Constructing Foreign Brides

This chapter examines how Korean marriage brokers construct foreign brides within Korean society. Drawing on YouTube videos and interview data, it explores how brokers impose gender ideals, representing these women as idealised wives and daughters-in-law. Beyond this, brokers portray them as reproducers of the Korean nation, selectively racialising foreign women based on skin tone and perceived ability to bear Korean-looking children. These portrayals are shaped not by fixed cultural or ‘racial truths’ but by market logics and nationalist ideologies. In doing so, brokers commodify women for the marital market while actively reinforcing racialised and gendered hierarchies. By analysing these mechanisms, this chapter reveals how brokers sustain a system of dominance rooted in racialised nationalism and shape societal perceptions of marriage migrants.