International Marriage As a Gendered Racial Project: Vietnamese Migrants, Korean Husbands, and Brokers

This paper examines how Vietnamese-Korean international marriages become a gendered racial project orchestrated by Korean husbands and marriage brokers, associating "Vietnamese" with illegality but invoking it differently along gender lines. Based on interviews and textual analysis, I find that the internationally brokered marriages between Vietnamese brides and South Korean husbands are structured to satisfy the marital desires of the paying customers, the Korean men, while offering rare pathways to permanent settlement for marriage migrants. While the broader Vietnamese ethnic community, represented by male migrant laborers, is racialized as embodying masculine illegality and posing a threat to stable marriages, the marriage process itself is shaped by efforts to exclude deceitful Vietnamese women who use spousal status for immigration, while preserving and infantilizing the feminine innocence of the "genuine" Vietnamese wife, curated by the civilized and mature South Korean husband.

During the matchmaking process, South Korean men experience a sense of masculine racial superiority, as their ethnoracial identity comes to the forefront in their encounters with Vietnamese women, typically seeking younger, attractive brides. Brokers play a key role in mitigating perceived risks of “scams” by encouraging men to choose more modest brides, thereby reinforcing the male desire for respect as household leaders. Throughout the months of paperwork, when couples are often separated, brokers surveil the women on behalf of the husbands, particularly to protect them from potential contamination by their male co-ethnics. Once in South Korea, husbands may feel increasingly insecure as their wives become more social with Vietnamese peers, especially the younger male migrant workers. Although husbands attempt to feel secure by treating and caring for their wives as "daughters," racial discourses surrounding immigrant illegality continue to exacerbate their emotional fragility. This study demonstrates how various interests and positionalities around migration shape the construction of "the Vietnamese" as a racialized group.