Emergence of Regional Marriage Market: The Case of Korea and Vietnam

Hyunok Lee, Cornell University

This paper provides an overview of trends of cross border marriages within Asia and introduces the case of Korea and Vietnam. In the first section, it briefly explores the emergence of new destinations of brides in Asia including Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea, which happened to share arguably similar economic development path. It raises a question whether a certain mode of economic development is related to the rise of mass cross-border marriages which are characterized as follows: first, it is associated with the crisis of social reproduction, in particular, of certain segments of population. Second, it grew with the commercial match making industry, assisted by technological innovation in communication and transportation. In the second section, this paper explores the case of Korea and Vietnam more specifically and provides an explanation on how the trends of cross-border marriage changed and marriage market between two countries was formed.