oanh contacted the
police after failing to obtain help from their personal networks. The police referred them to
shelters. In contrast, Mỹ and Thúy talked to their friends, contacted the police, but unsatisfied
with the responses of police or the outcomes, they then contacted social services.
Ngọc, who had no informal network of friends or relatives in Korea, talked to a marriage
broker about her abuse experience, but she did not receive a helpful response. She was expected
to stay in the abusive relationship. Ngọc subsequently turned to the police after failing to get help
from the marriage broker. She stated,
I went to the police as the broker did not help when I was beaten by my husband…The
Vietnamese woman who was interpreting for the broker told me that I should call the
police when any violence occurred, though she did not mean to help me at first…When I
left the house with my husband to go to a restaurant to eat, I left the place telling him that
I was going to the bathroom. I took a cab and ran away to a police station.

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Oanh talked to her cousin, who introduced her husband to her, about the abuse by her
mother-in-law. Her cousin was married to Oanh‟s husband‟s brother. The cousin advised their
mother-in-law that Oanh should return to Vietnam because her life in Korea was hard. When her
in-laws‟ behaviors and attitudes remained unchanged, Oanh went to the police after further abuse
by her father-in-law. She described the events leading to seeking help from the police,
As the conflict worsened with us living together, my mother-in-law began beating me.
When she did, my cousin advised her that I might return to Vietnam if my life was a
difficult one. Although my mother-in-law promised not to beat me again, my father-in-law
beat me again after a few months. So I left home….I had never asked other sources for
help. I had never talked to anyone but my cousin. I didn’t know where to seek help,
because no one knew me in this country. I could run to the branch police office, as it was
near our place.
The situation of Mỹ and Thúy were somewhat different from that of Ngọc and Oanh.
Unsuccessful in their efforts to get help from the police, Mỹ and Thúy turned to social service
agencies. Thúy and Mỹ reported that the police did not take the abuse seriously, take the time to
conduct a thorough investigation, or provide needed information. Mỹ left home with her baby on
that day when she did not get help from the police and contacted the Hotline, where staff referred
her to the shelter. Thúy also decided to leave the relationship after several violent incidents,
contacted the Hotline, and was referred to the shelter.
Women in this group made use of alternative sources of help after failing to get assistance
from their personal networks or the police. Ngọc and Oanh sought assistance from the police
when their informal resources are unavailable or exhausted. After Mỹ and Thúy had called the
police repeatedly, but the police failed to respond in a way that satisfied them or improved their
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situations, they applied for social services on their own. Once these women exhausted one
resource for help, their next step was to obtain help from other sources.
(D) Full Range of Help Seeking
Two (9.1%) women reached out for help from multiple sources including friends, several
social service agencies, and the police. Due to conflicts with her mother-in-law, Thảo talked to
friends and had counseling services from the Hotline and social service agencies. Hạnh talked to
her neighbor about abuse by her husband. She already had previously gone to the police station
when she had no place to go after being abused and “kicked out” of her home. The police
referred her to the shelter. Concern for their children‟s safety and welfare motivated Thảo and
Hạnh to seek help from various sources. They called the police or used social service agencies
when they believed that their children‟s safety and welfare were threatened or they feared losing
custody of their children. For example, Hạnh contacted the social service agency and went to the
police station to look for her child after her husband left home with her son while she was away
at work. She didn‟t know where her son was. Hạnh obtained information about social service
agencies from the Register Office [the local office for the registration of marriages, births, deaths,
and address changes, which also manages social security] staff and contacted social services. She
described her situation,
My husband didn’t contact me for 5 months since January 2008 when he left with my son.
All his family members changed telephone numbers and I can’t contact them….The
Register Office staff came and surveyed how many foreign females were living in the
village. I explained about my situation and told them I wanted to find my son. They
introduced me to the Marriage Immigrants’ Center, which reported my son missing to the
police for me. The Center also called my husband, who did not respond…. I went to the

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police station to find my kid…I can’t live without my son. I am so worried about whether
he is eating well.
When Thảo‟s mother-in-law prevented her from taking her sick child to the hospital, she
called the police because she wanted her child to be seen at the hospital. However, she never
called the police when she was beaten by her husband or mother in law.
I have never called the police because of violence from my mother-in-law or husband.
When my child was suffering from a high fever, I was going to the hospital. But my
husband and mother-in-law said that it was not necessary. Finally, I had no choice and
called the police.
Thảo also similarly used social service agencies due to concern about her children. She
was afraid to leave a shelter and return home after she learned that her husband wanted to
divorce her. She explained her fears about her husband‟s getting custody of their child,
I’ve been away from home for about 10 days. In the first place, I didn’t mean to leave
home. I went to the Korea Women’s Hot Line and received counseling about my
problems. They called my husband and he said that he wanted to divorce me. So I cried a
lot. I had to decide whether to go home or to stay at the shelter. But I didn’t go home as I
was scared now that my husband wanted to divorce me. This was because, when he had
problems with me, he often said that I should divorce him, leave my child here and go
back to Vietnam. I couldn’t go back home as I was afraid that he might take my child
away from me.
Motivated by concern about children‟ safety and welfare, women in this group sought
substantial help from a variety of formal and informal sources. Notably, while Thảo did not seek

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support from the police to protect her own physical wellbeing, she did seek support when her
child‟s wellbeing was at risk. This suggested that the presence of children and concern about
children‟ safety and welfare might encourage abused women to reach out for support from
various sources.
Initial Contact with Formal Sources of Help
For five (22.7%) women, personal networks to seek help were unavailable because they
were isolated from friends or family (Thanh and Bình) or they did not know anyone they could
trust with the embarrassing information they would need to share in order to ask for help (Cúc,
Vân, and Loan). Of the women without an informal source of help, four had initial contacts with
the police or social services (Bình, Loan, Thanh, and Vân), and one woman sought no help (Cúc).
There were two patterns of help seeking for this group – initial contact with social services, and
initial contact with police. After they are described, information is presented for the one woman
who did not reach out for any type of assistance.
(A) Initial Contact with Social Services
Two (9.1%) women (Vân and Thanh) had initial contacts with social service agencies.
One of them turned to just the counseling service available through the Hotline. Vân had
experiences similar to those of Cúc. She also lived in an area where many immigrants resided,
but she did not have a personal network with people she could ask to help her. She did not talk to
other people about abuse because she did not want her story to be the focus of gossip in her
village.
I refresh myself talking to my two close friends when I have a difficult time. All of them
are living in Incheon. They are under much better circumstances than mine. But I have

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never talked about my husband’s violence even to them because of shame. I don't want
my story to be repeated in gossip. (Vân)
As Bauer et al.‟s study (2000) confirmed, family conflict was regarded as shameful and
was expected to be kept within the family for Asian women. Like Cúc who did not want her
friends to gossip. Vân also wanted to appear to have a good marriage. Their concerns about
confidentiality, which were based on cultural tendencies not to expose a problem outside the
family, may restrain their choices to seek help. They might be cautious in their interactions with
others, including close friends, because they live in small communities where other Vietnamese
wives who married Korean men knew and discussed each other‟s personal lives.
Unique from other women, Vân obtained a brochure for immigrant women when she
visited the Register Office. With this information, she decided to get counseling from the Hotline,
because she felt that things were very bad due to abuse by her husband. This was her initial
contact with social services. She detailed what happened,
When I visited the Register Office for my second baby’s birth registration, they gave me a
brochure in Vietnamese. It was intended to help migrant women with their lives. There
was information on centers helping migrant women. At that time, I was having such a
difficult time and I wanted some counseling to see if I could get help from the Korean
government under such circumstances when I didn’t speak Korean. So I called the Seoul
Center. I talked to the Center about my husband’s violence.
Hotline staff told Vân she should call the police if her husband beat her. However, she
thought the abuse she experienced was not severe enough to justify a call to the police. Thus, her
help seeking was limited to the counseling service that Hotline staff provided by phone.

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I talked to the Center about my husband’s violence and they told me that the first place to
contact for help was the police and that I needed to call the police if my husband beat me.
They also told me that the police would come to investigate and settle the problem based
on my answer to their questions about whether I would forgive my husband, let them
impose a fine on my husband, or divorce….As my husband beat me with his hands, I
thought that it was not a level of violence severe enough for me to go to the hospital. I
just thought that I had to call the police when things came to the degree that I had to go
to the hospital, when his violence was becoming more severe.
Vân‟s case illustrates that information alone was not enough, because she lacked the knowledge
of what a beating was and what her rights were. Lack of awareness of the definition of wife
abuse and the legal and other services she needed were crucial barriers that Vân encountered.
Thanh was isolated from friends or family. She had a cousin who married a Korean man
and came to Korea, but she could not contact her cousin. She felt lonely because she had no one
to talk to.
I didn’t contact her often as my husband didn’t want me to. My husband doesn’t want me
to as he knows that she left home and ran away only after two months after the
marriage….Normally, Vietnamese people do not drink but I once did as things were so
difficult for me. I felt so heavy because I had no one to talk to.
Despite the barriers she faced in getting help, the Korean language class provided Thanh with an
opportunity to access services. She was referred to the shelter by the social service agency she
initially contacted.
It was only after I gave birth (2005) that I took a bus and it was only last year (2007) that
I began attending a Korean language class. When I went to a Korean language class, I
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was able to get information about the Migrant Workers Center….. At the Center, I
consulted with a staff member about my difficult situation. She introduced me to the
shelter. (Thanh)
Women in this group who had no personal network for providing help did not seek help
for two to four years. Unlike Cúc who had no seeking help, they were able to obtain information
on social services from the Register Office or Korean language class and had contacts with social
services. However, as the experience of Vân shows, information provided in a general brochure
was inadequate in ensuring that women knew how to obtain help.
(B) Initial Contact with Police
Two (9.1%) women (Bình and Loan) had initial contacts with the police. For Bình,
personal networks that might provide help were unavailable because she was isolated from
friends or family. She lived in a rural area and her marital family prevented her from going
outside and making phone calls to Vietnam. Bình attempted suicide as a result of the violence
again her, but felt that this did not change the attitudes or behaviors of her husband or in-laws.
She went to the police to ask for an investigation after further abuse, in this case by her sistersin-law.
I was so upset and angry and I visited a police station on my own the next day. Since
people go to a police station in Vietnam when they fight, I thought that I had to go as I
felt victimized after being beaten by the sisters. On the way, I met my husband and asked
him to come with me, which he did. He accompanied me maybe because his thinking
ability is limited due to his mental problem. [He had limited capacity after drinking
agricultural chemicals]. In the police station, I asked for an investigation. I told them my
mother-in-law and sisters-in-law beat me. (Bình)
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The police did not refer Bình to a shelter at first, but she was referred to the shelter when
neighbors later called the police to stop an incident because of noise created by her husband‟s
fighting and beating her outside the house.
Loan‟s situation was very different from that of Bình. She came to Korea as an industrial
trainee. She was fluent in Korean and economically independent, and was providing other
Vietnamese women with emotional and informational support. She disliked disclosing her
personal situation or abuse experience,
I have never asked other sources for help. My husband hates that family issues are told to
external sources outside the family, and in Vietnam such behavior is considered as a
shame to the family. So we never talk to external sources or persons outside the family.
(Loan)
Loan often helped migrant associations with interpretation, but she did not disclose her
abuse even to the staff of social services where she helped as an interpreter. She just called the
police to stop the violence against herself.
I called the police several times. When the situation elevated to the extent my husband
shouts, swears, destroys things and breaks dishes, I called the police and asked for help
saying that I was fighting with my husband. (Loan)
Loan‟s situation was unique because of the many personal resources that she had.
No Help Seeking
Cúc reported that she did not have a person she could trust to help her. Although she lived
in an area with many immigrants and was often able to see Vietnamese friends, she did not tell
close friends about her abuse or hardships. She was especially afraid that information she gave to
other people would be communicated back to her husband. In addition, she had no information
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about domestic violence services, had a fear of discrimination, and was not fluent in Korean. She
explained how lack of knowledge or limited access to services combined with other reasons not
to seek help,
I could not tell anyone about my difficult situation and could not call my parents in
Vietnam to talk about it as they would worry about me. I cried so much as I was too
lonely and having such a hard time. Then, I really wanted to run away but I had to
endure and stay at home as I had no acquaintance or anyone to help me….I have never
asked other sources for help. I didn’t know where to get help other than that. These days
I heard of places teaching Korean and learned that they provide support….I didn’t know
how to call the police or where to get help. Even if I did, I wouldn’t have called the police.
I wouldn’t have as I do not understand Korean and don’t know how to explain. I thought
that they would side with my husband if I called the police and in the end, I would be the
one to suffer. (Cúc)
No one provided Cúc with the information on services she needed or linked her to other
social agencies for help. Limited access to services or information, together with language
barriers, and fear of ethnic bias added to her disadvantage and entrapped her further in the
abusive relationship.
Overview of Patterns of Help Seeking
In this section, I describe the different patterns of seeking help used by Vietnamese
women to deal with abuse. Many abused women began with seeking help from their immediate
social networks including friends, relatives, or neighbors. In this group of women there were four
distinct patterns. The primarily personal network help seeking group mainly relied on their
personal networks because they had obstacles to accessing formal resources; in some cases, their
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informal networks failed to assist them. The personal network and social services help seeking
group received emotional and informational support from their social networks and then
contacted social services because their personal network provided links to formal social services
agencies. The personal network, police, and social services help seeking group made use of
alternative sources of help after failing to get help from their personal networks or the police.
Some women contacted the police after failing to obtain help from their personal networks and
then were referred to social services. Other women contacted social services when they were
unsatisfied with the responses of police or the outcomes. The full range of help seeking group
was motivated by concern about children‟s safety and wellbeing and thus sought substantial help
from a variety of formal and informal sources.
In a few cases, women had initial contacts with social services or the police, or had no
help seeking if their personal networks were unavailable or exhausted. For women who had
initial contacts with formal sources or no help seeking, three distinct patterns were identified.
The one woman with no help seeking did not seek assistance from any source, because limited
access to services or information, language barriers, culturally-based feelings of shame, and fear
of ethnic bias posed obstacles to accessing help from the police or social services. The two
women with initial contact with social services were able to contact social services after
obtaining information from a Korean language class or the Register Office. However,
information did not ensure women would try to get help, because lack of awareness of what
constitutes domestic violence and the services needed remained as constraints. For the two
women with initial contact with police group, after one woman‟s personal network was
unavailable, she turned to the police. The other woman with many personal resources called the
police to stop abuse, but avoided reaching out to other sources because of a cultural taboo against

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exposing the problem outside the family.
In conclusion, turning to informal sources is often the first step in the process of seeking
help, and women‟s experiences with informal or formal sources may affect abused women‟s
subsequent help-seeking decisions. The next section considers the outcome of women‟s
experiences with informal or formal sources. It is important to understand the outcomes in order
to determine the helpfulness of various sources, including the police responses.
Outcomes of Women‟s Efforts to Obtain Help
The effectiveness of first-contacted informal and formal sources in serving abused
women substantially influenced women‟s subsequent efforts to obtain help. Ineffective practices
of formal social services or support frustrated them and prevented them from seeking additional
help. This section covers the experiences of women with police and social services, in filing for
divorce, and talking with people in their informal networks.
Police Intervention
Of ten (45.5%) women who had contact with the police, including two women who did
not initiate the contact, the police referred four to a domestic violence shelter (Ngọc, Oanh, Bình,
and Hạnh). However, seven (31.8%) women reported that the police did not take the abuse
seriously, take the time to conduct a thorough investigation, or provide needed information. Thúy
was one of these women.
The police showed up, asked what happened and how he hit me, and told us, “Don’t
quarrel with each other.” The police told me, “Endure it, if at all possible” and asked
him if he would hit me again. As soon as my husband acknowledged his faults and
promised that he would never hit me again, the police left my house. The police did not
refer me to the shelter for migrant women. (Thúy)

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Mỹ also had a negative view of the police response. She felt that the police minimized
the incident because the police officer was a male, and that a woman police officer would show
more concern and understand her situation.
When I came home after calling the police, I found the disturbed room already cleaned
by my husband. There was no longer any evidence that he threw things at me. When the
police came, I was asked why I was crying and whether my husband beat me. My
husband told them that nothing had happened and I cried telling them that my husband
had thrown things wildly at me and threatened me. The police asked why I was crying
when my husband was not beating me. I confronted them, asking why they didn't believe
me but did believe my husband. I told them I wanted them to bring a female police
officer so that I could talk to her. I thought that a police woman would understand me
from the perspective of a woman.
Other women confirmed that police had not effectively addressed the abuse,
The police came, asked the family what happened, and advised that we should take care
of the matters as they were family issues. And they just left. There was nothing they did
for me…. Police are not helpful. The police don’t want to intervene in family disputes.
They seem to find it difficult to help me as they could not communicate with me. So they
would only listen to Koreans and if told that it was nothing serious, they had to leave.
(Bình, also Hạnh)
Four (18.2%) women felt that police visits calmed their husbands down temporarily, but
that their husbands‟ behaviors and attitudes did not actually change (Loan, Thúy, Mai, and Mỹ).
For example,

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The police did not help much. But their coming settled things down, because my husband
ran away before the police came. (Loan)
After the police visit, my husband was quiet and didn’t hit me for three or four days, but
hit me again later. This pattern was repeated. (Thúy)
Police contact in some cases had the opposite of a calming effect on men. Hạnh had
previously reported abuse to the police, who did not investigate, but who referred her to the
shelter. When her husband beat her again, he used even more violence than before to prevent her
from going to the police,
In January when he was beating me so hard, he was afraid that I might go to the police.
He said that I was not supposed to, and grabbed me by my wrist and beat me. So I
couldn’t ask the police for help. I had to endure until the skin under my eyes was torn and
bled. (Hạnh)
Police attitudes seemed to be based on the perception of domestic violence as a private
family matter. Women‟s experiences with the police revealed that police did not investigate
domestic violence reports or provide women with legal information and referral services, though
abused women were in desperate need of help when they contacted the police. Abusive husbands
used violence against their wives again because police did not carry out investigations or make
arrests, and thus some women had to call the police repeatedly. It may be that, if the police had
investigated Hạnh‟s husband‟s actions, further abuse would have been prevented.
Social Service Agency Intervention
Seventeen (31.8%) women used social services, and most women felt it was helpful to
contact shelters or other agencies. Shelters provided them with safety, a place for rest, counseling,

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and Korean language education. Women reported that they obtained emotional support while
they stayed in the shelters. Examples of women‟s descriptions of such benefits are,
The Shelter informed me of a place where I could stay. They provided me with counseling
services for my emotional stability and met with me and my husband together to talk.
(Thanh)
The Shelter provided me accommodation and meals and taught me Korean. Staying at the
Shelter, my mind was at ease much more than when I was staying at my husband’s.
(Oanh)
When I came to Korea without a relative and became lonely, the shelter staff members
kindly helped me. And I felt as if they were my family members. (Hồng)
Some women reported that they got help from the shelter such as medical support or
financial support. When Ngọc went to the shelter, staff took her to the hospital for treatment of a
cut on her forehead, and a shelter gave Phương a place to stay, meals, and from time to time,
$100 in living expenses. Phương explained why all of the services provided by the shelter were
really necessary for migrant women,
The role of shelters seems so essential. Accommodation, meals, counseling, legal support,
and everything-All of these are really necessary for migrant women. I was very grateful
as the pastor and staff at the shelter found me a job and helped me. (Hồng)
Shelter and other social services offered women needed information on their rights and
legal help for divorce. Anh stated that she was informed of her right as a victim of domestic
violence after she contacted social services.

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I talked to a staff member from the Korea Women’s Hot Line and it was only then that I
found that I could get help as a victim of domestic violence… I talked about
discrimination and suffering experienced by victims of domestic violence and migrant
females and acquired information… During my divorce and stay in the Shelter, I learned
that there were so many things that I could not handle on my own such as citizenship,
remaining in the country, parental rights related to divorce, and employment, and so on.
Phương also emphasized the legal support she received from the shelter. .
There [shelter], I was introduced to a lawyer and prepared for a divorce lawsuit…[After
I left the shelter] I kept in touch with the shelter as often as I could. I meet together with
the lawyer and staff from the shelter.
Social services provided immigrant women who had very limited resources with various
material goods and services, financial help, legal assistance, education, and health care. Women
also found emotional support from social service providers. For some women, assistance
continued even after they left formal programs, such as shelters.
Filing for Divorce
Of seven (31.8%) women who filed for divorce, four had not contacted the court at the
time of the interview because they were in the initial stage of the process. These four women
received legal advice from shelter staff. Hiền had a unique situation, because not she, but her
husband had filed for divorce.
After six months of my being runaway, my husband reported that I had run away and
filed for divorce. The suit blamed me for neglect of duty and being absent from the home.
I heard that in Korean law, the husband can file for divorce, claiming the wife at fault for
being away from home for at least six month. If the husband files for divorce placing
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blame on the wife who ran away, and the wife does not respond, the divorce is finalized.
The wife should present evidence of violence if she plans to place blame on her spouse
for abuse. With the help of the shelter, I obtained legal advice from three different law
agencies that there would be little possibility of winning a lawsuit. I did not have enough
evidence to show his violence against me because I didn’t call the police or go to the
doctor when I was beaten. In addition, there was no one to give testimony in court. I
didn’t want to see him and am waiting for the divorce decision to be made automatically.
If the decision is made, I should leave Korea within two or three months. Otherwise, my
immigration status will be illegal. He seems to be in a rush to file for divorce so he can
meet a new wife. I heard that he was going to marry a Korean Chinese woman.
The example of Hiền showed that immigrant women who had limited Korean proficiency
or could not provide the evidence documents necessary to prove their husbands‟ fault found it
difficult to obtain help through the legal system. Thus, they often run away from home rather
than pursuing legal actions and end up as illegal immigrants after their spouses cancel their
dependent visas (MINBYUN, 2007). Hiền planned to return to Vietnam.
Concern about children influenced mothers‟ decisions to leave the relationships or
divorce. Of seven women who filed for divorce, two women eventually returned home to join
their husbands and children. After Anh divorced, she reunited with her husband because she
missed her children and thought that she would not able to live without them. Thúy dropped the
case to divorce her husband because of her daughter and returned home. She explained why she
dropped the case.
I finally dropped a lawsuit for several reasons. First, I heard from a lawyer that even if I
get a divorce, it was not sure if I could get parental rights and child custody because I do
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not have Korean citizenship. I worried that if he got child custody after divorce and I had
to leave Korea due to trouble with my visa, it would not be good for my daughter because
he drank everyday and would not care my daughter well. I also worried about my
daughter, if she would do well without me, and how many hardships she would face. In
addition, I was exhausted by the long divorce proceeding. I couldn’t work and had to
send my daughter to daycare because I often had to attend hearings at the divorce court,
but I didn’t have a sure means of self-support. Third, my husband gave me a written
promise not to beat me. He also promised to give me living expenses and talk to a
domestic violence counselor. I hoped he would change his behavior and attitude after
talking to a domestic violence counselor.
Thúy‟s comments showed how instability of immigration status affects child custody and the
decision to leave the relationships. According to the current Korean Nationality Act, immigrant
women who marry Korean men can obtain citizenship after at least two years of residence and
only with the consent of the spouse (Y. Kim, 2007). Prior to obtaining Korean citizenship,
immigrant women who apply for Korean citizenship or visa extension to stay in Korea are
required to obtain a guarantee by having their Korean spouses accompany them (H. Kim 2007).
Thúy did not acquire Korean citizenship because her husband was uncooperative even after five
years of marriage. Her fear of losing child custody led her to stay in the abusive relationship.
Informal Support
Many women who sought help from their informal networks were provided emotional
support (e.g., advice or encouragement) and material help (e.g., financial help, babysitting, or a
place to stay) by their friends, relatives, and neighbors. In addition, they were provided with
important links additional types of help, such as social service agencies or the police.
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However, some women did not get help from their personal network. Specifically, Ngọc
and Quỳnh failed to get help when they disclosed their abuse experience to marriage brokers.
I called the marriage broker and asked for interpretation. I explained my situation but
was told to just endure and wait. I was told that I was not understood based on my stories
only and that I might not be able to see or raise my child if I divorced then. I couldn’t
even think of losing my child. I was worried about this and never thought of other
choices….. Normally, marriage brokerage agencies employ interpreters who speak
Vietnamese and provide counseling for family issues or conflicts. They provide contact
information to Vietnamese women or their husbands so they can reach them if there are
problems after marriage. So, I also have their contact information. (Quỳnh, also Ngọc)
As Quỳnh mentioned, marriage brokers provide post-marriage management services,
called „After Service.‟ However, these services are not to provide women with such things as
Korean language education, information about life in Korea, or counseling services to solve any
conflict with husbands or in-laws. These services are intended to prevent Vietnamese wives from
running away (Ko et al., 2005). One marriage broker translator who was interviewed explained
why some marriage brokers force Vietnamese wives who seek help to just endure the situation.
If Vietnamese wives escape from the marriage, marriage brokers often suffer economic
loss and difficulties to settle the matter. That is because there were contracts between
marriage brokers and the husbands that the marriage brokers would return parts of
broker fees that husbands pay for, if their wives ran away within three months. This is
why some marriage brokers force Vietnamese wives who seek help to just endure the
situation.
Quỳnh also failed to get the hoped for support from her mother in Vietnam.
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Once, I called my mother in Vietnam and told her that I couldn’t live in Korea any longer
and wanted to go back to Vietnam with my child. My mother said that she could take care
of my baby but there was nothing for me to do in Vietnam. She told me to endure and wait
as I couldn’t make money in Vietnam and the living would be hard.
For Quỳnh, the same harsh economic conditions in Vietnam that influenced many women to
marry Korean men led to Vietnamese relatives‟ lack of support for a return to Vietnam.
Combined with the advice of the marriage broker, it is easy to understand why Quỳnh and
women like her would be discouraged from seeking assistance from formal sources or from
seeking a divorce.
Factors that Affect the Decision to Seek Help
Women‟s strategies to deal with the abuse are shaped by and reflect their social
conditions, resources, and available options (Dutton et al., 2000). Vietnamese women‟s responses
to abuse may be shaped by social disadvantages in Korea associated with immigrant status and
socioeconomic status.
As shown in the section on the help seeking process, there are important factors that
affect different women‟s responses to the abuse. Supportive resources, access to information, and
the capacity to survive after leaving abusive families motivated women‟s seeking help from
various sources. In contrast, rural isolation, difficulty with Korean language, desires for privacy,
feelings of shame, and fear of discrimination prevented abused women from seeking help. In
addition, concern about children affected women‟s decision to seek help.
Language
Language is one of the important factors that affected help seeking for women. Of five
(22.7%) women who were fluent in listening and speaking and thus were able to talk with the
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interviewer without an interpreter, four called the police (Mỹ, Hạnh, Loan, Thúy), and four used
social services (Thanh, Thúy, Hạnh, and Mỹ). Three women (Mỹ, Thúy, and Hạnh) were able to
communicate their experience to the police and explain their needs.
In contrast, for women who had serious problems2 with the Korean language, inability to
speak Korean served as a barrier in communicating their needs.

For example, Mai who

contacted the police because her step daughter called the police when her husband was
attempting to stab her with a knife stated,
When the police came, my Korean was poor and I didn't know what to tell them. So my
husband directly talked to the police. They asked my step-daughters what happened and
the girls very briefly explained.
The language barrier was identified as the biggest barrier for abused Vietnamese women
by all service providers interviewed. They considered women‟s limited information or resources
to result from their difficulty with Korean. One service provider clarified the connection of
language to limited resources.
The migrant women tend to face difficulties related to language. Because they have
language problems, they are not able to easily access the available information. For
example, if they are physically abused, they are not informed of how to report the
incident to the police or how to seek help or services. Due to the difficulty in
communication with others and fear of ramifications, it is rare that these women report
the incidents to the police.
2

Fifteen women understood very little, had difficulties in speaking, and needed the
interpreter for the interviews. Two women‟s Korean was fair at the time of interview, but they
seemed to have problem with communication when they lived with their husbands. Thus their
experiences were considered with those of women who had many difficulties with the Korean
language.
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Korean language classes frequently provided women with opportunity to meet people or
access service. However, as noted in Chapter Four, many women were not allowed to go to
Korean language class when they lived with their husbands. Husbands may realize that they can
isolate and control women by stopping them from learning Korean. If the women had limited
Korean, it would be hard for them to describe and to think about what to do. They would lack
information needed to be resourceful in escaping abuse.
Supportive Social Networks
A supportive network had considerable influence on Vietnamese women‟s efforts to
obtain assistance with domestic violence. Supportive networks helped women make connections
with many other sources. The examples of Cúc and Quỳnh, which were mentioned above,
showed that women who did not have personal networks available for help or who did not get
the hoped for help from their personal networks ended up taking no or minimal steps to obtain
help. They were unable to obtain information about or access social services.
The importance of a supportive network was confirmed by six of the eight service
providers. One worker stated,
Immigrant women have a few options available. Because they lack in social network,
there are not many forums to vent emotional feelings or to gain social support. Nowadays,
there are informal support groups from their home country. Conditions have improved
compared to the past, but spending a majority of their time at home makes it difficult to
get access to information.
Other research confirms that social support for abused women can reduce their isolation that
their husbands enforce and can be a major factor in seeking help (Stark & Flitcraft, 1996; C. M.
Sullivan & Bybee, 1999).
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Access to Information
Women who had good access to information were more likely to seek help than others.
Access to information was closely related to supportive networks and language ability. Many
women were unaware of information about services because they were new to Korea, but they
were able to obtain information about services or procedures for accessing them from their
support networks. Women reported that they learned of services from Korean language class,
friends, or relatives and thus were able to contact social services.
In contrast, lack of access to information about available resources hindered help-seeking
behavior for abused women. For example, nine women in this sample reported not knowing how
to call the police. Four women who had no help seeking at all (Cúc) or did not seek help from
formal sources (Giang, Lý, and Quỳnh) did not have any information about social services. Two
of them lived in rural areas with limited access to appropriate social services and geographical
isolation (Lý and Giang). One of them (Lý) knew nothing about services like centers for migrant
women that provide help, but she hoped such information would be widely shared.
All service providers confirmed that lack of information was an important barrier that
abused women faced. One staff member at a social services agency explained,
The migrant women have a pronounced lack of access to information. Although others
advise them to seek help through immigration centers or report incidents to the police,
these migrant women are not able to do so. In fact, they do not even have information on
the existence of social services.
There was agreement among the seven social services providers that abused Vietnamese women
were unaware of any agencies or anyone to contact, or where to go or how to contact someone
who could help them with abusive relationships. This lack of knowledge was the result of
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language barriers and lack of social network.
Children
Concerns about children shaped women‟s decisions to seek help. As mentioned before,
threats to children‟s safety and welfare motivated two women (Thảo and Hạnh) to try to get help
from various sources. Thảo and Hạnh did not initially report abuse by their husbands or in-laws,
but they finally contacted the police helping agencies when they believed that their children‟s
safety and welfare were threatened or they feared losing custody or their children.
However, concern for children frequently prevented other women from seeking help or
leaving relationships. Most women did not consider divorce or they reunited with their husbands
following a divorce. Lý thought she had to stay in Korea to be with her child even if the effects
on her were devastating. She said, “I do not think about divorce as I have my child. If I had no
child, I would have returned to Vietnam. But I have my child and I think that I have to sacrifice
my life”
Some women, especially Quỳnh and Thúy, feared that they would lose child custody if
they called the police or divorced. In contrast, both Mỹ and Loan, who had Korean citizenship
and were able to survive economically without their husbands, hoped to divorce but keep their
children. Economic independence and Korean citizenship accounted for women‟s willingness to
take steps to obtain help and leave their husbands.
Six of the seven service providers confirmed that the presence of children discouraged
women from seeking help or leaving the abusive relationships. One service provider echoed what
the women had stated in the interviews,
Those migrant women with children cannot ask for a divorce because of the predicament
that children will go through. Some women are physically abused on a daily basis, but

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they continue to stay because they claim they cannot live without their children. This
illustrates women’s strong attachment and commitment to their children. In extreme
cases, some migrant women clandestinely send their children to Vietnam due to fear of
losing custody of their children. Alternatively, they leave their husbands and remain in a
precarious situation as an undocumented worker. I heard that there are illegal services
that provide false passport and documents for children born out of interracial marriages
in order to send the children to Vietnam,
This finding that abused women may stay in abusive relationships due to their fear of
losing the children seemed to be inconsistent with the cases of Thảo and Hạnh, who motivated
by concern about their children‟s safety and wellbeing sought help from various sources.
However, these inconsistencies suggest that the role of children in abused women‟s decision
making process for seeking help is complex.
Rural Isolation
Both rural and urban women experienced serious abuse by their husbands or in-laws.
However, rural women faced unique obstacles in accessing resources and support, including
geographic isolation, lack of transportation or job opportunities, and a lack of community
agencies that provide formal resources.
Women in rural areas shared some common difficulties. They were not allowed to go out
or meet others. All but Huyền never used public transportation by themselves. Some women
wanted to go out for work, especially Bình and Giang, but husbands or in-laws ignored their
wishes. Of six rural women, two did not seek help from formal sources such as the police or
social services (Lý and Giang). For them, a nun who visited their homes was the only person that
they could meet, obtain some information from, and learn Korean from with permission of their
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families. The two women were told by nuns that their situations would improve if they could
gain trust and love from their families by enduring hardship, bearing children, and living together
as a family.
Rural women‟s disadvantages in accessing social services were confirmed by one
professional who worked as a Korean language teacher and marriage counselor in a rural area.
She stated that distances to social services such as shelters, limited access to resources, and
husbands‟ and in-laws‟ tactics to isolated women contributed to rural women‟s isolation.
Rural areas, compared to urban cities, make it more difficult for migrant women to
access information such as shelter and other services. The husband’s family believes that
they need to control/keep an eye on the Vietnamese wife because they paid a sum of
money to bring her to Korea. Consequently, they become isolated. It is not easy for them
to meet other Vietnamese friends and make phone calls. There are some women who need
to ask their friends to help them with activities such as purchasing telephone calling
cards at the post office. In fact, I am not sure how many of these migrant women endure
and stay in rural areas if they obtain Korean citizenship
Compared to women in rural areas, urban women more often used social services from a
variety of sources. Unlike women in rural area who worked on family farms, nine (40.9%)
women in urban settings earned money in other types of jobs (Anh, Liên, Dung, Quỳnh, Mỹ,
Thanh, Thúy, Hạnh, and Loan). Some women such as Hiền and Thảo were able to go to Korean
language class. These women used public transportation to go to work or go to Korean language
class. Working or going to language class might provide women with opportunities to meet
people who would inform them of services available and how to obtain various types of help.

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Capacity to Survive
Capacity to survive after leaving a husband appeared to be a vital factor that empowered
women to leave relationships. Capacity to survive and remain in Korea depended on employment
opportunities and legal immigrant status.
(A) Employment
Women who worked before they sought assistance or left their husbands 3 sought help
from various sources. Of nine (40.9%) who had previous work experience, four called the police,
seven utilized social services, and three filed for divorce. Another three women were considering
divorce at the time of interview. Though some (Anh and Quỳnh) had to turn all that they earned
over to their husbands or in-laws, these women were able to survive economically if they left
their husbands. Further enhancing chances of survival, Mỹ, Thanh, Hạnh, and Loan had Korean
citizenship and were fluent in Korean.
Employment allowed women to become more independent and to expand their social
networks, further supporting their efforts to obtain help. Three (Mỹ, Thanh, and Thúy) were able
to earn money and sometimes send money to their families in Vietnam after they began working.
He had to endure my going out to work as he couldn't give me money when I wanted him
to. I sent some money I made to my parents in Vietnam. I told him that I sent the money to
them as it came from my independent labor and he was not opposed to it. (Mỹ)
I have worked since 2006 when my daughter was two years old. My job is to assemble
cell phone cases. I work about fifty hours per week (from Monday to Friday: 9A.M.-6 or
7P.M., Saturday 9A.M-1P.M.), and earn $850 per month. I spend money that I earned to

3

Prior work experience, instead of employment at the time of interview, was considered
because there were a few women only started to work after they left their husbands.
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pay daycare bills and telephone bills, to buy food, and remit some money to my family in
Vietnam. (Thúy)
Women‟s employment outside of family businesses and farms in some cases allowed them to go
against their husbands‟ wishes and break out of enforced isolation from people who provided
social support.
Hạnh was able to regularly contact Korean co-workers and obtain information and
emotional support to help her address abuse.
I have no Korean friend. But there are ladies I am working with at work…He swore at me
so much. He used his fingers to do this. At first, I didn’t understand but I realized that
they [these gestures] were ill meant when I asked women in the neighborhood or at my
work.….People at my work told me that my husband was truly a bad man and wondered
how I endured it all. (Hạnh)
Work made it possible for Thúy to buy international phone cards, and thus to more freely keep in
touch with her family in Vietnam.
It was hard for me to make calls to Vietnam when I did not work. That is because he
disliked my making calls to Vietnam and hardly ever bought me international phone
cards. After I earned money, I was able to buy international phone cards and make calls
to my family in Vietnam whenever necessary. (Thúy)
After Dung had worked while being run away from home, she did return home and leave her job;
however, the work experience helped to convince her to leave her abusive husband again and
take a factory job.
In contrast to women who felt they could financially support themselves, those who were

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not employed felt more constrained in their options. They often wanted to work outside family
businesses or farms, but their husband or in-laws did not allow it, or they had to be home to care
for their children. Sometime, women‟s inability to survive was associated with rural residency.
Of thirteen who had no prior work experience, six women lived in rural areas where they helped
their husbands or in-laws farm. Unlike other working women, their jobs further confined them to
the family and limited their social networks. It made them totally dependent on their marital
families.
Lack of work experience did not completely stop women from reaching out for help with
abuse, but it limited women‟s perceptions of their options for trying to escape the abuse. Indeed,
of thirteen women who had no prior work experience, four did call the police and ten utilized
social services through referral from the police and their personal network. However, as
evidenced by the two comments below, women who tried to get help sometimes saw no way they
could survive without their husbands.
So I want to live with him again. If I divorce, I feel I will be nowhere, wondering what
would happen to my baby…. I want to build a happy family with my baby so I do not want
to divorce. I would have stayed at home instead of leaving if only my husband did not tell
me to leave and leave me and my baby in front of the public health center. I wanted to
endure long enough no matter how hard it was. I am afraid to divorce again. (Mai)
I am four months pregnant now….But I just don’t know how to live with my baby I have.
If I am to abort, my heart breaks. But If I am to have and raise the baby, I don’t know
what to do. (Huyền)
Women who had the capacity to economically survive apart from their husbands did
consider other options to staying in abusive relationships. Illustrating this idea, four women filed
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for divorce while they stayed in a shelter and began to work. They wanted to divorce their
husbands and remain, working in Korea. Phương, who had worked since she left home, stated,
I am preparing for a divorce suit. I want to stay in Korea instead of going back to
Vietnam if I divorce. The pastor told me that he would sponsor me to prolong my visa in
the Embassy when my visa expires in 2008. The pastor went to my husband and asked
him to sponsor me to prolong my visa. The lawyer told me that I could stay in Korea if my
divorce turned out well. I often call my parents. They are worried about me very much as
I live on my own in Korea. But as I don’t have money to go back to Vietnam, I want to
stay here and make more money.
The importance of resources in seeking help was confirmed by all social service
providers. One worker set forth the common theme,
For the migrant women, there are few resources to mobilize. Because they are financially
subordinate to their husbands, they do not have any options but to stay with their
husbands. In this sense, having material resources and social support is crucial for these
migrant women in seeking help.
(B) Immigrant Status
Six of the seven interviewed service providers identified immigration status as a key
influence on women‟s search for assistance because immigrant wives‟ legal status was dependent
on their husbands. For example,
Securing legal residency is what the migrant women desire the most. However, this
matter depends heavily on the willingness of their husband and his family members. The
issues of dependency and instability hinder these migrant women from seeking help. If
they report a spouse abuse incident to the police, they greatly fear that they will be
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divorced and eventually deported to their home country. After reporting to the police,
when the police ask the migrant women whether they want their abusive husbands to be
prosecuted, they tend to decline because they want to obtain Korean citizen ship and stay
in Korea.
Work experience provided women with opportunity to become more independent, expanded their
social network, and consider other options. Women with even more resources, including Korean
citizenship, tended to seek the most comprehensive array of assistance and to consider more
options than those with fewer resources.
Fear of Discrimination
Fear of discrimination was one reason not to call the police. Women feared that they
would receive unjust treatment because they were foreigners or ethnic minorities. Lack of
knowledge or limited access to services was combined with a fear of discrimination. For
example,
I have never reported my husband’s violence to the police. It was only a short time after
my arrival in Korea so I didn’t know how to report and had no information. In addition,
even when I had scars from his abuse, I thought that the police would not treat the matter
fairly as I was a foreigner. (Liên)
One service provider lent support to the notion that fear of discrimination kept women from
calling the police. She asserted that women would not seek divorce, because “They perceive that
the law will favor their husbands due to their legal status as foreigners.”
Concerns about Privacy and Feelings of Shame
Three women (Loan, Vân, and Cúc) felt too embarrassed to tell others about their
situation. As shown before, in their eyes disclosure of this private issue would shame the family.
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The other two women were afraid that when rumors about their abuse circulated, their husbands
would hear of this or the stories would be spread in gossip. Thus, they did not disclose abuse
even to close friends; one woman who was an interpreter for a social services worker assisting
abused women did not reveal her own abuse.
Two of the seven service providers also noted that many abused women are reluctant to
seek help outside the family because of the sense of shame. One worker explained,
Their response against abusive husband tends to be passive because they are ashamed of
and embarrassed about their personal problems and unwilling to disclose the details.
Conclusion
To conclude this chapter, I present two women‟s stories. These stories illustrate many of
the themes and the context related to women‟s abuse experience and their efforts to obtain help.
Lý’s Story
Lý was a 25-year-old who completed elementary school in Vietnam. She had a one-year
old daughter. After graduation from elementary school in Vietnam, Lý helped at home with crab
and shrimp fishery work. She was in a difficult financial situation, so she decided to marry a
Korean man to make money and help her parents in Vietnam. She thought that Korea was a
wealthy and good country. Her husband, who was seventeen years older than she, was a farmer.
Like life had been in Vietnam, her life in Korea was hard. She normally woke up at 5 a.m.,
prepared breakfast for her husband, went to work with him, and helped him cultivate rice, red
peppers, sesame, and other crops.
Lý was with her husband for two years. His physical abuse began soon after her arrival
in Korea and it never decreased. He used force to control her when she complained about his not
helping her with chores. She had to do housework at home, even though farming required much
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labor, but her husband would not assist in taking care of the baby. On one occasion, she was
abused because she cried a lot as she was afraid after her father-in-law scolded her. That day, she
came home late after a visit to her friend‟s house with her baby. Her mother-in-law accused her
angrily for not being home when she should be there, and her husband beat her, saying that it
was too noisy in the home. She ran away to her friend‟s place that day as she was very scared.
Sometimes, when she felt homesick or thought living was hard, her husband kicked her shouting
that she should go back to Vietnam.
Lý‟s husband and in-laws limited her access to money and controlled all associations. Her
husband sometime gave her $30-$40 for allowance and she bought international calling cards,
but she could not call often because her husband and in-laws did not like it when she called
Vietnam. Her in-laws did not like her to meet other Vietnamese women who were in her
neighborhood. They also did not want her to visit other places to have some fun. Her mother-inlaw‟s neighbor told her mother-in-law that she should not be allowed to go out, because she
might hear of other Vietnamese women who ran away and do the same. As a result of abuse, Lý
had bruises all over her body. She always felt insecure and timid. She constantly tried to read the
wishes of her husband or in-laws, because her in-laws did not seem to like her.
Lý‟s story illustrates minimal help seeking. Primarily because her in-laws and husband
isolated her, she never sought help from any formal source. She described a feeling of isolation
from her social network, noting that her husband and in-laws controlled her relationships with
other people. She indicated that she had spoken about her situation to her friend. She left home to
avoid further abuse when she was scolded by her father-in-law and was beaten by her husband,
spent a day at her friend‟s place, and talked to her about her hardships. Her friend provided her
with a place to stay, but did not know other ways to help her such as referring her to social

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services or giving her information on services. After her return, her husband and in-laws exerted
more control over her movements and associations than ever before. Because she could not go
out freely, she had to ask her friend to buy calling cards. She was very frustrated about her
situation but did not know how to improve her circumstances. She felt that she had no one to turn
to.
Lý‟s rural context made her isolation worse. She lived in an area characterized by limited
access to appropriate social services and geographical isolation. She never used public
transportation by herself. As exemplified by the neighbor‟s warning her mother in-law to keep
her at home, she lived in a small community where everybody knew and intervened with each
other. Rural isolation, exacerbated by lack of social contacts was related to limited access to
information. Lý never heard of anything that would be helpful to victims of domestic violence.
She did not know anything about social services. Her immigrant status, language barriers, and
financial dependence on her husband affected her inability to survive. She did not consider
divorce because she had her child. She thought that she had to sacrifice her life due to her child.
Finally, she tried to bear her problems, thinking that everything would be alright if she would
endure a little more and take good care of her in-laws.
Thúy’s Story
Thúy was 26 years old. She had one four-year-old daughter. She graduated middle
school in Vietnam. She came to Korea through a marriage arranged by a marriage broker. Her
migration through marriage was motivated by desires and needs to emerge from economic
hardships and support her family in a difficult financial situation in Vietnam. She had been living
with her husband for the past five years in an urban area.
Thúy‟s husband, who was twenty-four years older than she, used violence to control her.

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He hit her severely because he suspected she cheated on him. He often complained about her and
hit her when he felt bad or was drunk. He hit her even when she was pregnant. As one tactic in a
general pattern of control, he restricted her access to financial resources. As mentioned before, he
did not give her any money except for the cost of infant formula. He went to the market to buy
other needed goods and paid for them himself. She was financially dependent. He also controlled
her every action and tried to isolate her from her friends and family. He wanted her to stay home
all day. He disliked her meeting Vietnamese friends, going to Korean language class, and making
calls to Vietnam. He always checked where she was. As her daughter grew up, he asked her
where her mother was and what her mother did with her.
His physical abuse started a week after Thúy arrived in Korea and continued until she ran
away. His abuse was severe and often life threatening: he hit, threw objects such as stones at her,
pulled her hair, choked her, and threatened to stab her with a knife. He often shut the door tight
when he beat her, but she fled from him forcing the door open several times and returned back
after his anger softened. After abusive incidents, she usually sat on the bench at the children‟s
playground in front of her house waiting for him to sleep or calm down, but one time she had
stayed in her Vietnamese friend‟s house because it was cold outside. Next morning, he came to
her friend‟s house with a hammer to look for her. His abuse often was emotional, verbal, and
sexual.
As a result of his abuse, Thúy was black and blue all over, had scars, and lost her hair.
She did not see the doctor for several years, but she went to the doctor for the first time in 2007
when her husband hit and pushed her down, and beat her head against the ground. She had an Xray taken, and talked to her doctor about her injuries. The resulting medical record was presented
as evidence of his violence against her when she filed for divorce. His abuse also caused her

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problems like feeling sad, constant fear, and being upset. Most distressing to her, she lived in
constant fear of his explosive temper.
Thúy is an example of an active help seeker, though she dropped the divorce lawsuit and
returned home. She had a strong support network that gave her good access to services and
information. She sought help from this network, the police, and social services. Thúy‟s contacts
with friends were important in her becoming a user of police and social services. She often
talked to one friend, who was a neighbor and a co-worker, about her abuse experience and
hardships. Her friend, who came to Korea in 1997 and later acquired Korean citizenship,
encouraged Thúy to call the police, explained how to do this, and went with her to a social
services agency. Later, her friend was a witness during divorce proceedings. Other Vietnamese
friends provided her with information on the Hotline and the shelter.
Thúy also had the capacity to survive after leaving the abusive relationship. She had
worked since 2006. Her husband disliked the fact that she was working outside of home, but
allowed it because his family members could not earn enough income and make ends meet even
after combining their incomes. Employment provided Thúy with opportunity to meet new friends
and gain access to resources and information. She received emotional support and informational
support from her friends. She was fluent in Korean and was able to regularly communicate with
Korean-speaking co-workers.
After obtaining information on how to call the police from her friend, Thúy called several
times to stop her husband from hitting her. She perceived the police to be generally ineffective in
stemming the ongoing abuse. After a police visit, her husband did not hit her for three or four
days, but be hit her again later. Police also did not refer her to the shelter.
Thúy finally turned to social services and left home. She described being consumed with

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fear of being killed and feeling she could not live with her husband any longer. She stayed in the
shelter and had legal support to file a suit for divorce.
However, it was not easy for Thúy to end the abusive relationship through divorce
because of the obstacle posed by the instability of her immigration status. She heard from her
lawyer that even if she got a divorce, it was not certain she would get parental rights and child
custody because she lacked Korean citizenship. Although she stayed in the relationship for five
years, she could not obtain Korean citizenship because her husband was uncooperative in
assisting her to do that. Finally, she dropped the case before her divorce suit had been fully
processed and returned home because of her fear of losing child custody. She was exhausted by
the long divorce proceeding, and hoped her husband would change his behavior and attitude.
Because of her immigrant status, she felt vulnerable. Having children appeared to play a role in
her reason for staying in this relationship.
These two stories show how social networks, access to services or information, and
capacity to survive after leaving because of having citizenship, language ability, and financial
independence shape women‟s help seeking. Women with fewer of these personal resources were
less likely to seek help or leave abusive relationship. Even if they had resources and tried to get
help from multiple sources, they sometimes could not escape from abusive relationships.

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CHAPTER SIX:
CONCLUSION

The purpose of this dissertation is to improve understanding of domestic violence and
help seeking behavior among Vietnamese women who relocated to marry South Korean men.
Specifically, this dissertation described the nature of the abusive relationships which
characterizes the context in which women seek help. It also considered how several factors–
gender, ethnicity, class, culture, and immigration–shaped women‟s help seeking.
This chapter summarizes major findings of this dissertation and establishes whether
findings are supported by research on other women in similar situations. It also describes the
limitation of this study. Finally, it addresses implications of this dissertation for future research
and policy.
Summary of Findings
Nature of Abuse
Consistent with other studies on domestic violence among immigrant women (Ammar,
Orloff, Dutton, & Hass, 2005; Natarajan, 2003; Orloff, Dutton, Hass, & Ammar, 2003; Raj &
Silverman, 2003; Raj, Silverman, McCleary-Sills, & Liu, 2005), men‟s desires for power and
control were a dominant theme in the marriages and experiences of abuse for Vietnamese wives.
The circumstances in which Vietnamese women enter into marriage made them highly
vulnerable to being in abusive relationships. Most women married Korean men to help their natal
families which confronted tough financial situations in Vietnam or to improve their own lives by
moving to Korea. In the process leading to marriage, women were selected by their future
husband; they were provided with highly inaccurate information about the men. Men usually

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paid a commission fee to a broker who arranged the marriage. This process appeared to affect the
distribution of power in the women‟s new families and tendencies towards men‟s and their
families‟ control of women after the marriage took place. It also led marriage brokers to
encourage women to remain in abusive situations; otherwise men and their families would ask
marriage brokers for a refund of their fees.
Men and their relatives often used violence to exert general control over their wives,
daughters-in-law, or sisters-in-law. As has been observed in other studies of Asian families
(Fernandez, 1997; Purkayastha, Subramaniam, & Bose, 2003; Raj, Livramento, Santana, Gupta,
& Silverman, 2006), husbands and in-laws expected their wives, daughters-in law, or sisters-inlaw to be obedient, dependent, and subservient. However, women in this study often had
conflicts with their husbands or in-laws over financial matters, parenting, family chores, or work
outside the home. The husbands or in-laws screamed at them and beat them when the women
argued or resisted controls. Husbands and their relatives appeared to have very traditional ideas
that supported extremely patriarchal family arrangements based on cultural beliefs and practices
of Confucianism, but the Vietnamese wives instead saw themselves as working outside their
homes and as having more say in family matters.
Husbands and their families expected women to obey them completely. Thus, the
husbands or in-laws controlled women by limiting their access to financial resources and
monitoring women‟s every movement and all associations when they were not together. Several
women hoped to work to improve their economic standing, but their husbands or in-laws
typically enforced prohibitions against work or sending money to the women‟s parents or, if
women worked, took all of their earnings.
Overall, the type of violence against Vietnamese women is best characterized as intimate

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terrorism because most women did not use violence against others, even when their husbands or
in-laws use violence as one tactic in general patterns of control (Johnson & Ferraro, 2000). For
all women, abuse by their husbands and in-laws reflected marital family members‟ expectations
of the extremes of patriarchal family arrangements. As mentioned in Chapter Four, husbands and
their families expected that their Vietnamese wives would focus on domestic duties and
housework, give birth to children, take care of elderly parents, and remain submissive to them;
men or in-laws used force against wives when they did not fulfill these expectations. This finding
is consistent with previous research on the mail order bride phenomenon in Japan that concluded
that Japanese men expected to find “reproduction of motherhood and homemaking” from foreign
brides that is no longer typically fulfilled by Japanese women (Kojima, 2001, p. 200). Several of
women‟s marital families are best characterized as exhibiting extreme patriarchy because
women‟s work was totally restricted to home-based activities and their husbands and in-laws
typically enforced prohibition against employment (Stankuniene & Maslauskaite, 2008).
Factors Affecting the Decision to Seek Help
Dutton et al. (2000) contends that women‟s strategies to deal with abuse are shaped by
and reflect their social conditions, resources, and available options. The findings in my
dissertation similarly revealed these types of factors as important influences on women‟s
responses to the abuse. First of all, supportive networks, access to information, and the capacity
to survive after leaving abusive families motivated women to seek help from various sources. In
contrast, rural isolation, difficulty with Korean language, concerns about privacy and feelings of
shame, and fear of discrimination prevented abused women from seeking help. In addition,
concern about children affected women‟s decision to seek help.
A supportive network was one of the most important factors affecting seeking help for

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abused Vietnamese women. As previous studies (Stark & Flitcraft, 1996; C. M. Sullivan &
Bybee, 1999) indicated, supportive networks for abused women could reduce the isolation that
their husbands or in-laws enforce and could be a major factor in helping women to be safe from
abuse and seek help from many other sources. Obtaining a referral for domestic violence services
from their supportive networks is an important way for abused women to gain access to help.
Women who had good access to information were more likely to seek help than others.
Access to information was closely related to supportive networks and language ability. This
finding is consistent with previous research on the effect of lack of knowledge on battered
immigrant women‟s seeking help. Fugate, Landis, Riordan, Naureckas and Engel (2000) found
that a large number of battered women lacked knowledge of available resources in their
communities. Similarly, Ingram (2007) also found that Latinas had significantly less knowledge
of community resources for assistance with intimate partner violence than non-Latinas.
Consistent with other studies which have identified economic limitations as barriers to
leaving an abusive relationship, the findings of this study indicated that capacity to survive after
leaving is a vital factor that empowered women to leave the relationship (Orloff & Little, 1999).
Women who worked before they sought assistance or left their husbands were especially likely to
seek help from various sources. Further enhancing chances of survival apart from their husbands,
some women had Korean citizenship and were fluent in Korean.
As has been observed in other studies, language is one of the important factors that
affected help seeking for women. Language barriers are related to the lack of knowledge that
puts abused immigrant women in disadvantaged positions in seeking help (Bui, 2003; Murdaugh,
Hunt, Sowell, & Santana, 2004; G. Sullivan et al., 2005).
Rural women seem to face additional obstacles in accessing resources and support,

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including geographic isolation, lack of transportation or job opportunities, and a lack of
community agencies that provide formal resources (Rubinstein, 1996; Thurston, 1996).
Compared to women in rural areas, urban women more often used multiple social services.
As observed in other studies on Asian immigrant women in various parts of the world,
many abused women in this sample were reluctant to seek help outside the family because of the
sense of shame. Fear of discrimination was another reason not to call the police. Women feared
that they would receive unjust treatment because they were foreigners or ethnic minorities. Lack
of knowledge or limited access to services was combined with a fear of discrimination.
Concerns about children were a major influence on women‟s decisions to seek help.
Threats to children‟s safety and welfare motivated some women to seek help from various
sources. This finding was consistent with a previous study (Schweizer, 1986) which found that
having children was one of the precipitating factors for leaving an abusive relationship and
seeking services. However, concern for children frequently prevented other women from seeking
help or leaving relationships. Abused women stayed in abusive relationships due to their fear of
losing their children. These inconsistencies suggested that the role of children in abused women‟s
decision making process for seeking help depended on women‟s immediate concerns for
children‟s safety and their desires to continue rearing their children.
In other studies (Fugate et al., 2005; Petersen, Moracco, Goldstein, & Clark, 2004; C.
West, Kantor, & Jasinski, 1998; Wiist & McFarlane, 1998), the severity of abuse was regarded as
a major motivating factor in women‟s help seeking efforts. However, the difference between the
women who did and did not seek help is not related to the severity of abuse in this study, because
all women in this sample experienced severe abuse.

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Limitations
The main limitation of this study was the use of interview data with a small sample size.
The sample of participants was not randomly selected. Thus, the findings of this study cannot be
generalized to any other immigrant group. However, as mentioned in Chapter One, some women
from China, Mongolia, Thailand, and the Philippines have immigrated to Korea to marry Korean
men under circumstances similar to those of Vietnamese women. It is expected that they would
have common experiences such as poverty, limited language skill, social isolation, and conflicts
with in-laws in Korea. Thus, this study can provide some insight into experiences of domestic
violence among immigrant women in disadvantaged positions in Korea, though those groups
should also be the topic of future research.
Another limitation was the small number of participants in rural areas and the small
number who did not seek any type of help. I had hoped for a more balanced number of
participants from rural and urban area so as to make comparisons. I also had hoped for more
balanced numbers of help seekers and non-help seekers. However, gaining access to abused
women was especially difficult in the rural areas, because abused women in rural areas feared
very much that their husbands or in-laws might hear about whether they met with a stranger and
disclosed abuse experiences. My difficulty in accessing rural women for interviews suggests the
extreme nature of their isolation and fear as well as the importance of improving services to the
rural areas.
Most study participants were recruited through referrals by various social services and
counseling agencies serving battered women and the Vietnamese community. Relying solely
upon social services and counseling agencies to identify participants would have excluded
abused women who did not seek help from these social services agencies from the sample. It was

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therefore important that, through referrals of key informants in the Vietnamese community, I was
able to reach several abused women who did not seek help from social services and counseling
agencies. However, as with rural women, recruiting these women was very difficult, and only
one woman who did not seek any type of help was interviewed. An alternative approach to be
considered in future research is to recruit additional numbers of women through a variety of
community-based key informants.
Despite limitations, the present study made a significant contribution to the literature by
advancing a theoretical understanding of abused Vietnamese women‟s help seeking behaviors in
Korea. The choice of help and the timing and strategies for seeking help are usually governed by
a person‟s values, beliefs, concerns, and the availability of relevant resources. The very detailed
and descriptive data revealed women‟s perceptions of reality and allowed them to explain their
situations and actions in a way that a survey approach would not have allowed. Moreover, since
there is no study based on data collected from Vietnamese wives in Korea to describe the process
of help seeking, this dissertation allowed for a contextual understanding of the experience of
abused Vietnamese women. Its results can add to the growing body of knowledge on abused
immigrant wives around the world.
This study also produced findings about patterns involving similarities and difference
among categories by comparing experiences between women who did and did not seek help. By
including the interviews with professionals such as social service providers, the study increased
credibility of the findings and interpretation. As such, the findings of this study have implication
both for policy as well as for future research.

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Implications
Policy Implications
This dissertation suggests several important implications for policy. First, change in
immigration law should be considered. At the end of 2005, only about 12% of immigrant women
had obtained Korean citizenship. This fact underscores the instability of immigrant women‟s
legal status. To acquire Korean citizenship, immigrant women must remain in a marriage
relationship for at least two years and be sponsored by their husband. Thus, the victims were
reluctant to report abuse and seek help for fear they would be deported back to their homeland
and lose custody of their children. Especially immigrant women who have limited Korean
proficiency or cannot provide the evidence of their spouses‟ faults find it difficult to seek legal
help. Therefore, they often run away from home rather than pursuing legal actions and end up as
illegal immigrants after their spouses cancel their dependent visas (MINBYUN, 2007).
In the U.S., under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), the battered spouses of U.S.
citizens or permanent residents may self-petition to obtain permanent resident status. The
immigration provisions of VAWA permit immigrant victims of domestic violence to file for
immigration relief without the batterers‟ Knowledge or cooperation, in order to seek safety and
independence from the batterers (Borkowski, 2009; Shetty & Kaguyutan, 2002). U.S. law could
provide a model for change in immigration law in Korea.
Secondly, legal regulations for international marriage broker agencies should be
improved to protect immigrant women in the international marriage process. At the time of the
research in Korea, the marriage brokerage business did not require registration or authorization
(Presidential Committee on Social Inclusion, 2005). However, due to problems with
international marriages arranged by commercial marriage brokers, the Korean government

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established legal regulations for international marriage brokers that required them to register with
state authorizes to open their business in 2008. In addition, after the death of a Vietnamese bride
killed by a Korean husband with a history of mental illness history, the Korean government
improved legal regulations in November, 2010. According to the new regulations, the brokers
must provide criminal records and mental illness histories of both potential marriage partners
(Chosunilbo, 2010, July 16).
In spite of several regulations, the existing procedures and documentation requirements
for marriage broker agencies‟ operation should be reinforced because “there is no way to check
the validity of the information” provided by marriage brokers (Chosunilbo, 2010, July 16). In
the U.S., under the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act of 2005, marriage broker
companies are required to check the records of both parties and get the information notarized.
Mandatory provision of accurate information allows the women to consider the realities they will
face in their marriages.
Thirdly, creation of coordinated community responses to domestic violence among
immigrant women is needed. Community coordination refers to “a formalized system of
collaboration between various social service agencies to help meet the needs of a specific
population” (Pennington-Zoellner, 2009, p.539). Coordinated community response to domestic
violence is based on awareness that “the problem of violence against women is complex and
requires comprehensive service responses involving agencies and services beyond the justice
systems” (Clark, Burt, Schulte, & Maguire, 1996, p.1). In the United States there have been
different mechanisms of coordination such as Community Intervention Projects, Criminal Justice
System-Based Reform Projects, and Coordinate Councils (see Shepard, 1999 regarding different
mechanism of coordination). Coordinated community response involves “police, prosecutors,

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probation officers, battered women‟s advocates, counselors and judges in developing and
implanting policies and procedures that improve interagency coordination and lead to more
uniform response to domestic violence case” (Shepard, 1999, p.1). Coordinated community
response includes pro-arrest policies that include police training to avoid arresting women acting
in self defense, the referral of batterers into batterer intervention program, and advocacy for
victims. As Penningto-Zoellner noted (2009), in recent years community response required some
measures to increase women‟s economic security (see Garner & Maxwell (2008) and Visher,
Harrell, Newmark, & Yahner (2008) regarding evaluations of community coordinated response
to domestic violence).
The findings of this study indicated that more comprehensive and coordinated efforts
should be made to respond to domestic violence cases for immigrant women in Korea. Efforts
should be focused on organizing collaborative partnerships between relevant sectors including
law enforcement, health care agencies, social service agencies, and religious organizations to
respond to domestic violence among immigrant women. In this study, some victims of abuse
were referred to social service agencies by the police, but other were not. Some victims of abuse
were able to obtain information on various sources of help from Registered Office, but others
were not. The two women who were counseled by nuns were told that they should address abuse
by making themselves loved by the families that abused them. These findings suggest that more
uniform responses to domestic violence for immigrant women are needed. Therefore,
coordinated community response should aim to “improve policies and practices in institutional
response to domestic violence” (e.g., mandatory referral and accessibility of social service) and
increase cooperation and communication across relevant sectors (Allen, 2006, p.47).
Numerous studies have shown the damage done to children who are exposed to violence

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between their parents (e.g., Cummings, Pepler, & Moore, 1999; Dube, Anda, Felitti, Edwards, &
Williamson, 2002; Osofsky, 2003; Wolfe, Crooks, Lee, McIntyre-Smith, & Jaffe, 2003). Studies
suggested that exposure to domestic violence might create negative emotional outcomes such as
anxiety and depression (Tang, 1997), increase risk of behavioral problem such as aggression
(McGee, 2000), or increase risk for being violent (Lichter & McCloskey, 2004). As shown in this
dissertation, since women often have children, intervention for children‟s exposure to domestic
violence should be considered as a part of coordinate community response. Practice and policy
which will enhance the safety and deal with negative outcomes of domestic violence for both
women victims and their children should be considered. This includes screening procedures to
identify women victims and children exposed to domestic violence and development of a
comprehensive system of care for them.
Another policy recommendation might be to have a Vietnamese police liaison. In area
where there are concentrations of non-Korean speaking people, police could hire a civilian police
liaison who would be fluent in the language and part of the community and culture. Police
liaisons can play a critical role in clear communication of needs, expectations, and responses.
Finally, it is important to provide educational information on domestic violence for
immigrant women before migration, because abusive husbands and their relatives severely
restrict access to information after immigration. Complete and accurate information about
various sources of help should also be disseminated, such as the existence of social service
agencies including shelters and how to access them. Specifically, for women who fear
deportation and losing custody of their children, information about women‟s rights, deportation,
and custody of children should be provided.
In addition to education on domestic violence, Korean language education is also

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important. Many women indicated that they were not allowed to go to the Korean language
classes. Not letting women learn Korean may have negative effects on their children. If women
are not allowed to get education and language skills, this can affect the children who will be
Korean citizens. Professionals who assist abused immigrant women may also need to be
educated on assistance that is perceived as helpful by abused women and they may need training
so that they are culturally competent (See Bell & Mattis (2000) and Latta & Goodman (2005)
regarding culturally competent services for domestic violence victims).
Future Research Implications
This dissertation suggests implication for future research on the nature of domestic
violence and needs of immigrant victims. More research needs to be conducted on various
barriers to seeking help and the effectiveness of interventions in order to develop coordinated
community responses to help immigrant victims. This can be done by developing a strategy to
increase this type of research so it reaches more women and by comparing the experiences
among different sub-groups of the immigrant population.
First, increasing the sample size of women participants who did not seek help or who
lived in rural area would make it possible to develop a more comprehensive understanding of
domestic violence issues and help seeking. Ethnographic research among refugees, immigrants,
and other minority populations could enable researchers to develop trust and gaining entry into
these groups. As Spring and colleagues (2003) emphasized, building rapport and trust among
researcher, field staff, and immigrant communities is central to reach on hidden populations. The
researcher‟s own experiences which were shared with research participants may provide a
starting point for gaining and maintain access to the participants (Carey, McKechnie, &
McKenzie, 2001). Volunteering at a shelter, or getting an informant to introduce the researcher to

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women in other settings would facilitate building rapport and gaining access to research
participants. As the children of immigrant women get older, research might be able to recruit
mothers through schools the children attend.
Further, conducting research on other sub-groups of the immigrant population in Korea
may allow examination of domestic violence across several groups, making it possible to identify
common and different experiences. Comparison groups may be selected from Korean origin
women, Chinese-Korean women, or women from countries other than Vietnam. Research on
these comparative samples would help us separate out effects of the specific cultures and
backgrounds from general experiences of all immigrant women. Vietnamese women who
married Korean men but did not experience abuse, or for whom the abuse did not continue, also
may be selected as comparative samples. This would allow identification of unique influences on
and circumstances of women in different subgroups.
In addition to future research on the nature of domestic violence and the needs of
immigrant victims, police behavior should be further studied. Research is needed to identify
factors which affect police response to domestic violence among immigrant women. Specifically,
research can be conducted to see if police respond differently to abuse of Korean women and
abuse of immigrant women and if their response is different in rural area and urban areas. Such
research would allow us to identify the reasons for ineffective intervention by some officers,
which may include problems with communication, friendships with men accused of abuse
(especially in rural areas), and paperwork taking up too much time if arrests are made too much
time with Vietnamese wives, or whether there are other reasons that police are not responsive. If
the lack of police responsiveness results from deeply embedded cultural beliefs, it may be very
important for activists to work toward change in these beliefs.

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Conclusion
International marriage between Korean men and foreign women has increased since the
1990s. Marriage migration to Korea might be understood as a result of gender arrangements and
international inequality. The preference for sons contributed to a sex-ratio imbalance in
Korea. Korean men who have low socioeconomic status and who live in rural areas experience
great difficult in finding Korean women to marry. Trying to reproduce traditional gender roles
according to which women‟s work is totally restricted to home-based activities, they seek to
marry foreign women. In countries like Vietnam, poverty, limited economic opportunities, and
the potential for abuse stimulate women to move to Korea to marry. They want to move from
very poor countries to better off countries. Thus, international marriage is a product not only of
personal choices about marriage, but also of social influences related to the economic gap
between countries, power and control in marriages based on traditional gender roles, and the
strategies of international marriage brokers (H. Lee, 2008; Seol, 2006). Gender arrangements and
expectations that are very patriarchal then support abuse of these women and make it hard for
them to leave.
Domestic violence among immigrant women is viewed as a recent social phenomenon in
Korea. However, there has been sparse data and research exploring domestic violence and help
seeking behavior among immigrant women. Such research is needed to develop effective
intervention strategies. It is essential to adapt coordinated community approaches to serve the
needs of immigrant populations and effectively address domestic violence issues based on
various factors affecting women‟s help seeking behaviors.

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APPENDICES

127

APPENDIX A

INTERVIEW INSTRUMENT (ENGLISH VERSION)
Questions for women
The purpose of this study is to understand Vietnamese women‟s experience of disagreements and
conflict in their marriages to Korean men, and to understand whether they try to get help and
what they do to get help. The findings will be used to help program staff and policy makers to
develop programs that assist women. The first questions are just to get a better understanding of
your background, your work, and how you came to Korea.
Section 1. Respondent Demographics and life in Korea:
1. What is your age?
2. What is your religion?
3. Are you employed? If yes, what is your occupation? In the last year, how many weeks,
and how many hours a week did you work?
4. Do you work in a family business? If you worked in a family business, who else worked
in it? About how much of the business profit was due to your work?
5. What is your annual household income? How much of this do you earn?
6. Do you receive any type of financial assistance from any other source? What source and
how much?
7. Do you have children? How old are they? Are any of these step children for you or your
partner? Do you have any children in Vietnam? How old are they and what contact do
you have with them?
8. Do you have close Vietnamese relatives in Korea? If yes, who are they?
9. How well do you read, speak, write, and understand Korean?
10. Did you study Korean language in Korea? If yes, where did you study? How long and for
how many hours? Did you study with other Vietnamese or non-Korean origin women?
Who were your teachers? Did the teachers speak Vietnamese? How well?
11. What is your highest level of education? Beside Korean language, did you study
anything else in Korea? Did you finish any educational or training programs in Korea?
12. What is your marital status?
13. How did your marriage come about? How did you meet, get to know each other, and so
on? Why did you go ahead with this marriage?
14. What had you heard about life in Korea, Korean men, and marriage with Korean men
before your marriage? Who told you this, or what did you read to get this information?
15. Was a marriage broker involved in setting up your marriage? How did that work? Who
was that person, and what did that person tell you about Korea, your husband, and what
to expect of life here?
16. What was your age at the time you were married?
17. What was your spouse‟s age at the time of the marriage?
18. What is your spouse‟s religion?
19. What is your spouse‟s highest level of education?
20. What is your immigration status?
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21. Are you and your spouse still together? If no, why not? What happened, and when did it
happ`en?
22. Do you have friends in Korea? If yes, who are they and how did you get to know them?
How much and often do you talk with them?
23. How much and often do you have contact with other Vietnamese speaking people in
Korea?
24. Are there any constraints on you talking with other people or contacting other
Vietnamese speaking people in Korea? If yes, what are they? Who limits or tries to limit
your contact? (e.g., husband, in-laws, others) Why do they do this?
25. Besides contact with other people, did you have any other things that stand in the way of
your being in touch with people you want to see or talk with? For example, do you have
access to cars, public transportation, and a phone for calling back to Vietnam or calling
people in Korea? If yes, why are there barriers to being in touch with people?
Now, I‟d like to ask you about some of your opinion about marriage in general.
Section 2. Women‟s Values
1. What is the ideal role for women in a marriage?
2. How should the ideal husband behave in a marriage?
3. Have you and your husband been able to be this way? In what ways yes and no?
4. What do you think about having a husband of a different ethnic background – Korean as
opposed to a Vietnamese husband?
Many couples have some disagreements or conflicts in their marriage. As you know, this
research is about disagreements and conflict and what people do about them, and also whether
anyone can be helpful to women experiencing conflicts. The next set of questions is about
conflicts.
Section 3. Domestic Violence and Help Seeking
1. Have you ever experience these kinds of incidents with your husband? (e.g., hit, threaten
to hit, throw something at respondent, slap, kick, push, grasp, choke, stab with a knife or
scissors, threaten to stab, anything else like that?) If yes, what sorts of experiences did
you have? Do you do them to him? Did he do them to you? What was the most serious
incident against you? Against him?
2. Have these been happening in the last year? When did these start? Did they get better or
worse over time? Why did they change?
3. Were there specific reasons that these sorts of incidents would occur? For example, what
was he trying to get you to do or say?
4. Did you get injured? How severe were the injuries? How about him?
5. When there is conflict, did you or your spouse do any things to the other like yell, call
names, say bad things to people about the other, make the other beg for forgiveness, ask
the other permission to spend money? If yes, what sorts of experience did you have? Did
you do them to him? Did he do them to you? What was the most serious incident against
you? Against him?
6. Have these been happening in the last year? When did these start? Did they get better or
worse over time? Why did they change?
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7. Were there specific reasons that these sorts of incidents would occur? For example, what
was he trying to get you to do or say?
8. Did these things cause you problems, like feeling sad, sick, or upset? How serious were
the problems?
9. Did your partner ever force you to have sex in a way that you did not want to, or when
you did not want to?
10. Have these been happening in the last year? When did these start? Did they get better or
worse over time? Why did they change?
11. Did these things cause you problems, like feeling sad, sick, or upset? How serious were
the problems?
12. For any of the things you have told me about, did you call the police? When? What were
the main reasons to call? (e.g., to ask the police to stop violence, to send him in jail, and
other reason) If you did not call the police, did another person call the police?
13. What happened when the police came? If you did not call the police, what would the
police do, what would their partners and in-laws do, and what would your friends do?
What would be the effect on you and your children, and your access to your children? If
you did call the police, how did these different people react? How did it affect you and
your children?
14. Were the police helpful? In what ways? If no, what are some reasons why?
15. If you did not call the police, why not?
16. Besides calling the police, did you seek help from any other person or place?? If yes,
what type of help? At what time, that is, recently, more than a year ago, or even longer
ago?
17. What happened? What did or would your husband and in-laws do, what would your
friends do if you tries to get help? What would be the effect on you and your children,
and your access to your children?
18. Did you get help? In what ways? If no, why not?
19. If you did not try to get any help, why not?
20. What is going on with the disagreements and conflicts now?
21. Besides trying to get help, did you do anything else to cope with these situations? What
did you try at different points, and what happened?
22. Do you have anyone we have not discussed that you seek support from or talk to about
these kinds of incidents?
23. Have you heard or read about help for women who have certain kinds of things happened
to them –like constant yelling and belittlement, hitting, or other ways of physically
hurting, and forced to have sex- (1) in Korea, (2) in Vietnam? What do you know about
the law and what is considered illegal between husband and wife? How do you know
these things? Who told you about the law and available help?
24. Do you think that any types of services, support, or information would be useful for
Vietnamese women who have these things happen? Why or why not? What kinds of
services or help?
25. What is the most important thing that you think service providers, teachers, religious
people, or others should understand about women who have these sorts of things happen?

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Questions for Key informants
The purpose of this study is to understand Vietnamese women‟s various responses to domestic
violence, to explore factors which may affect the decision to seek help, and to provide inputs for
program staff and policy makers to design effective interventions. You will be asked about
experiences of offering services, supports, and information to Vietnamese women
Organization:
Years working here:
Do you speak Vietnamese?
Were you originally from Vietnam?
If not originally from Vietnam, how well do you speak Vietnamese?
Sex:
1. What are your tile and job in your organization?
2. What is your job or role here, and how does it bring you into contact with Vietnamese
women.
3. How many Vietnamese women does your organization serve on an annual basis?
4. What is the demographical make-up of Vietnamese women who are in touch with your
organization?
5. What have been your experiences with Vietnamese women who are victims of domestic
violence?
6. What are the most common types of service they require?
7. What specific barriers do battered Vietnamese women face when attempting seek help?
And, how are they able to overcome these barriers?
8. What should be improved to help Vietnamese women to be safe from and cope with
domestic violence?
9. Can you tell me about a few cases where women had problems with abuse and things
turned out well? What was it about the women or the services or the help they got that
led to things turning out well?
10. Can you tell me about a few cases where women had problems and things have not
turned out well? What was it about the women or the services or the help they got that
led things to not turn out well? What should happen next?

131

APPENDIX B

INTERVIEW INSTRUMENT (VIETNAMESE VERSION)
Bảng Câu Hỏi Dành Cho Đối Tượng Là Phụ Nữ
Mục đích của chương trình nghiên cứu này là để tìm hiểu về những bất đồng và mâu thuẫn trong
cuộc sống hôn nhân của những phụ nữ Việt Nam lập gia đình với người Hàn Quốc, về việc họ có
tìm kiếm sự giúp đỡ không và bằng cách nào. Kết quả nghiên cứu sẽ giúp các nhân viên tham gia
chương trình cũng như những người hoạch định chính sách có thể phát triển các chương trình hỗ
trợ phụ nữ. Những câu hỏi bước đầu chỉ nhằm mục đích tìm hiểu một số thông tin cơ sở về người
được hỏi, công việc và bối cảnh đưa họ đến Hàn Quốc.
Phần 1. Thông Tin Cơ Sở và Cuộc Sống Tại Hàn Quốc:
1. Chị bao nhiêu tuổi?
2. Tôn giáo?
3. Chị có đi làm không? Nếu có, làm nghề gì? Trong năm qua, chị đã làm việc bao nhiêu
tuần, và bao nhiều giờ mỗi tuần?
4. Có phải chị làm việc cho một cơ sở kinh doanh của gia đình không? Nếu đúng, có ai khác
cùng làm việc tại cơ sở này? Công việc làm của chị đóng góp bao nhiêu vào lợi nhuận
của cơ sở kinh doanh này?
5. Thu nhập hàng năm của gia đình chị là bao nhiêu? Chị đóng góp bao nhiêu vào khoản thu
nhập này?
6. Chị có nhận được bất cứ hình thức hỗ trợ về mặt tài chính nào không? Nhận từ đâu và
bao nhiêu?
7. Chị có con không? Con chị bao nhiêu tuổi? Chị và chồng chị có con riêng không? Chị có
con còn ở lại Việt Nam không? Chúng bao nhiêu tuổi và chị liên lạc với con như thế nào?
8. Chị có thân nhân người Việt hiện sống tại Hàn Quốc không? Nếu có, họ là ai?
9. Khả năng đọc, nói, viết và hiểu tiếng Hàn của chị như thế nào?
10. Có phải chị học tiếng Hàn tại Hàn Quốc không? Nếu đúng như vậy, chị học ở đâu? Đã
học bao lâu rồi và được bao nhiêu giờ? Chị học cùng với những người Việt Nam khác
hay những chị em phụ nữ nước ngoài không phải là người Hàn Quốc khác? Giáo viên
dạy chị là ai? Họ có biết nói tiếng Việt không? Tiếng Việt của họ có tốt không?
11. Trình độ học vấn của chị? Ngoài tiếng Hàn, chị có học thêm gì khác ở Hàn Quốc không?
Chị đã hoàn thành chương trình giáo dục hay đào tạo nào tại Hàn Quốc chưa?
12. Tình trạng hôn nhân?
13. Cuộc sống hôn nhân của chị thế nào? Chị đã gặp chồng chị như thế nào, quen nhau ra sao,
vân vân? Tại sao chị quyết định chấp nhận cuộc hôn nhân này?
14. Chị biết được gì về cuộc sống ở Hàn Quốc, về đàn ông Hàn Quốc và hôn nhân với người
Hàn Quốc trước khi quyết định đám cưới? Ai đã cung cấp cho chị những thông tin đó,
hay chị đọc những thông tin đó ở đâu?
15. Có ai môi giới hôn nhân của chị không? Việc môi giới diễn ra như thế nào? Người môi
giới là ai và họ nói gì với chị về Hàn Quốc, về chồng tương lai và cuộc sống sau này tại
Hàn Quốc?
16. Chị bao nhiêu tuổi khi quyết định kết hôn?
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17. Chồng chị bao nhiêu tuổi khi kết hôn với chị?
18. Chồng chị theo đạo gì?
19. Trình độ học vấn của chồng chị?
20. Tình trạng pháp lý về di trú của chị như thế nào?
21. Hai vợ chồng chị vẫn đang sống với nhau? Nếu không, tại sao? Chuyện gì đã xảy ra và
khi nào?
22. Chị có bạn bè ở Hàn Quốc không? Nếu có, họ là ai và chị quen biết họ như thế nào? Chị
có thường xuyên chuyện trò với họ không? Đến mức nào?
23. Chị có thường xuyên liên hệ với những người nói tiếng Việt khác ở Hàn Quốc không?
Thường đến mức nào?
24. Chị có bị bất cứ hạn chế nào trong việc trao đổi hay tiếp xúc với những người nói tiếng
Việt khác ở Hàn Quốc không? Nếu có, những hạn chế nào? Ai hạn chế hoặc muốn giới
hạn việc tiếp xúc của chị? (Ví dụ, chồng, họ hàng bên chồng, người khác). Tại sao họ
làm như vậy?
25. Ngoài việc tiếp xúc với người khác, có cái gì khác ngăn cản chị liên hệ với những người
chị muốn gặp hoặc nói chuyện? Ví dụ, chị có được quyền sử dụng xe hơi, các phương
tiện giao thông công cộng hoặc điện thoại để gọi về Việt Nam hoặc những người khác ở
Hàn Quốc không? Nếu có, tại sao lại có những rào cản không cho phép chị liên hệ với
những người chị muốn gặp hoặc nói chuyện?
Bây giờ, tôi xin phép được hỏi chị một số ý kiến về hôn nhân nói chung.
Phần 2. Giá Trị của Phụ Nữ:
1. Vai trò lý tưởng của phụ nữ trong hôn nhân?
2. Người chồng lý tưởng nên xử sự thế nào trong hôn nhân?
3. Chồng chị và chị có thể xử sự như vậy không? Khía cạnh nào có và khía cạnh nào
không?
4. Chị nghĩ thế nào về việc lập gia đình với một người khác chủng tộc và văn hóa, như
người Hàn Quôc thay vì Việt Nam?
Nhiều đôi vợ chồng có những bất đồng hoặc mâu thuẫn trong đời sống hôn nhân. Như chị đã biết,
chương trình nghiên cứu này là về bất đồng và mâu thuẫn và phản ứng của người trong cuộc
cũng như có thể có ai đó hỗ trợ những người phụ nữ rơi vào những hoàn cảnh như vậy. Các câu
hỏi tiếp theo đây là về mâu thuẫn.
Phần 3. Bạo hành gia đình và tìm kiếm giúp đỡ
1. Chồng chị có bao giờ có những hành vi như sau với chị không (đánh, doạ đánh, ném đồ
vật vào người chị, tát, đá, xô, tóm chặt, bóp cổ, đâm bằng dao hoặc kéo, doạ đâm, bất cứ
hành vi nào khác tương tự)? Nếu có, chị đã từng chịu đựng những hành vi nào? Chị có
phản ứng lại tương tự với chồng chị không? Chồng chị có hành hung chị như vậy không?
Hành vi bạo hành nghiêm trọng nhất xảy ra với chị? Với chồng chị?
2. Những hành vi bạo hành nói trên xảy ra năm ngoái? Bắt đầu khi nào? Càng nghiêm trọng
hơn hay có cải thiện? Tại sao lại có sự thay đổi như vậy?
3. Có lý do cụ thể cho những hành vi bạo hành như vậy không? Ví dụ, chồng chị buộc chị
phải làm gì hoặc nói gì?
4. Chị có bị thương không? Vết thương nghiêm trọng không? Thế còn chồng chị?
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5. Khi có mâu thuẫn, chị hay chồng chị có la hét, chửi bới, nói xấu nhau với người khác,
buộc người kia phải cầu xin tha thứ, hoặc phải xin phép người kia khi cần tiêu tiền? Nếu
có, chị rơi vào hoàn cảnh nào? Chị có làm như vậy với chồng chị không? Và ngược lại?
Sư việc nghiêm trọng nhất sảy ra cho chị là gì? Và cho chồng chị?
6. Những mâu thuẫn kể trên có xảy ra năm ngoái không? Bắt đầu khi nào? Càng nghiêm
trọng hơn hay có cải thiện? Tại sao lại có sự thay đổi như vậy?
7. Có nhũng lý do cụ thể gì đã khiến cho những mâu thuẫn như vậy xảy ra? Ví dụ, chồng
chị buộc chị phải làm gì hoặc nói gì?
8. Những việc như vậy có ảnh hưởng đến chị không, như cảm thấy buồn chán, muốn bệnh,
đau khổ? Có nghiêm trọng không?
9. Chồng chị có bao giờ buộc chị phải quan hệ tình dục theo cách chị không thích hoặc
những lúc chị không muốn không?
10. Những hành vị như vậy có xảy ra năm ngoái không? Bắt đầu khi nào? Càng nghiêm trọng
hơn hay có cải thiện? Tại sao lại có sự thay đổi như vậy?
11. Những việc như vậy có ảnh hưởng đến chị không, làm chị cảm thấy buồn chán, muốn
bệnh, không yên? Có nghiêm trọng không?
12. Về những gì chị kể cho tôi, chị có báo cảnh sát không? Khi nào? Lý do chính để báo cảnh
sát (ví dụ: yêu cầu cảnh sát giúp ngăn chặn hành vi bạo lực, bỏ tù anh ta, hay các lý do
khác). Nếu chị không báo cảnh sát, có ai khác báo không?
13. Chuyện gì xảy ra khi cảnh sát đến? Nếu chị không báo cảnh sát, cảnh sát sẽ làm gì, chồng
chị và họ hàng bên chồng sẽ làm gì, bạn bè chị sẽ phản ứng thế nào khi chị báo cảnh sát?
Có ảnh hưởng gì đến bản thân chị và con cái chị không, cũng như việc tiếp tục tiếp cận
con cái? Nếu chị gọi cảnh sát, những người nói trên sẽ phản ứng thế nào? Và làm như
vậy sẽ ảnh hưởng thế nào đến chị và con chị?
14. Cảnh sát có giúp ích gì cho chị không? Như thế nào? Nếu không, lý do là gì?
15. Nếu chị không báo cảnh sát, vì lý do gì?
16. Ngoài việc báo cảnh sát, chị có nhờ ai đó hoặc nơi nào khác giúp đỡ không? Nếu có, giúp
như thế nào? Khi nào? Gần đây, cách đây hơn một năm hay đã lâu rồi?
17. Chuyện gì xảy ra khi chị tìm kiếm giúp đỡ như thế? Chồng chị hoặc họ hàng bên chồng
đã hoặc sẽ làm gì, bạn bè của chị sẽ phản ứng thế nào khi chị đi tìm kiém nơi giúp đỡ?
Việc ấy có ảnh hưởng gì đến bản thân chị và con cái chị không, cũng như việc chị đuợc
tiếp cận với con cái?
18. Chị có được giúp ỏ nhũng nơi chị tìm kiếm không? Bằng cách nào? Nếu không thì tại
sao?
19. Nếu chị không tìm cách nhờ giúp đỡ? Lý do tại sao?
20. Những bất đồng và mâu thuẫn hiện nay thế nào?
21. Ngoài việc nhờ giúp, chị có làm gì khác để đối phó với tình trạng bạo hành kể trên
không? Chị đã thử những cách nào? Kết quả thế nào?
22. Có ai chúng tôi chưa nhắc đến mà chị đã nhờ giúp đỡ hay tâm sự với về những sự việc kể
trên không?
23. Chị có nghe hay đọc về những hình thức hỗ trợ giành cho phụ nữ khi rơi vào hoàn cảnh
như liên tục bị mắng chửi, xem thường, đánh đập, hoặc hành hung về mặc thể xác hay ép
buộc quan hệ tình dục –(1) ở Hàn Quốc, (2) ở Việt Nam? Chị biết gì về luật pháp và
những gì bị cho là bất hợp pháp trong quan hệ vợ chồng? Chị biết bằng cách nào? Ai cho
chị biết về luật pháp và những hình thức hỗ trợ?
24. Chị có nghĩ rằng các hình thức dịch vụ, hỗ trợ, thông tin là cần thiết cho những phụ nữ
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Việt Nam rơi vào những hoàn cảnh như trên không? Tại sao có và tại sao không? Những
hình thức dịch vụ và hỗ trợ nào?
25. Theo chị, điều quan trọng nhất mà những người cung cấp dịch vụ, giáo viên, những
người hoạt động tôn giáo, cũng như những đối tượng khác cần hiểu về những người phụ
nữ gặp phải những vấn đề như vậy là gì?

135

Câu hỏi cho những nhân vật chính cung cấp tin tức
Mục đích của chương trình nghiên cứu này là để tìm hiểu thái độ phản ứng khác nhau của phụ nữ
Việt Nam đối với nạn bạo hành trong gia đình để tìm hiẻu những nhân tố ảnh hưởng đến quyết
định tìm kiếm sự giúp đỡ và để cung cấp thông tin cần thiết cho những nhân viên trong gia
chương trình giúp đỡ và các nhà hoạch định chính sách trong việc thiết kế các biện pháp can
thiệp hiệu quả. Các câu hỏi sẽ xoay quanh kinh nghiệm cung cấp dịch vụ, hỗ trợ và thông tin cho
những phụ nữ Việt Nam.
Tổ chức:
Số năm làm việc:
Anh/chị có biết nói tiếng Việt?
Anh/chị là người Việt Nam?
Nếu không phải là người Việt Nam, khả năng tiếng Việt của anh/chị thế nào?
Giới tính:
1. Chức vụ và công việc cụ thể của anh/chị trong cơ quan?
2. Vai trò của anh/chị ở đây là gì? Bằng cách nào anh/chị có điều kiện liên hệ với phụ nữ
Việt Nam?
3. Mỗi năm tổ chức của anh/chị phục vụ bao nhiêu phụ nữ Việt Nam?
4. Những phụ nữ mà tổ chức của anh/chị tiếp xúc gồm những thành phần nào?
5. Kinh nghiệm của anh/chị trong việc tiếp xúc với những phụ nữ Việt Nam là nạn nhân của
bạo hành gia đình?
6. Hình thực dịch vụ phổ biến nhất mà họ yêu cầu?
7. Những trở ngại cụ thể mà những phụ nữ Việt Nam phải đương đầu khi cố tìm kiếm sự
giúp đỡ? Và họ làm thế nào để vượt qua những trơ ngại đó?
8. Điều gì cần được cải thiện để giúp những phụ nữ Việt Nam được an toàn và có thể đối
phó với nạn bạo hành trong gia đình?
9. Anh/chị có thể kể về một số trường hợp trong đó phụ nữ từng bị bạo hành nhưng sau đó
lại có một kết cuộc tốt đẹp? Điều gì nơi người phụ nữ hay những hình thức hỗ trợ nào
giúp những phụ nữ như vậy có được một kết cục tốt đẹp?
10. Anh/chị có thể kể về một số trường hợp trong đó phụ nữ gặp phải một số vấn đề như trên
và mọi việc diễn ra theo chiều hướng xấu? Điều gì nơi người phụ nữ hay những hình
thức hỗ trợ nào làm cho mọi việc diễn ra theo hướng tiêu cực như vậy? Chuyện gì xảy ra
tiếp sau đó?

136

APPENDIX C

INTERVIEW INSTRUMENT (KOREAN VERSION)
이주여성 대상 설문지
이 연구의 목적은 베트남 여성들이 한국남성과의 결혼생활에서 겪는 불화와 갈등을
이해하고, 그들이 외부로부터 도움을 요청하는지의 여부, 그리고 도움을 얻기 위해 무엇을
하는지 이해하려는 것입니다. 이 연구 결과는 지원기관의 활동가들과 정책 입안자들이
여성들을 도울 수 있는 개선방안을 마련하는데 이용될 것입니다. 첫 번째 질문들은 당신의
인구사회학적 배경, 경제활동, 그리고 한국으로의 입국과정에 대해 더 나은 이해를 얻기
위한 것들입니다.
파트 1
1. 당신의 나이는 몇 살입니까?
2. 당신의 종교는 무엇입니까?
3. 당신은 현재 취업중입니까? 만약, 그렇다면 당신의 직업은 무엇입니까? 작년 한 해
동안 몇 주 정도, 그리고 주 당 몇 시간 동안 일을 하셨습니까?
4. 당신은 가업(가족이 운영하는 사업)에 종사하고 있습니까? 만약, 그렇다면, 다른
누군가가 그 일을 함께 하고 있습니까? 당신의 노동이 사업의 이윤에 어느 정도
기여한다고 생각하십니까?
5. 당신 가족의 일년 소득은 얼마입니까? 이 중에서 당신이 벌어 들이는 소득은
얼마입니까?
6. 당신은 다른 곳으로부터 어떠한 종류의 재정지원을 받고 있습니까? 어디로부터,
그리고 얼마나 받고 있습니까?
7. 당신은 자녀가 있습니까? 그들의 나이는 몇 살입니까? 당신이나 당신의
배우자에게 이전 혼인관계에서 생긴 자녀가 있습니까? 당신은 베트남에 거주하고
있는 자녀가 있습니까? 그들은 몇 살이며 그들과 어떻게 연락하고 있습니까?
8. 당신은 한국에 거주하는, 가까운 베트남인 친척이 있습니까? 만약, 그렇다면,
그들은 누구입니까?
9. 당신은 어느 정도로 한국말을 읽고 말하고 쓰고 이해합니까?
10. 당신은 한국에서 한국어를 학습했습니까? 만약, 그렇다면 어디에서 공부했나요?
얼마나 오랫 동안 그리고 몇 시간이나 공부했나요? 다른 베트남 여성 혹은 한다른
국가 출신 여성들과 함께 공부했나요? 한국어를 가르친 교사는 누구였나요?
그들은 베트남어를 말할 수 있었나요? 어느 정도 잘 했나요?
11. 당신의 최종학력은 무엇입니까? 한국에서 한국어 이외에 다른 것을
공부했습니까? 한국에서 교육 혹은 훈련 프로그램을 마친 적이 있습니까?
12. 당신의 결혼 상태는 무엇인가요?
13. 당신은 어떻게 결혼을 하게 되었나요? 당신과 당신의 배우자는 어떻게 서로를
알게 되었나요? 왜 이 결혼을 추진하게 되었나요?
14. 당신이 결혼하기 이전에 한국에서의 생활, 한국 남성, 한국 남성과의 결혼에 대해
137

들은 것은 무엇인가요? 누가 이것에 대해 얘기했나요, 혹은 당신이 이 정보를 얻기
위해 읽은 것은 무엇인가요?
15. 당신의 결혼에 결혼 중개업자가 개입되어 있나요? 어떻게 그 일이 진행되었나요?
그 사람들은 누구였고 그들은 한국과 당신의 남편, 그리고 한국 생활에 대해
무엇을 말했나요?
16. 결혼 당시 당신은 몇 살이었나요?
17. 결혼 당시 당신의 배우자는 몇 살이었나요?
18. 당신의 배우자의 종교는 무엇인가요?
19. 당신의 배우자의 최종학력은 무엇인가요?
20. 당신의 이주자 신분 (법적 체류 상태) 는 무엇인가요?
21. 당신과 당신의 배우자는 여전히 함께 지내고 있나요? 만약, 아니라면, 왜
아닌가요? 무슨 일이 있었는지, 그것이 일어난 것은 언제인가요?
22. 당신은 한국에 친구가 있나요? 만약, 그렇다면 그들은 누구이며 어떻게 그들과
알게 되었나요? 얼마나 많이 그리고 자주 그들과 얘기하나요?
23. 당신은 한국에서 얼마나 많이 그리고 자주 베트남어를 말하는 사람들과
접촉하나요?
24. 당신이 다른 사람과 얘기하거나 베트남어를 쓰는 사람들과 접촉할때 당신에게
어떠한 제약이 있나요? 만약, 그렇다면 그것은 무엇인가요? 누가 당신의
접촉시도에 제한을 가하나요? (예를 들면, 남편, 시댁식구들, 다른 사람들 등)
그들이 그렇게 하는 이유는 무엇인가요?
25. 그외에, 당신이 만나거나 얘기하기를 원하는 사람들과의 접촉할때 다른 제약들이
있나요? 예를 들어, 차나 대중교통 수단의 이용, 베트남으로의 전화 통화, 한국에서
다른 사람과의 통화에 제한이 있나요? 만약, 그렇다면, 다른 사람과의 접촉시에 왜
이러한 어려움이 존재하나요?
파트 2
이제 연구자는 당신의 결혼에 대한 일반적인 견해에 대해 질문드리려 합니다.
1. 결혼생활에서 여성의 이상적인 역할은 무엇이라고 생각합니까?
2. 결혼생활에서 이상적인 남편은 어떻게 행동해야 한다고 생각합니까?
3. 당신과 당신의 배우자는 이러한 이상적인 역할의 모습으로 지낼 수 있었습니까?
어떠한 측면에서 그렇고 또는 그렇지 않았습니까?
4. 당신은 다른 인종(문화/민족)적 배경을 가진 남편과 사는 것-베트남인 남편에
비교하여 한국인 남편-에 대해 어떻게 생각합니까?
파트3.
많은 커플들이 그들의 결혼생활에서 불화와 갈등을 겪고 있습니다. 당신도 알다시피, 이
연구는 불화와 갈등, 그리고 사람들이 그것에 어떻게 대응하는지, 그리고 다른 누군가가
갈등을 경험하는 여성들에게 도움이 될 수 있는지에 관한 것입니다. 다음 질문들은 갈등에
관한 것입니다.

138

1. 당신은 당신의 남편과의 관계에서 다음과 같은 종류의 사건을 경험한 적이
있습니까? (예, 폭력; 폭력의 위협; 집어던지기; 따귀 때리기; 발차기; 밀치기;
끌어잡기; 목조르기; 흉기로 찌르기; 흉기로 위협하기; 그외) 만약, 예라면, 당신은
어떠한 종류의 경험을 가지고 있나요? 당신이 배우자에게 그렇게 했나요?
배우자가 당신에게 그렇게 했나요? 당신의 배우자가 당신에게 가한 가장 심각했던
사건은 무엇인가요? 당신 배우자에게 가한 사건은?
2. 지난 해에 이러한 일들이 있었나요? 언제 이러한 일들이 시작되었나요? 시간이
지남에 따라 그것들은 악화되었나요 개선되었나요? 왜 그것들이 달라졌나요?
3. 그러한 일들이 일어난 특별한 이유가 있나요? 예를 들어 배우자가 당신에게
행동하도록 혹은 말하도록 한 것은 무엇인가요?
4. 당신은 그러한 일들로 다쳤나요? 어느 정도로 다쳤나요? 당신의 배우자는
어떠했나요?
5. 갈등이 있을때, 당신이나 당신의 배우자는 다음과 같은 일들 -소리지르기;
욕설하기; 상대에 대해 남들에게 험담하기; 상대가 빌도록 하기; 지출에 대한
허락받기를 요구하기 등- 한 적이 있나요? 만약, 예라면, 당신은 어떠한 종류의
경험을 했나요? 당신이 배우자에게 그것을 했나요? 배우자가 당신에게 그것을
했나요? 당신에게 가해진 가장 심각한 사건은 무엇인가요? 당신의의 배우자에게
가해진 것은?
6. 지난 해에 이러한 일들이 일어났나요? 언제 이러한 일들이 시작되었나요? 시간이
지남에 따라 그것들은 악화되었나요 개선되었나요? 왜 그것들이 달라졌나요?
7. 그러한 일들이 일어난 특별한 이유가 있나요? 예를 들어 배우자께서 당신에게
행동하도록 혹은 말하도록 한 것은 무엇인가요?
8. 그러한 일들이 당신에게 다음과 같은 문제-슬픔, 아픔, 분노의 감정-를
초래했나요? 그러한 문제는 얼마나 심각했나요?
9. 당신의 배우자는 당신이 하기 싫은 방식으로 혹은 하기 싫은 때 성관계를
강요했나요?
10. 지난 해에 이러한 일들이 일어났나요? 언제 이러한 일들이 시작되었나요? 시간이
지남에 따라 그것들은 악화되었나요 개선되었나요? 왜 그것들이 달라졌나요?
11. 그러한 일들이 당신에게 다음과 같은 문제-슬픔, 아픔, 분노의 감정-를
초래했나요? 그러한 문제는 얼마나 심각했나요?
12. 당신은 연구자에게 언급한 일들로, 경찰에 신고한 적이 있습니까? 언제? 경찰을
부른 주요한 이유는 무엇입니까? (예, 경찰에게 폭력을 멈쳐 줄 것을 요청하기 위해,
배우자를 감옥에 보내기 위해, 다른 이유로 등) 당신이 경찰을 부르지 않았다면,
다른 누군가가 경찰을 불렀나요?
13. 경찰이 왔을때 어떠한 일이 일어났나요? 만약 당신이 경찰을 부르지 않았을때,
경찰은 어떻게 했으며 당신의 배우자 및 시댁 식구들은 어떻게 했으며, 당신의
친구들은 어떻게 행동했습니까? 당신과 당신의 자녀들, 그리고 당신의 자녀들에
대한 당신의 접근성에 미친 영향은 무엇입니까? 당신이 경찰을 불렀을때, 경찰,
당신의 배우자 및 시댁식구, 친구들은 어떻게 반응했습니까? 당신과 당신의
자녀들에게 어떠한 영향을 끼쳤습니까?
14. 경찰은 도움이 되었습니까? 어떤 방식으로? 만약, 아니오라면, 그 이유는
139

무엇입니까?
15. 당신이 경찰을 부르지 않았다면, 그 이유는 무엇입니까?
16. 경찰을 부르는 것 외에, 다른 사람 혹은 다른 곳에 도움을 요청한 적이 있습니까?
만약, 예라면 어떤 종류의 도움이었습니까? 그 시기는 언제입니까? 최근에, 혹은
1년 전에 또는 그 보다 오래 전에?
17. 어떠한 일이 일어났습니까? 당신이 도움을 청했을때, 당신의 배우자, 시댁 식구들,
친구들은 어떻게 행동했습니까? 당신과 당신의 자녀들에게, 그리고 당신의
자녀들에 대한 당신의 접근성에 미친 영향은 무엇입니까?
18. 당신은 도움을 얻었습니까? 어떤 방식으로? 만약, 아니오라면, 그 이유는
무엇입니까?
19. 당신이 어떠한 도움도 청하지 않았다면, 그 이유는 무엇입니까?
20. 현재 불화와 갈등은 어떻게 되어가고 있습니까?
21. 도움을 얻고자 하는 시도를 제외하고, 당신이 이러한 상황에 대처하기 위해 무엇을
했습니까? 당신이 다른 입장에서 취한 행동은 무엇이었으며, 어떠한 일들이
일어났습니까?
22. 당신에게, 당신이 지원을 요청할 만한 또는 이러한 사건에 대해 이야기할 만한,
지금까지 우리가 거론하지는 않은, 다른 어떤 사람이 있습니까?
23. 당신은 가정폭력- 예를 들어, 끊이지 않는 고함과 비하, 구타, 혹은 다른 방식의
신체적 학대, 그리고 강요된 성생활 등- 을 경험하는 여성들을 위한 지원에 관한
정보를 한국이나 베느남에서 들어보거나 읽어 본 적이 있습니까? 당신이 법률과
관련하여, 그리고 남편과 부인 사이에서 불법적이라고 여겨지는 것에 관하여 알고
있는 것은 무엇입니까? 누가 법률과 가능한 도움에 대해 이야기해 주었습니까?
24. 당신은 어떠한 종류의 서비스, 지원, 정보가 이러한 상황에 처해 있는 베트남
여성에게 도움이 될 거라고 생각합니까? 왜 그렇게 혹은 왜 아니라고 생각합니까?
어떤 종류의 서비스와 도움입니까?
25. 서비스 제공자, 교사들, 종교 관련 종사자, 또는 다른사람들이 이런 종류의
어려움을 경험하는 여성들에 대해 이해해야 할 가장 중요한 점이 무엇이라고
생각합니까?

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이주여성 지원 활동가 및 관련기관 종사자 대상 설문지
이 연구는 가정폭력에 대한 베트남 여성의 다양한 대응방식을 이해하고, 그 결정에
영향을 미치는 요인들을 분석하여, 프로그램 스탭과 정책 결정자들이 효과적인 개입
프로그램을 발전시키는데 도움이 되고자 합니다. 연구자는 베트남 여성들을 대상으로
정보, 서비스, 지원을 제공해 오셨던 당신의 경험에 대해 질문드리려 합니다.
소속기관:
이 기관에서 일한 년수:
당신은 베트남어로 말할 수 있습니까?
당신은 베트남 출신입니까?
베트남 출신이 아니라면, 당신은 베트남어를 어느 정도로 말합니까?
성별:
1. 소속 기관에서 당신의 직책과 직무는 무엇입니까?
2. 현재 담당하시는 일/역할이 무엇입니까? 어떻게 베트남 여성과 관련된 일을
하게 되셨습니까?
3. 소속 기관에서 현재 도움을 주고 있는 베트남 여성의 수는 얼마나 됩니까
(연간)?
4. 현재 접촉하고 계신 베트남 여성들의 사회경제적 배경은 어떻습니까?
5. 가정폭력 피해자인 베트남 여성들을 만나온 당신의 경험은 무엇입니까?
6. 그들이 요청하는 가장 일반적인 서비스는 무엇이었습니까?
7. 가정폭력을 당한 베트남 여성들이 도움을 요청할때 직면하는 어려움에는 어떤
것들이 있습니까? 그리고 어떻게 그들이 어려움을 극복할 수 있다고
생각하십니까?
8. 가정폭력으로부터 안전할 수 있도록 베트남 여성들을 돕기 위해 개선되어야할
점들은 무엇입니까
9. 학대의 경험을 갖고 계신 분들 중에 잘 해결된(관계가 개선된) 사례들에 대해
말씀해 주십시오. 무엇이 해결(관계 개선)을 가져온 계기가 되였나요? 여성
자신인가요? 기관인가요? 구체적 도움인가요?
10. 학대의 경험을 갖고 계신 분들 중에 잘 해결(개선)되지 않은 사례들에 대해
말씀해 주십시오. 무엇이 해결(개선)을 저해한 요인인가요? 무엇이
달라져야할까요?

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APPENDIX D

CONSENT FORM (ENGLISH VERSION)
CONSENT FORM FOR WOMEN
Study Title: Domestic Violence and Help Seeking Behavior among Vietnamese Women in Korea
Researcher: Suyeon Park, Doctoral student of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University
You are being asked to participate in a research study of domestic violence and help seeking
behavior among Vietnamese women.
Purpose of the Research
The purpose of this study is to understand Vietnamese women‟s experience of disagreements and
conflicts in their marriages to Korean men, and to understand whether they try to get help and
what they do to get help. This study is being conducted as partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the Ph.D in Criminal Justice at Michigan State University.
What You Will Do
A total of 20 people are being recruited to participate in this study. As a participant in this study,
you will be asked about demographic information, your opinions about marriage, and any
disagreements or conflicts in your marriage and your response to these. The interview will take
about one and a half to two hours and will be scheduled for a time that is convenient for you.
Potential Benefits
The primary benefits of this study are that it can generate information on the experience and the
decision to seek help or not for Vietnamese women in Korea. The findings will be used to help
program staff and policy makers to develop programs that assist women.
Potential Risks and Right to Decline or Withdraw
The potential risks of participating in this study include risks associated with sensitive questions,
for example, feeling discomfort and if there has been conflict, remembering the trauma it caused.
To minimize these risks, you can decline participation, refuse to answer specific questions, or
unconditionally withdraw from the study at any time. Also, all participants will be given a list of
counselors who have agreed to speak with you if you want to talk to someone about your
feelings or experiences.
Choosing not to participate or withdrawing from this study will not make any difference in any
help you receive for conflict or disagreements in your marriage.
Voluntary Nature of Participation, Privacy and Confidentiality
Your participation in this study is completely voluntary. The results from the interview will be
kept confidential to the maximum extent allowable by law and will only be available to Suyeon
Park and Dr. Morash, who is her dissertation supervisor at the Michigan State University. No
data will be presented in a way that it is possible to identify any individual. Data will be stored
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on a password protected computer and in a locked file cabinet for 5 years.
You will be asked if the researcher can use a tape-recorder to record the interview. Audiotape
will be wiped clean immediately after the words are transcribed into writing, which will be done
as soon as it is feasible.
You will also be asked if the primary researcher can contact you in one or two years to conduct a
follow-up study. If you agree, a number (but not your name) will be stored with your responses
to the questions, and this number will be on your contact information, which includes your name
and phone numbers and address that could be used to reach you in the future. The contact
information will be kept in a university office in a locked cabinet, separate from the data, so only
the researcher and her dissertation advisor could link your answers to your name.
Compensation
You will receive a $ 15 gift card for your willingness to participate in this study.
Contact Information for Questions and Concerns
If you have concerns or questions about this study, please feel free to contact the researcher
(Suyeon Park, 560 Baker Hall, School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University, East
Lansing, MI 48824, (517) 432-3345. parksu2@msu.edu.) You may also contact Dr. Merry
Morash at (517) 432-9235. morashm@msu.edu
If you have any questions about your rights as a subject in this study, or would like to register a
complaint about this study, you may contact anonymously if you wish, the Michigan State
University‟s Human Research Protection Program at 517-432-4503 or e-mail irb@msu.edu or
regular mail at 202 Olds Hall, MSU. East Lansing, 48824.
Documentation of Informed Consent
I have read and understood the information above. I voluntarily consent to participate in this
study.
Please sign _____________________________

Date _____________________

I agree to be audio-taped during the interview. Initial ___________
I agree to be contacted in one or two years to conduct a follow up study. Initial _______

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CONSENT FORM FOR KEY INFORMANTS
Study Title: Domestic Violence and Help Seeking Behavior among Vietnamese Women in Korea
Researcher: Suyeon Park, Doctoral student of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University
You are being asked to participate in a research study of domestic violence and help seeking
behavior among Vietnamese women.
Purpose of the Research
The purpose of this study is to understand Vietnamese women‟s various responses to domestic
violence, to explore factors which may affect the decision to seek help, and to provide inputs for
program staff and policy makers to design effective interventions. This study is being conducted
as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D in Criminal Justice at Michigan State
University.
One part of the study is to interview Vietnamese women married to Korean men. The purpose of
interviews with professionals knowledgeable of this group is to obtain a second source of data to
improve validity of findings and interpretations.
What You Will Do
About 10 professionals knowledgeable about Vietnamese women married to Korean men are
being recruited to participate in this study. As a participant in this study, you will be asked on the
phone about experiences of offering services, support, and information to Vietnamese women.
The telephone interview will occur in fall of 2008, and will take about one hour and will be
scheduled for a time that is convenient for you.
Potential Benefits and Risks
The primary benefits of this study are that it can generate information on the experience and the
decision to seek help or not for Vietnamese women in Korea. The findings will be used to help
program staff and policy makers to develop programs that assist women. There are no known
risks to your participation in the study.
Voluntary Nature of Participation, Privacy and Confidentiality
Your participation in this study is completely voluntary. You can decline participation, refuse to
answer specific questions, or unconditionally withdraw from the study at any time.
The results from the interview will be kept confidential to the maximum extent allowable by law
and will only be available to Suyeon Park and Dr. Morash, who is her dissertation supervisor at
the Michigan State University. No data will be presented in a way that it is possible to identify
any individual. Data will be stored on a password protected computer and in a locked file cabinet
for 5 years.
Compensation
You will not be compensated for participation in the study.
Contact Information for Questions and Concerns
144

If you have concerns or questions about this study, please feel free to contact the researcher
(Suyeon Park, 560 Baker Hall, School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University, East
Lansing, MI 48824, (517) 432-3345. parksu2@msu.edu.) You may also contact Dr. Merry
Morash at (517) 432-9235. morashm@msu.edu
If you have any questions about your rights as a subject in this study, or would like to register a
complaint about this study, you may contact anonymously if you wish, the Michigan State
University‟s Human Research Protection Program at 517-432-4503 or e-mail irb@msu.edu or
regular mail at 202 Olds Hall, MSU. East Lansing, 48824.
Documentation of Informed Consent
I have read and understood the information above. I voluntarily consent to participate in this
study.
Please sign _____________________________
Phone numbers for telephone interview:

145

Date _____________________

APPENDIX E

CONSENT FORM (VIETNAMESE VERSION)
GIẤY CHẤP THUẬN
Đề mục nghiên cứu : Bạo hành gia đình và hành vi tìm kiếm sự giúp đỡ của những phụ nữ Việt
Nam làm vợ ở Hàn Quốc
Người thực hiện nghiên cứu: Suyeon Park, Doctoral student of Criminal Justice, Michigan State
University
Xin được xác nhận sự tham gia của chị vào nghiên cứu liên quan đến Bạo hành gia đình và hành
vi tìm kiếm sự giúp đỡ của những phụ nữ Việt Nam làm vợ ở Hàn Quốc
Mục đích nghiên cứu
Mục đích của chương trình nghiên cứu này là để tìm hiểu về những bất đồng và mâu thuẫn phụ
nữ Việt Nam thường phải đương đầu trong cuộc sống hôn nhân với người Hàn Quốc, cũng như
việc họ có tìm kiếm sự giúp đỡ hay không và bằng cách nào. Nghiên cứu này được thực hiện
nhằm hoàn tất một phần chương trình đào tạo tiến sĩ về Tư Pháp Hình Sự tại Trường Đại Học
Michigan State.
Công việc của đối tượng nghiên cứu
Khoảng 20 người sẽ được tuyển dụng để tham gia chương trình nghiên cứu này. Là người tham
gia chương trình nghiên cứu này, chị sẽ được hỏi những thông tin cơ sở về nhân khẩu, ý kiến cá
nhân về hôn nhân cũng như những bất đồng và mâu thuẫn xảy ra trong đời sống hôn nhân và
phản ứng của chị. Cuộc phỏng vấn kéo dài từ 1 giờ rưỡi đến 2 giờ, thời gian phỏng vấn sẽ được
quyết định một cách thuận tiện cho bạn.
Lợi ích cơ bản
Những ích lợi cơ bản của chương trình nghiên cứu này là có thể mang lại thông tin về những
kinh nghiệm và quyết định tìm kiếm sự giúp đỡ hay không của những phụ nữ Việt Nam ở Hàn
Quốc và những kết quả thu được sẽ giúp nhân viên phụ tráchchương trình và những nhà hoạch
định chính sách có thể đề ra những chương trình giúp đõ cho phụ nữ.
Tình huống không mong đợi có thể xảy ra và quyền từ chối hoặc huỷ bỏ
Những bát lợi có thể xảy ra khi tham gia chương trình này những bất lợi liên quan đến các câu
hỏi nhạy cảm, ví dụ như chị có thể cảm thấy không thoải mái, hay nếu thực sự đã từng phải trải
qua những xung đột hay mâu thuẫn, chị sẽ phải nhớ lại những ký ức đau buồn. Để giảm thiểu
những điều này, chị có thể quyết định không tiếp tục tham gia, từ chối trả lời một số câu hỏi cụ
thể hoặc có thể yêu cầu rút khỏi chương trình nghiên cứu vô điều kiện bất cứ lúc nào. Ngoài ra,
tất cả những ai tham gia sẽ được cung cấp danh sách các nhà tư vấn sẵn lòng lắng nghe nếu chị
có nhu cầu bày tỏ cảm xúc hay tâm sự về những gì xảy ra với mình.
Việc quyết định không tham gia hay thay đổi sự tham gia của chị vào nghiên cứu này đều không
làm phương hại đến việc hỗ trợ và giúp đỡ đối với sự bất đồng và mâu thuẫn trong đời sống hôn
146

nhân mà chị đang trải qua.
Tính tự nguyện và cam kết bảo mật sự riêng tư của chị
Sự tham gia của chị vào nghiên cứu này là hoàn toàn tự nguyện. Kết quả của cuộc phỏng vấn sẽ
được giữ bí mật trong phạm vi tối đa cho phép và việc tiếp cận kết quả phỏng vấn chỉ được cho
phép bởi tiến sĩ hướng dẫn luận văn Merry Morash và Su Yeon Park. Tất cả những dữ liệu thu
thập sẽ được thể hiện sao cho không một cá nhân nào bị nhận diện. Các dự liệu thu thập sẽ được
bảo quản trong máy tính được bảo hộ bằng mật mã và tủ hồ sơ mật trong suốt 5 năm.
Chị sẽ được hỏi về việc có thể cho phép sử dụng máy ghi âm để ghi lại cuộc phỏng vấn. hay
không. Sau khi ghi ra giấy nội dung phỏng vấn, cuộn băng ghi âm sẽ được xoá bỏ ngay.
Chị cũng sẽ được hỏi liệu nghiên cứu viên có thể liên hệ với chị trong vòng một hay hai năm sau
để tiếp tục chương trình nghiên cứu không.
Quà lưu niệm
Một món quà nhỏ trị giá 15$ sẽ được gửi đến chị để cám ơn chị đã tham gia chương trình.
Thông tin liên lạc nếu có câu hỏi hay thắc mắc
Nếu có thắc mắc liên quan đến nghiên cứu này, xin vui lòng liên lạc đến người thực hiện nghiên
cứu Su Yeon Park (Suyeon Park, 560 Baker Hall, School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State
University, East Lansing, MI 48824, (517) 432-3345. parksu2@msu.edu.). Hoặc chị cũng có thể
liên hệ với Tiến sĩ Morash (517) 432-9235.
Nếu chị có câu hỏi liên quan đến quyền lợi của chị với tư cách là người tham gia vào nghiên cứu
này, hoặc muốn bày tỏ sự không hài lòng với nghiên cứu này, chị có thể liên hệ bằng cách dấu
tên đến Chương trình Bảo vệ Nghiên cứu về Con người, điện thoại :517-432-4503 , email:
irb@msu.edu hoặc gửi thư trực tiếp đến địa chỉ 202 Olds Hall, MSU. East Lansing, 48824
(Michigan State University‟s Human Research Protection Program at 517-432-4503 or e-mail
irb@msu.edu or regular mail at 202 Olds Hall, MSU. East Lansing, 48824 )
Tôi đã đọc và hiểu rõ những thông tin nêu trên. Tôi tự nguyện chấp thuận tham gia vào chương
trình nghiên cứu này.
Xin vui lòng kí tên __________________

Ngày _____________________

Tôi đồng ý ghi âm cuộc phỏng vấn trong thời gian thực hiện cuộc phỏng vấn. Chữ ký tắt
_______
Tôi chấp thuận cho điều tra viên liên hệ trong vòng một hay hai năm sau để tiếp tục nghiên cứu
về đề tài này. Chữ ký tắt _______

147

GIẤY CHẤP THUẬN
Đề mục nghiên cứu : Bạo hành gia đình và hành vi tìm kiếm sự giúp đỡ của những phụ nữ Việt
Nam làm vợ ở Hàn Quốc
Người thực hiện nghiên cứu: Suyeon Park, Doctoral student of Criminal Justice, Michigan State
University
Xin được xác nhận sự tham gia của chị vào nghiên cứu liên quan đến Bạo hành gia đình và hành
vi tìm kiếm sự giúp đỡ của những phụ nữ Việt Nam làm vợ ở Hàn Quốc
Mục đích nghiên cứu
Mục đích của chương trình nghiên cứu này là để tìm hiểu về những phản ứng khác nhau của phụ
nữ Việt Nam đối với nạn bạo hành gia đình, làm rõ những nhân tố có thể ảnh hưởng đến quyết
định tìm kiếm sự giúp đỡ, và cung cấp thông tin để giúp các nhân viên tham gia chương trình và
các nhà hoạch định chính sách có thể thiết kế những biện pháp can thiệp hiệu quả. Nghiên cứu
này được thực hiện nhằm hoàn tất một phần chương trình đào tạo tiến sĩ về Tư Pháp Hình Sự tại
Trường Đại Học Michigan State.
Một phần của nghiên cứu là việc phỏng vấn những phụ nữ Việt Nam lấy chồng Hàn Quốc. Mục
đích của cuộc phỏng vấn những chuyên gia am hiểu về nhóm người nói trên là nhằm thu thập các
dữ liệu để nâng cao tính chính xác của nội dung và kết quả phỏng vấn nhóm người trên.
Công việc của đối tượng nghiên cứu
Khoảng 10 chuyên gia biết về những phụ nữ Việt Nam kết hôn với người Hàn Quốc sẽ tham gia
vào nghiên cứu này. Với tư cách là người tham gia nghiên cứu này, anh / chị sẽ được hỏi qua
điện thoại về kinh nghiệm cung cấp các dịch vụ, sự hỗ trợ và thông tin cho những phụ nữ Việt
Nam. Cuộc phỏng vấn qua điện thoại sẽ được thực hiện vào mùa thu năm 2008 và dự định diễn
ra trong khoảng 1 giờ. Thời điểm phỏng vấn sẽ được quyết định một cách thuận tiện cho Anh/
chị.
Lợi ích cơ bản
Những ích lợi cơ bản của chương trình nghiên cứu này là có thể mang lại thông tin về những
kinh nghiệm và quyết định tìm kiếm sự giúp đỡ hay không của những phụ nữ Việt Nam ở Hàn
Quốc và những kết quả thu được sẽ giúp nhân viên phụ tráchchương trình và những nhà hoạch
định chính sách có thể đề ra những chương trình giúp đõ cho phụ nữ. Không có rủi ro (bất lợi )
nào khi Anh/ chị tham gia cuộc nghiên cứu này.
Tính tự nguyện và cam kết bảo mật sự riêng tư của chị
Sự tham gia của chị vào nghiên cứu này là hoàn toàn tự nguyện. Chị có thể quyết định không
tiếp tục tham gia, từ chối trả lời một số câu hỏi cụ thể hoặc có thể yêu cầu rút khỏi chương trình
nghiên cứu vô điều kiện bất cứ lúc nào.
Kết quả của cuộc phỏng vấn sẽ được giữ bí mật trong phạm vi tối đa cho phép và việc tiếp cận
kết quả phỏng vấn chỉ được cho phép bởi tiến sĩ hướng dẫn luận văn Merry Morash và Su Yeon
Park. Tất cả những dữ liệu thu thập sẽ được thể hiện sao cho không một cá nhân nào bị nhận diện.
148

Các dự liệu thu thập sẽ được bảo quản trong máy tính được bảo hộ bằng mật mã và tủ hồ sơ mật
trong suốt 5 năm.
Quà lưu niệm
Anh/chị sẽ không nhận được phí cho sự tham gia vào nghiên cứu này.
Thông tin liên lạc nếu có câu hỏi hay thắc mắc
Nếu có thắc mắc liên quan đến nghiên cứu này, xin vui lòng liên lạc đến người thực hiện nghiên
cứu Su Yeon Park (Suyeon Park, 560 Baker Hall, School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State
University, East Lansing, MI 48824, (517) 432-3345. parksu2@msu.edu.). Hoặc chị cũng có thể
liên hệ với Tiến sĩ Morash (517) 432-9235.
Nếu chị có câu hỏi liên quan đến quyền lợi của chị với tư cách là người tham gia vào nghiên cứu
này, hoặc muốn bày tỏ sự không hài lòng với nghiên cứu này, chị có thể liên hệ bằng cách dấu
tên đến Chương trình Bảo vệ Nghiên cứu về Con người, điện thoại :517-432-4503 , email:
irb@msu.edu hoặc gửi thư trực tiếp đến địa chỉ 202 Olds Hall, MSU. East Lansing, 48824
(Michigan State University‟s Human Research Protection Program at 517-432-4503 or e-mail
irb@msu.edu or regular mail at 202 Olds Hall, MSU. East Lansing, 48824 )
Tôi đã đọc và hiểu rõ những thông tin nêu trên. Tôi tự nguyện chấp thuận tham gia vào chương
trình nghiên cứu này.
Xin vui lòng kí tên __________________

Ngày _____________________

Vì là phỏng vấn qua điện thoại nên xin vui lòng cho biết số điện thoại.

149

APPENDIX F

CONSENT FORM (KOREAN VERSION)
이주여성 대상 동의서
연구제목: 한국 내 베트남 이주여성들의 가정폭력과 도움 요청 행동
연구자: 박수연, 미시건 주립대 (Michigan State University), 형사정책학 (Criminal Justice) 박
사과정생
한국 내 베트남 여성들의 가정폭력과 도움 요청 행동에 관한 연구에의 참여를
부탁드립니다.
연구의 목적
이 연구의 목적은 베트남 여성들이 한국남성과의 결혼생활에서 겪는 불화와 갈등을
이해하고, 그들이 외부로부터 도움을 청하는지의 여부, 그리고 도움을 얻기 위해 무엇을
하는지를 이해하려는 것입니다. 이 연구는 미시건 주립대 형사정책학 박사 학위에 필요한
자격 요건을 갖추기 위해 수행됩니다.
당신이 할 일
연구의 참가자는 약 20명 정도입니다. 연구의 참가자로서, 당신은 인구사회학적 배경, 결
혼에 관한 가치관, 결혼생활에서의 불화와 갈등, 이에 대한 대응에 대해 답하게 될 것입니
다. 인터뷰 소요시간은 1시간 반에서 2시간 내외로 예상되며 인터뷰는 당신께서 편리한 시
간에 맞춰 진행될 것입니다.
잠재적 이점
이 연구의 주요한 이점은 한국내 베트남 여성의 경험과 도움을 요청하는 행동에 대한 학
문적인 정보를 제공한다는 점이며, 이 연구 결과는 지원기관에 종사하는 활동가들과 정책
입안자들이 여성들을 도울 수 있는 프로그램을 개발하는데 이용될 것입니다.
잠재적 위험성과 거절 및 철회의 권리
이 연구에의 참여의 잠재적 위험성은 다소 민감한 질문들과 관련된 것으로, 예를 들어, 불
편함을 느끼는 것, 그리고 만약 갈등이 존재할 경우, 그것이 초래한 정신적 외상을 다시 상
기시키는 것 등입니다. 이러한 위험을 최소화하기 위해 당신은 참여를 거절할 수 있고, 구
체적인 질문에 대한 응답을 거부할 수 있으며, 언제든지 조건없이 연구 참여 결정을 철회
할 수 있습니다. 또한 모든 참가자에게는, 당신이 당신의 느낌과 경험을 이야기하길 원한
다면, 당신과 대화하는 것에 동의한 전문 상담사들의 정보를 제공해 드리겠습니다.
연구에의 불참이나 그 참여를 번복하는 것이 당신이 경험하는 결혼 생활에서의 갈등과 불
화에 대한 도움과 지원에 있어서는 어떠한 영향도 미치지 않을 것입니다.
150

자발적 참여, 사생활 보장과 기밀 유지
당신은 자발적 의사에 따라 이 연구에 참여할 수 있습니다. 심층면접의 결과는 법이 허락
하는 최대한의 범위 내에서 기밀로 유지될 것이며 박수연과 그녀의 논문 지도교수인 모라
쉬 교수에게만 그 접근이 허락될 것입니다. 모든 데이터는 개인을 식별할 수 없도록 코딩
될 것입니다. 데이터는 밀폐된 서류 캐비넷과 비밀번호로 보호된 컴퓨터에서 5년동안 보
관될 것입니다.
연구자는 심층면접을 기록하기 위해 녹음기를 사용할 수 있는지에 대해 여쭤 볼 것입니다.
녹음 테이프는 녹취 이후 바로 삭제 폐기될 것입니다. 연구자는 또한 사후 추가연구를 위
해 1-2년 안에 당신을 다시 접촉할 수 있는지에 대해서도 여쭤 볼 것입니다. 만약, 당신이
동의한다면, 질문에 대한 당신에 답변에는 당신의 이름이 아닌 일련의 숫자가 기록될 것이
며, 이 숫자가 당신의 연락정보 - 미래에 당신에게 닿기 위한 당신의 이름, 전화번호, 주소
등을 포함하는- 에 기입될 것입니다.
보상
당신의 참여와 협조는 본 연구의 진행에 있어 매우 중요합니다. 참여에 대한 감사의 표시
로서 15불 상당의 상품권을 선물로 드립니다.
질문및 관심사들에 대한 연락정보
이 연구에 관해 문의사항이 있으시면, 주저없이 연구자인 박수연 (Suyeon Park, 560 Baker
Hall, School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, (517) 4323345. parksu2@msu.edu.)에게 연락해 주십시오. 또한 당신은 Dr. Morash (517) 432-9235 와
접촉하실 수도 있습니다.
연구 참가자로서의 당신의 권리에 관해 질문이 있거나 이 연구에 관해 불만을 표하고 싶으
시면, 당신은 익명으로 the Michigan State University‟s Human Research Protection Program at
517-432-4503 or e-mail irb@msu.edu or regular mail at 202 Olds Hall, MSU. East Lansing,
48824 과 접촉하실 수 있습니다.

본인은 위의 정보를 읽고 이해했습니다. 본인은 자발적으로 이 연구에의 참여에 동의합니
다.
서명을 해주세요. ______________ 날짜_________
본인은 인터뷰시 인터뷰의 녹음에 동의합니다. 이니셜 ___________
본인은 follow-up연구를 수행하기 위한 1-2년 내의 접촉에 동의합니다. 이니셜
_____________

151

이주여성 지원 활동가 및 관련기관 종사자 대상 동의서
연구제목: 한국 내 베트남 여성들의 가정폭력 및 도움 요청 행동
연구자: 박수연, 미시건 주립대 (Michigan State University), 형사정책학과 (Criminal Justice)
박사과정생
한국 내 베트남 여성들의 가정폭력과 도움 요청 행동에 관한 연구에의 참여를
부탁드립니다
연구의 목적
이 연구의 목적은 가정폭력에 대한 베트남 여성의 다양한 대응을 이해하고, 그 결정에 영
향을 미치는 요인들을 분석하여, 지원기관의 활동가들이나 정책 결정자들이 효과적인 개
입 프로그램을 발전시키는데 도움을 주려는 것입니다. 이 연구는 미시건 주립대 형사정책
학 박사 학위에 필요한 자격 요건을 갖추기 위해 수행됩니다.
이 연구는 한국 남성과 결혼한 베트남 여성들과의 심층면접을 기초로 합니다. 그리고 이
여성들에 대해 잘 알고 있는 전문가들과의 면접을 통해서, 연구 결과와 해석의 타당성을
증가시키기 위한 2차 자료를 얻고자 합니다.
당신이 할 일
이 연구에는 한국 남성과 결혼한 베트남 여성에 대해 잘 알고 있는 약 10명의 전문가들이
참여할 것입니다. 이 연구에의 참가자로서 당신은 베트남 여성들에게 서비스, 지원, 그리
고 정보를 제공해 오신 당신의 경험에 대해 전화로 답하게 됩니다. 전화 인터뷰는 2008년
가을에 이루어질 것이며 한 시간 정도 소요될 예정이며 인터뷰 시간은 당신께 편리한 시간
에 맞춰 정해질 것입니다.
잠재적 이점과 위험성
이 연구의 주요한 이점은 한국내 베트남 여성의 경험과 도움을 요청하는 행동에 대한 학
문적인 정보를 제공한다는 점이며 이 연구 결과는 지원기관에 종사하는 활동가들과 정책
입안자들이 여성들을 도울 수 있는 프로그램을 개발하는데 이용될 것입니다. 당신의 연구
참여에 대해 알려진 위험은 없습니다.
자발적 참여, 사생활 보장과 기밀 유지
당신은 자발적 의사에 따라 이 연구에 참여할 수 있습니다. 당신은 참여를 거절할 수 있고,
구체적인 질문에 대한 응답을 거부할 수 있으며, 언제든지 조건없이 연구 참여 결정을 철
회할 수 있습니다.
심층면접의 결과는 법이 허락하는 최대한의 범위 내에서 기밀로 유지될 것이며 박수연과
그녀의 논문 지도교수인 모라쉬 교수에게만 그 접근이 허락될 것입니다. 모든 데이터는 개
인을 식별할 수 없도록 코딩될 것입니다. 데이터는 밀폐된 서류 캐비넷과 비밀번호로 보호
된 컴퓨터에서 5년동안 보관될 것입니다.
152

보상
이 연구에의 참여로 당신에게 주어지는 보상은 없습니다.
질문및 관심사들에 대한 연락정보
이 연구에 관해 문의사항이 있으시면, 주저없이 연구자인 박수연 (Suyeon Park, 560 Baker
Hall, School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, (517) 4323345. parksu2@msu.edu.)에게 연락해 주십시오. 또한 당신은 Dr. Morash (517) 432-9235 와
접촉하실 수도 있습니다.
연구 참가자로서의 당신의 권리에 관해 질문이 있거나 이 연구에 대해 불만을 표하고 싶으
시면, 당신은 익명으로 the Michigan State University‟s Human Research Protection Program at
517-432-4503 or e-mail irb@msu.edu or regular mail at 202 Olds Hall, MSU. East Lansing,
48824 과 접촉하실 수 있습니다.

본인은 위의 정보를 읽고 이해했습니다. 본인은 자발적으로 이 연구에의 참여에 동의합니
다.
서명을 해주세요. ______________ 날짜_________
전화 인터뷰를 위한 전화번호를 적어 주세요.

153

REFERENCES

154

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