copyright  ⓒ Sondra Cuban 2022

The Korea Study 

Figure 1

Thirty Mongolian women with diverse backgrounds, both documented and undocumented, were interviewed about their reasons for migrating to South Korea (ROK)—with the world’s largest diaspora of Mongolians^[1]. The participants were interviewed around the Seoul metropolitan area where most migrants live in addition to one smaller city, where six participants were interviewed^[2]. They ranged in age, similar to the internal migration cohort, from their 20s-60s although most were in their 30s and 40s.^[3] This intraregional study sheds light on the complex reasons that Mongolian women migrate to Korea, a nearby country, including underlying push-pull factors (socio-economic and cultural) as well as policy initiatives. 

The research highlights the women’s strategies for survival, their agency, and their contributions, as well as the sacrifices they made in the process of migrating to Korea from Mongolia. In Figure 1 for example an undocumented participant smells the pajamas of her three-year old who she left in Mongolia with her sister. She had difficult jobs, namely cleaning, and in her spare time spoke with her family in Mongolia. She asked her sister to send the clothes of her three children, so she could “smell their scent” which compensated for her lack of communication with them, especially the three year old and 5 year old who found it tough to fully express themselves on Facebook messenger, a popular app Mongolians from all over the world use to communicate with transnational family.  

Interestingly, this participant and others residing in Korea, lived in Ulaanbaatar before migrating to Korea, or, they had been born and raised there—demonstrating a stepwise approach to migration directly from the largest city capital to another capital in a popular country for Mongolians. More patterns were discovered with the following themes representing both push and pull factors for Mongolian women’s migrations and mobilities:^[4]  

• Korea’s Hidden Manufacturing and Service Sectors: Undocumented women and those on short-term visas experienced economic collapse and problems in Mongolia that propelled them to migrate to make money in a country that paid them what they thought their labor was worth. They came on travel visas and overstayed, working in the lower end of Korea’s manufacturing industries, including factory work (retail especially), but also service (cooking and dishwashing in restaurants), as well as cleaning apartments or other buildings as well as cleaning in Korea’s tourist industry (hotels).  Mongolians could easily blend into the hidden labor force and their body work was highlighted in these jobs similar to their husbands, who were often in construction or moving jobs. These jobs were easy to access through the grapevine and regardless of visas, this work was in demand and could be done part-time or full time, and even on working vacations

• Korea’s Advanced Education System Matched to Visas: It is well known in Mongolia and across Asia that Korea has a reputable and accessible higher education system, which has contributed to the country’s high skilled workforce, particularly for women. Yet many levels of universities existed and which were magnets for Mongolians. They made enrollment easy, as long as prospective students paid. Those who were already highly skilled could enter Korea’s advanced post-graduate system and a number of participants enrolled in Korea’s universities to receive a master’s or PhD degree, as well as to work, have family there, and live. Some programs were designed specifically for them, and they only met on selected days of the week, especially Saturdays. Those students could stay long-term in programs, especially in private universities. They often applied by themselves, but were buttressed by educational brokers and different types of visas that could shift and which enabled them to enter the country and stay short-term. In many respects, student visas were highly gendered in this way, similar to marriage migration routes. Mongolian women however had to pay a high price to learn in Korea and pay tuition fees for advanced degrees, not to mention the language residency programs they also had to attend (and pay for) and they had to work under the table to maintain their daily lives. These “visa universities” while attracting Mongolian women as a way to improve social mobility, could also be a drain on their finances

• Korea’s Expansive Social Infrastructure for Development: Korea’s health care and medical systems and services were advanced in comparison to Mongolia. Mongolian women often saw Korea as a safe and healthy place to raise children in particular. A number of Mongolians critiqued the Mongolian government for failing to meet their needs and those of their families and many wanted a safe and secure place to develop and use their skills/expertise and to increase their capacities and livelihoods. Mothers were likely to stay in Korea if their children were born there and they could send them to childcare as early as the infant stage, which was more complicated in Mongolia. Also, they could observe and immerse themselves into a middle-class culture of care as well as a public space that was safe and ordered. Even if they felt like outsiders, they preferred that to feeling disregarded by the Mongolian government and its lack of infrastructure for development and social welfare. While legal mechanisms were in place in Mongolia to provide certain social and civil rights protections for women, in practice many participants felt short changed. 

• Bi-Lateral Mobilities for Transnational Families: Migration was also heavily tied into family obligations and remittances. In particular, marriage migration could be an anchor for an entire family unit in Mongolia especially when that migrant became a Korean citizen. Also, remittance houses were afforded and built in Mongolia from jobs in Korea. Those who were labor migrants and their family members might move back and forth from Korea especially with travel visas to work and it was widely expected for families to transit through Korea. Mongolians often referred to their host country as a “Korean dream” for the wealth that could and did accumulate among and between families and households living in different countries. Korea was Mongolia’s third neighbor in this sense, economically, socially, and culturally. Families often told each other about life in Korea, ate Korean food in Ulaanbaatar, and knew where to go once landing there (especially to Mongol town), and a number of participants had been to Korea, on working trips before finally settling there. Children and families might move back and forth between countries and visits were frequent before and after the COVID pandemic policies came into effect. 

Barriers and Support in Korea for Mongolian Women

Barriers comprised government rules surrounding visas that didn’t make sense or were not explicit especially around non travel visas (there were so many categories). Cultural barriers such as language were also prevalent. Even though Koreans felt that Mongolians had similar physical features to them as well as ancient common histories and could assimilate, they still felt like they were treated as outsiders especially when it came to speaking and interacting in Korean society. They thought of society in Korea as closed to them in many ways and although they tried to ‘pass’ when Koreans discovered they were Mongolians, they could be difficult. Food too was another factor that made it difficult to integrate into Korean society. Fish and seafood for example are not considered to be Mongolian favorites but were pervasive in Korea. The food was spicy, sugary and abundant and many participants said they gained weight after settling in Korea, or, they developed allergies. Other barriers were expensive rents that limited their daily lives and caused them to commute over an hour just to get to work because housing was more affordable on Seoul’s outskirt districts. Additionally, Mongolians were often struggling to afford basic Korean amenities as well as to save and support their families in Mongolia and in Korea. Last but not least sometimes entrepreneurial investments within the Korean Mongolian community could cause difficulties within relationships and of reputations. 

Supports consisted of friends/colleagues that became surrogate family in Korea—working and sometimes living together or nearby, family back home who they contacted frequently, as well as language teachers, churches, gatekeepers, and resources in Mongol town, and also, husbands who followed their wives and supported them to study and work. Finally, the K-12 school system and childcare were also critical supports for Mongolian mothers with children born or raised in Korea and they often felt it was an anchor for them to settle there. Generally, Mongolian women all said that their time in Korea improved their circumstances in multiple ways and they believed they had made the right decision to migrate there. 

Mongolian Women in Korean Society

It was clear that among the women I interviewed, regardless of their status as marriage migrants, workers, or students, they were the backbone of Korea’s economy, as were other migrant groups—taking jobs no one else would, especially in cleaning. A number of the participants were required to work just to survive life especially in and around the expensive capital city Seoul. Mongolians worked in Korea to buy or build apartments or homes in Mongolia, save, and bring their families over, as well as start new lives. Most undocumented participants thought of Korea as a transit place to make and save money and then return while those documented participants who started families were more likely to consider Korea as a permanent home since their children were born there and spoke the language. Other participants had planned, or aspired, to move on to western countries after Korea. Separation and distance from family were not as much of a norm among these participants, unlike the internal migrant participants, because they were raised in Ulaanbaatar and stayed there together before a member migrated. A number of the participants though would send their children back to Mongolia to learn the language and adapt to life there because they had planned to return anyway. Undocumented participants, a little less than half of the study sample, were often stuck paying high prices for health care in Korea and had many other expenditures associated with leaving children back home, not to mention the emotional costs of being separated from them, as this parent shows. Apart from one or two participants, however it was clear that the quality of their lives had improved in terms of socio-economic outcomes for themselves, their children, and family back home. However, psychological outcomes were not necessarily viewed as better, and symptoms could actually worsen over time because the women lacked enough supports needed to thrive in Korea. Mongolian women, regardless of whether they lived in Mongolia or Korea, often thought of Korea or some other country as an inevitable next step for their livelihoods. 

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^[1] See 2022 figures for ministry of Foreign Affairs (South Korea): https://www.mofa.go.kr/eng/nation/m_4902/view.do?seq=19

^[2] 6 participants were interviewed over Zoom prior to the summer of 2022, four of which were added to the corpus data of Korean migrants

^[3] The interview methods were similar to the internal study and with the same interview instrument. Different though, I went to visit the participants in their homes, cafes and workplaces. 

^[4] COVID and pandemic policies in Mongolia and Korea were another im/mobility factor that will be discussed in future articles and papers

A special thank you to the Jack Street Fund for Mongolia which funded both the internal study on Mongolian women migrants and the intraregional study in Korea, as well as my fabulous colleague, Martina Sottini (soon to be “Dr.”) who helped with contacts and advice on doing research in South Korea