Married migrant women living within Korean multicultural families : a pastoral narrative perspective

Abstract

This research seeks to adopt a post-foundationalist practical theology paradigm, as discussed by J C Müller, in order to create a bridge between the three concepts of the pastoral care perspective, the narrative perspective based on social-constructionism and post-foundationalism. Furthermore, I made use of Müller’s seven movements of methodology which laid a strong foundation to base my research on regarding married migrant women living within Korean multicultural families. Korean society which is a homogeneous culture is currently facing many challenges as a result of becoming more and more multicultural. These multicultural issues are becoming major social and political issues in South Korea. The main reason that South Korean society has become more multicultural is because of intercultural marriages which have also resulted in an increase in multicultural families. These migrant women are faced with many kinds of discrimination and prejudice as a result of their different appearance, culture and language. Furthermore, Korean culture often deprives women of having any position above men especially once they are married. After being married a woman should become invisible, voiceless, and nameless in order to become culturally acceptable. This often results in a migrant woman feeling stressed, fearful, isolated and alone which often results in the development of a low self-esteem, a lack of self-confidence and a low self-image. In my research, I sought to listen to and identify the stories of migrant women, namely foreign women who have married Korean men with a focus on the impact on their identities within a Korean multicultural family through a narrative perspective in order to have a positive growth and outcome from their intercultural differences within South Korea. I decided to view my co-researchers not as co-researchers but as companions on a journey which we could undertake together. The use of the metaphors ‘journey’ and ‘companions’ seemed to give my companions the freedom to speak more openly and placed us on an equal level. Furthermore, I not only discovered my companions’ identities through their own stories, but also developed my companions’ true identities/multi-identities through the broader, inter-relational stories of other people within multicultural communities through a six step process of Listening to the voice, Gaining voice, Giving voice, Finding alternative voice, Retelling voice and Creating future voice. I made use of the narrative approach in order to listen to my companions so that a unity would exist between their past, present and future stories. As I listened to the stories of my companions from a narrative perspective new possibilities were opened which lead to alternative and future stories. Furthermore, my companions were given the opportunity to find themselves and make new identities on the real journey of life. Through the process of my research I also developed a multicultural identity model specifically for married migrant women in South Korea, but ultimately the purpose of my research was not to show or develop a multicultural identity model regarding migrant women, but was more to help these migrant women find their identities themselves and in this become self-empowered to become contributors to Korean society.