Colloquium in August 2026
Jiseon Baek (Reproductive Ageing Group, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research)
A defining feature of marriage migration in South Korea is agency-arranged “commodified marriage.” Despite expectations, these migrant women exhibit fertility levels similar to or lower than Korean native women.
This study investigates this trend by comparing the fertility behaviours of agency-arranged migrant women with non-agency-arranged, and native women. Using event history analysis on national survey data (2009-2021), we examined how marriage type and spousal age gaps interact in shaping birth transitions.
Results show that while agency-arranged women transition to their first birth at a similar or faster pace, their second birth transition is lower, largely driven by the husband’s older age.
The finding suggests that understanding migrant fertility requires addressing structural challenges including large spousal age gaps, the transactional nature of these marriages, and discrimination.
