Social Work Services for Battered Immigrant Women in Korea: What Do We Have and What Do We Need?

Background: Domestic violence has only gained its status as a social, public health problem in Korea. Since the enactment of the ‘Domestic Violence Prevention and Protection of the Victims Act’ in 1997, various social and legal measures have been implemented to protect the victims and prevent the domestic violences. However, one population still being unreached is the immigrant women. While domestic violence rate among the immigrant women is seemingly higher than that of national average, little attention is given to these women with many vulnerabilities. This study is an attempt to explore the current policy and social services for the battered immigrant women. In doing so, we seek to provide policy and practice implications to effectively assist the battered immigrant women in Korea.

Method: We conducted a policy analysis. Analyses were in two parts. First, we conducted literature reviews covering laws, policies, and bylaws of both the central and local governments pertaining to protection and prevention of domestic violence for immigrants. We also conducted on site research for service providing agencies and their programs.

Results: In theory, immigrant women regardless of their legal status are to be protected by the same Domestic Violence Act of 1997. There are a number of services in place for the battered immigrant women. A total of 28 shelters, Emergency Hot Line Service providing translation services, and 10 Immigrant Women Centers are in operation nation-wide providing legal, medical, and social services. However, the accessibility and utilization of services remain problematic in that first, the number of agencies is too low and the centrality of locations limits women living away from metropolitan cities from accessing the services. Secondly, women with same-sex children or male children up to ages of 9 years can only be sheltered for protection reasons, leaving a substantial portion of women in dark. Financial assistance in forms of social security provided on residents in shelters and group homes is only provided to the women who are currently married and/or living with Korean citizens, excluding many women who are migrant workers, students, sojourners, and undocumented. Service providing agencies then have to rely on their own fund to shelter and provide needed services to these women and children, which leads to a smaller number of agencies that are accessible to many women.

Conclusion: The findings of the study shows that even though there is somewhat of an infrastructure in place to assist the battered immigrant women and their family, there are many limitations and gaps from policy and practice. The absolute quantity of services and the agencies is limited, and its strict eligibility criteria for services is identified as a serious inhibitor of service use. The findings call for more realistic, inclusive, and comprehensive service provision in areas of domestic violence protection and prevention services for immigrant women.