A notable change with the influx of foreign workers is the increase in marriage immigrants. Marriage immigrants are not new, but since the mid-1990s, Asian immigrant women have been arriving in larger numbers than before. The map shows foreign residents who have married or have been married to Koreans, without regard to their status of residence, by gender and country of origin. As of 2017, the total number of marriage immigrants was about 160,000, and more than half lived in the Seoul metropolitan area. The proportion of women is high (80.9%), and the countries of origin are China (41.2%), Vietnam (24.6%), Japan (7.0%) and the Philippines (6.5%).

 Marriage immigrants not only change their family composition to build multicultural families, but also settle and naturalize in Korea, so they are of great social importance in terms of transitioning Korea into a multicultural society. The government has established 218 Multicultural Family Support Centers nationwide to operate various programs such as Korean language instruction, interpretation and translation services, and cultural events for stable settlement, well-being, and social integration of multicultural families.