In industrialized Asian countries, especially Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea, migration has been increased since 1990s. Labor and marriage migration take the biggest proportion of migration to Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea because working age population has decreased due to low-birth rate [1]. The increase of marriage migrants could ingenerate the social issues including ethnic tensions, and it also happens in South Korea (hereafter Korea).

Since the early 1990s, Korea has seen an increase in the number of individuals migrating for marriage. Marriage migrants in Korea are about 250,000 in 2014 which hold about 15 % of total migrants in Korea. China (41.4 %), Vietnam (26.4 %), Japan (8.1 %), and the Philippines (6.9 %) are major regions of origin for marriage migrants in Korea [2]. At the same time, marriage migrants from North America or Western Europe also reside in Korea although they take a small proportion [3].

In Korea, 85 % of marriage migrants are female, and they take around 8 % of total brides from the middle of 2000s (Fig. 1). The key factor affecting the supply side of female marriage migrants is global economic disparity [4]. Women in low income countries with poor economic background might seek better socioeconomic position through marriage migration, and marrying a Korean citizen can help them to easily migrate to Korea. In many cases, foreign brides arrive in Korea shortly after marriage with little knowledge of their new spouses or their new country’s culture and language [5].

Fig. 1 Trends of international marriage in South Korea, 1991–2011 Full size image

Actually, Korea has been considered as an ethnoracially homogeneous society for a long time. This myth was strengthened after the colonial period on the intention of making national cohesion and recovering national identity [6]. Thus, there is a widespread misconception that racism does not exist in Korea since it has long been known to be a mono-ethnic society. Due to U.S. military presence and its cultural influences after World War II, however, Korean society has accommodated the American idea of racism [7, 8]. The recent increased influx of immigrants in Korea has ignited racism among Korean natives, which is heightened by economic and cultural nationalism [6]. For example, more than 40 % of Koreans answered that they would not want a foreigner as their neighborhood, based on the recent World Value Survey (2010–2014) [9].

As Korea is becoming an ethnoracially diverse society, it is crucial to understand social implications of ethnic or racial discrimination against immigrants, particularly against marriage migrants for two reasons [10]. First, compared to other immigrant groups, marriage migrants are more likely to be legal (i.e., de jure) “Korean citizens” because they are naturalized and acculturated easily due to the marriage with native Koreans. However, social antipathy toward them suggests that they are de facto foreigners. Second, social hostility toward marriage migrants in Korea can lead to discrimination against their children as well as themselves, which is potential damage for social integration. Currently, more than 200,000 children of marriage migrants already reside in Korea [2], and they are often exposed to discrimination and bullying [11].

Ethnic or racial discrimination can negatively affect health. Indeed, the stress related to ethnic or racial discrimination can aggravate mental health such as depression [12–14], anxiety [12, 15], psychological distress [16], and somatization [15]. In addition, individuals who experience ethnic or racial discrimination can also exhibit physical symptoms including cardiovascular conditions [17], hypertension [18, 19], and high rates of pre-term birth [20]. Also in Asian countries, the adverse health effect of ethnic or racial discrimination has been examined recently. For example, a study for marriage-based immigrated women in Taiwan showed the association between racial discrimination and depressive symptoms [21].

Despite recent surveys indicating that Korea is among the most ethnoracially intolerant countries, ethnic or racial discrimination has not been well studied as a relevant social issue. For example, using a nationally representative dataset, a study assessed the prevalence of perceived discrimination in eight social situations and perceived reasons for discrimination. In that study, six different possible reasons (sex, education, age, disability, birth region, and others) were evaluated, but ethnicity/race was not included as a potential reason for discrimination in the questionnaire [22]. Recently, researchers have started to pay attention to how social injustices are associated with health conditions among marriage migrants and their family members in Korea [11, 23].

One controversial issue in the research on discrimination and health is gender difference. It is necessary to carefully consider gender when investigating the factors which could have an effect on health because of different social exposures by gender, as well as biological differences [24]. Previous studies have documented that gender could play an important role in the association between discrimination and health, suggesting that men and women should be considered separately when examining the association between discrimination and health [13, 25, 26]. For example, a study of 2,095 Asian immigrants in U.S. showed that women might have the lower threshold of discrimination which could aggravate their health [25].

Another relevant issue is the role of response against discrimination in the association between health outcomes and unfair treatments. Previous researches often classified responses to unfair treatment into active and passive coping strategies. Active coping refers to responses such as trying to protest or talking to others, whereas passive coping includes ignoring or acceptance [14, 20]. According to studies, active coping could buffer the adverse effect of unfair treatment on health compared to passive one [14, 20, 27, 28].

This study aimed to assess the prevalence of perceived ethnic discrimination and to examine the association between ethnic discrimination and self-rated health among marriage migrants in Korea, the main purpose of our study can be summarized by the following questions: