Victory Manual

(That’s right, unabashed mimicry of Dr. Strangelove)

Having arrived in Korea only a year ago, I’m no expert on the way that things used to be. All I know is what I’ve been exposed to on ancient threads still lingering on expat forums. The veterans (ancients?) always come off with a tone that’s reminiscent of, “When I was your age, I used to walk 5 miles to school…in the snow…barefoot…with no eyelids.” I have a very good idea about the way things are here now, though, and things are much better than I expected, mostly thanks to the Philippines and Thailand.

I’ve never been to the Philippines or Thailand. I’ve never met a Filipino or Thai in Korea. In fact, I have no relations to either country whatsoever, which makes any connection between my life in Korea and those countries seem confusing. What I have in my possession, though, is an F-2 visa, which is what I got when I was married to a Korean, and what the plethora of Filipino and Thai immigrants get when they marry Korean men. (Tangent: This is the first time that I’ve indirectly referred to myself as an immigrant, which is what I am, in fact)

You may be wondering why a “plethora” of Filipino and Thai women are immigrating to Korea to marry Korean men, and herein lies the missing puzzle piece that brings all of this together. Hold tight, this will make sense in a minute.

Korean women can be shallow. (Warning: Dangerous generalization, use with caution) A lot of Korean women, these days, aren’t marrying for love. Love is actually the last thing on their list. Instead, they want a BMW-driving businessman who lives in Seoul in a ludicrously expensive tower apartment and loves nothing more than showering his wife with money, free-time, and gifts. In short, Korean women want to marry a dream. Actual Korean men as described here are a limited commodity, of which resources are currently exhausted.

There is, however, an abundance of manual labor workers who live outside of the city, participating in activities like farming, building ships, and generally turning to a deep tint of brown from toiling under the sun daily. This generation of high-maintenance women can hardly bring themselves to think of marrying a farmer.

But, men have needs. They want to make families, such is their nature. If Korean women won’t do the job, then the men must import from abroad. Add this trend to the extremely low birthrate in Korea and the result is government support for the immigration of foreign spouses.

The incentives to move to Korea for women from countries like the Philippines and Thailand mostly revolve around an improved quality of life - More money, better work, and maybe even a higher social status. But, as things were, you had to go through the hassle of work-permission applications necessitating the need for a second income, and waiting 5 years until you could achieve permanent residence status and not have to keep renewing your visa.

These sorts of things often marred the ease of transition and turned off potential brides. The government decided to become more lenient on these issues, and the biggest change was a reduction from 5 years to 3 years in order to get permanent residency. This, of course, applies to all foreign immigrants, regardless of if you are from Thailand or from the States. In 2009 I’ll be saying goodbye to Korean visas forever.

That is how the Philippines and Thailand have made my life easier in Korea.