The Dynamics of Migration Infrastructure and the Governance of Marriage Migration in South Korea, 1993-2023

This article argues that infrastructures in marriage migration are not merely channels of mobility but key sites where governance logics take shape. Focusing on South Korea from 1993 to 2023, it examines interactions among state authorities, commercial brokers, humanitarian organisations, migrant networks, and technologies through the lens of migration infrastructure. In line with the analytical shift from migrant-centred perspectives to infrastructural approaches, the study highlights how institutional mechanisms not only facilitate and constrain cross-border unions but also constitute practices of governance. It traces three phases: (1) Seeding Governance through the emergence of marriage migration infrastructure (1993–2005); (2) Consolidating Governance through infrastructural intensification (2006–2014); and (3) Recursive Governance through infrastructural involution (2015–present). By reframing marriage migration as an infrastructurally governed field, the article offers conceptual insight into the governance of transnational mobility and demonstrates the evolving roles of non-state actors in shaping migration regimes.