14.05.2018 New Publication

A Bride Deficit and Marriage Migration in South Korea (Seo-Young Cho. 2018. International Migration, forthcoming)

Abstract

This article empirically investigates whether cultural, genetic, and linguistic similarities between countries explain marriage migration. The empirical evidence supported by marriage migration data from South Korea shows that the bilateral similarities between Korea and spouse‐sending countries are important pull factors of marriage migration. Furthermore, the pull effects vary across different income levels of sending countries and between the genders of marriage migrants. The positive effects of cultural and genetic similarities are mainly driven by female marriage migrants from middle‐ and low‐income countries in Asia. A female deficit in the marital age group in South Korea may contribute to pulling this type of migration into the country.