Association between Discrimination and Self-rated Health among Marriage Migrants in South Korea: Focusing on Region of Origin and Gender Differences

Abstract

During the past decades, a massive influx of marriage migrants in South Korea has transformed the racial/ethnic composition of Korean population, and discrimination against them became a social problem. This study examined the association between perceived discrimination and self-rated health among marriage migrants in Korea and checked how the association differs by their region of origin and gender. We analyzed 14,485 marriage migrants from the National Survey of Multicultural Families, 2012. We assessed perceived discrimination for the five different social situations such as street, public office, and workplace to examine its association with self-rated health. We found a significant association between the discrimination at five different social situations and health after adjusting potential confounders including socioeconomic variables. However, after we divided marriage migrants by their region of origin or gender, significant associations were shown among non-Western or female marriage migrants. No significant association was found among Western or male marriage migrants except at workplace. We conclude with a discussion of within-group differences among marriage migrants in Korea.