On a spring evening in 2019, a doctoral candidate sat in her small studio apartment near a Seoul National University, browsing visa regulations late into the night. After years of study in Korea, completing her degree no longer represented an ending. Instead, it marked another moment of choice: Should she stay in Korea or move elsewhere? Following a recent experience of having her bank account closed simply because she was Iranian, her uncertainty had only deepened. The following year, she chose Canada.
This woman’s decision appears to be a personal choice, yet it exists within a far more complex structural context. In recent years, the number of Iranian women studying in Korea has surged dramatically, and many face a similar crossroads after graduation. This study explores precisely this juncture—the dilemma that Iranian women drawn to Korea by the Korean Wave experience when deciding between settlement and onward migration.
The feminization of Iranian migration has been evident in recent years.Footnote 1 Data from World Education Services show that more than 60 percent of US-bound Iranian applicants over the past ten years have been female, representing a significant shift from earlier migration patterns.Footnote 2 This trend extends beyond North America. According to 2021 statistics from a recent Iranian newspaper article, women account for 52 percent of permanent residency cards issued to Iranians in Canada, 45 percent of permanent resident Iranians in Finland, and 49 percent of permanent resident Iranians in Australia. In addition, according to the latest statistics from the UNESCO database in September 2023, the number of Iranian students abroad has been increasing for eight consecutive years, with a clear increase in the migration of highly educated unmarried women.Footnote 3
This trend appears even more dramatically in South Korea, which traditionally was not a preferred study destination for Iranian students. The recent surge in emigration from Iran—driven by deteriorating political and economic conditions—has made education a primary escape route. As one interviewee stated, her reason for coming to Korea was “not really about studying, but because people just want to leave Iran.” Although many choose countries like Canada, where permanent resident visas are attainable, or European countries offering substantial scholarships, South Korea has gained remarkable appeal among women in their 20s and 30s—especially fans of the Korean Wave, the global popularity of South Korean popular culture and entertainment like K-pop, K-dramas, and films.
What draws Iranian women to Korea? And what crossroads do they face after completing their degrees? Answering these questions requires reconsidering how we understand educational migration itself. Iranian women’s decisions to study in Korea cannot be reduced to individual academic choices. They emerge at the intersection of multiple structural forces: severe gender inequality in Iran—where women’s employment rate (13.6 percent, 2022) is one-sixth that of men (68.5 percent, 2022); political instability intensified by the 2022 protests; the transnational cultural phenomenon of the Korean Wave; and South Korea’s active international student recruitment policies, including the Study Korea Project (2004), the Global Korea Scholarship (GKS) program (2009), and the Study Korea 300K Project (2023).Footnote 4 For these and other reasons, for many Iranians education has become a primary pathway for staged migration.
However, the reality these women encounter once in Korea reveals a troubling contradiction. Although the government actively recruits international students to address demographic challenges, restrictive immigration policies make long-term settlement extremely difficult. Iranian women face compounding barriers: financial transaction difficulties due to international sanctions, nationality-based discrimination, a labor market favoring STEM over humanities and social sciences, and visa systems that constrain foreign residents’ long-term stay. Many wish to remain in Korea, but confronted with these obstacles seriously consider onward migration to third countries. After Iranian international students study abroad, they rarely return home, resulting in a significant brain drain. As of 2018, there were 564,000 Iranian students studying abroad, and only 1,097 returned home after completing their degrees—just 0.24 percent.Footnote 5 This pattern of onward migration demonstrates that educational migration is not a simple, unidirectional flow but a complex trajectory shaped by intersecting national policies, labor market structures, cultural flows, and individual agency—calling for new analytical frameworks capable of capturing the multidimensional, gendered nature of contemporary student mobility.
This study employs anthropological methodologies to trace the migration motivations, adaptation experiences, and institutional barriers faced by female Iranian students in Korea. Through the conceptual framework of educational migration, settlement, and onward migration, it analyzes the transnational mobility strategies of Iranian women and the complex dimensions of what might be termed the “student diaspora” in Korea. By exploring the experiences of female Iranian students through in-depth interviews and participatory observation, the paper analyzes how they reconstruct their identities and navigate their lives in a new environment. It examines the realities of Korea’s study abroad system and postgraduation circumstances, including visa policies and labor market access. By situating the migration of Iranian women to South Korea within the broader framework of Iranian emigration and attending to Iran-specific sociocultural contexts, this study aims to illuminate emerging patterns of global educational migration and draw policy implications by examining how South Korea’s international student policies and labor market realities shape their experiences.
Current Status of Iranian Migration to Korea
This section examines the implications of statistical trends regarding Iranians residing in South Korea over the past decade, focusing on gender and age distribution, changes in the numbers of international students, and statistics on marriage migrants by gender. According to data from the Ministry of Justice, the number of Iranian women residing in Korea over the last thirteen years has steadily increased year over year (Table 1). This trend is especially noticeable when compared with Iranian men over the same period: whereas the number of Iranian men residing in Korea rose only slightly from 1,145 in 2011 to 1,358 in 2022, the number of Iranian women increased significantly, from just 215 in 2011 to approximately 680 in 2022, representing a nearly threefold rise. In percentage terms, women accounted for only 15.8 percent of the Iranian population in Korea in 2011, but their share more than doubled to 33.4 percent by 2022 and further increased to 35.5 percent in 2023. This growth illustrates a clear trend of feminization in the Iranian migrant population in Korea.
Table 1. Status of Stay of Iranian Nationals by Gender, 2011–2023 (n = persons)
Source: Ministry of Justice (Republic of Korea), [A] “Statistics on Immigration and Foreign Residents: Status of Foreigners Residing in Korea by Nationality, Region, and Age (2011–2023),” accessed October 3, 2025, http://kosis.kr/statHtml/statHtml.do?orgId=111&tblId=DT_1B040A6.
A comparison between Table 1 (total foreign residents) and Table 2 (registered foreign nationals) reveals a significant gender-based discrepancy among Iranians. Whereas nearly all Iranian women in Korea are registered foreign nationals (meaning they hold long-term visas such as student, work, or marriage visas), approximately six hundred fewer Iranian men appear in the registered foreign national category. This gap exists because around six hundred more Iranian men than women enter Korea each year on short-term visit or tourist visas. Short-term visitors are counted in the total residency statistics but not in the registered foreign national data; this accounts for the gender difference observed between the two tables. As shown in Table 2, whereas the increase in the number of registered Iranian women over the past decade is noteworthy, it is particularly significant that the majority of female residents fall within the younger age groups—primarily between ages 20 and 35. This age-specific data provides a statistical basis for the analysis in fourth section of this paper, which examines who comes to Korea for study. This trend becomes even clearer when examining the number of Iranian male and female international students in Table 3.
Table 2. 2023 Iran Registration Status by Gender and Age (n = persons)
Source: Ministry of Justice (Republic of Korea), [B] “Statistics on Immigration and Foreign Residents: Status of Foreigners Residing in Korea by Nationality, Region, and Age (2011–2023),” accessed October 3, 2025, http://kosis.kr/statHtml/statHtml.do?orgId=111&tblId=DT_1B040A14&conn_path=I2.
Table 3. Status of International Students by Nationality: Iran, 2012–2023 (n = persons)
The data combines holders of student (D-2) visas and general trainee (D-4) visas. Detailed statistics by visa type can be found on the official website. Visa categories include: associate degree program (D-2-1), bachelor’s degree program (D-2-2), master’s degree program (D-2-3), doctoral program (D-2-4), research program (D-2-5), exchange student (D-2-6), work-study program (D-2-7), short-term study (D-2-8), language training at university-affiliated institutes (D-4-1), and foreign language training (D-4-7), among others.
Source: Ministry of Justice (Republic of Korea), “Statistics on Entry, Exit, and Stay of Foreigners,” accessed October 3, 2025, http://kosis.kr/statHtml/statHtml.do?orgId=111&tblId=DT_1B040A14&conn_path=I2.
As of 2023, only 108 out of 1,304 Iranian men residing in Korea (8.28 percent) were international students, whereas 268 out of 717 Iranian women (37.38 percent) were enrolled as students—nearly four times the proportion of male students (Tables 1, 3). This means that over one-third of all Iranian female residents in Korea are international students, clearly indicating a pronounced feminization of educational migration from Iran.
The data combines holders of student (D-2) visas and general trainee (D-4) visas. Detailed statistics by visa type can be found on the official website. Visa categories include: associate degree program (D-2-1), bachelor’s degree program (D-2-2), master’s degree program (D-2-3), doctoral program (D-2-4), research program (D-2-5), exchange student (D-2-6), work-study program (D-2-7), short-term study (D-2-8), language training at university-affiliated institutes (D-4-1), and foreign language training (D-4-7), among others.
Research Subjects and Methods
Alongside participant observation, the analysis in this study draws on in-depth and repeated interviews with 12 Iranian women between 20 and 39 years of age. Interviews were conducted both in-person and virtually between 2020 and 2024. At the beginning of the research in 2020, I recruited participants through snowball sampling with the assistance of two female students with whom I had a personal connection. This process resulted in eleven participants—ten female students and one male student. Individual interviews were conducted over Zoom due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Later, in 2022, a solidarity demonstration for Women, Life, and Freedom was held in Korea, centered on Iranian international students. Following this event, I narrowed the research focus to Iranian female students exclusively. I also became acquainted with two additional women through different channels, bringing the total to twelve female participants (excluding the one male participant from the initial recruitment). Interviews with these participants were conducted both online and face-to-face, with each participant interviewed at least three times between 2021 and 2024. In addition to the online interviews by Zoom, I followed their personal social media accounts from around 2020 and observed their online participation. Because the interviews began in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic was severe, eight of the interviewees started the interview process by Zoom; Zoom interviews lasted about an hour and a half. All but three have since had two to five follow-up face-to-face interviews, and we continued to meet regularly in an informal capacity.
Because all of the interview participants were attending universities or graduate schools in Seoul, their experiences cannot be considered representative of those studying in other regions of Korea. One female student, for example, was studying in Daegu for a language program when we first met, but later advanced to a graduate program in Seoul. Students who remain in regional areas for their studies may have different experiences that are not captured in this study. Further research focusing on Iranian students studying outside of Seoul is necessary.
It also is worth noting that all interviewees were enrolled in top-tier universities or graduate schools in Seoul and were, in most cases, recipients of government scholarships from Iran. This indicates that they were considered high-achieving individuals in their home country. In fact, more than half of interviewees were graduates of prestigious Iranian institutions such as the University of Tehran and Shahid Beheshti University, a renowned private university.
To protect interviewees’ identities, their exact ages and personal identifying information have been anonymized, and they are referred to using letters A through L (Table 4). Anonymized basic information drawn from the twelve in-depth interviews is found in Table 4. All interviews were conducted in a mixture of Persian and Korean, and the proportion of language use differed, depending on the Korean level of the international students. All of the participants were unmarried.
Table 4. Iranian Women Interviewees
Although the official beliefs of the female students interviewed in this paper were Islamic and they were classified as Shiʿa Muslims, all but one of the twelve women did not wear hijab in Korea. For this reason, issues related to social discrimination faced by Muslim women in Korean society—such as wearing the hijab or practicing Islamic religious customs—did not prominently emerge in their interviews. On the contrary, because they were racialized in Korea as white, they had a racial advantage in obtaining English teaching positions (in violation of their visa restrictions).Footnote 6 In addition, all but three of the interviewees indicated that they felt free from the taboos on pork and alcohol, and they did not observe the obligation to fast in the month of Ramadan, which is considered a Muslim obligation. Therefore, it is not possible to generalize this study as a study of Muslim international students in Korea.
Theoretical Background: Educational Migration and Onward Migration
Women’s international migration is an important phenomenon in modern society, with a variety of characteristics and challenges. The “feminization of migration” reflects the increasing proportion of female migrants worldwide, as more women are independent migrants, not just accompanying or joining their male partners.Footnote 7 The feminization of migration is characterized by both the quantitative increase in women’s roles and proportions in the migration landscape and by the qualitative changes accompanying global expansion.Footnote 8
Iranian female international students decide to migrate (and continue to consider further migration) due to the clearly disadvantageous labor market conditions and gender inequality in their home country. Their educational migration also should be understood as part of the broader phenomenon of the feminization of migration.
Transnational Border Crossing and Educational Migration of Women
Although numerous studies have addressed Iranian international students, only a limited number have focused specifically on gender, with most research centering on intercultural transitions and issues of cultural adaptation.Footnote 9 Qualitative studies examining women in their twenties from specific women’s universities who have pursued education abroad in countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany identify a range of motivating factors behind their decisions to study abroad. These include economic hardship (unemployment, low wages, gender discrimination, etc.); educational challenges (low-quality learning environments, inadequate university facilities, lack of social recognition for highly educated individuals, restrictions on women’s access to certain academic fields); sociopolitical issues (limited personal freedoms, lack of freedom of expression, political repression); and personal and family matters (marriage, parental concerns).Footnote 10 Due to gender-based disparities in employment and ongoing political instability in Iran, the rate of brain drain among women is significantly higher than before. In particular, the proportion of Iranian women who choose to settle permanently after pursuing education in the United States is notably high.Footnote 11
Ironically, however, even female Iranian students who choose to study abroad to escape Iran’s unequal gender structure continue to encounter gender-based difficulties. Studies suggest that Iranian female students in Australia experience more psychological distress than male students.Footnote 12 This gap has been attributed to cultural differences in gender roles, expectations, and socialization between the two countries. Iranian women are expected to be chaste and control their sexuality, whereas in the Iranian diaspora group men are expected to be less restrictive about their sexuality.Footnote 13
The difficulty of not being able to obtain a permanent resident visa after obtaining a degree in Korea is a common problem for all international students, but it can be especially challenging for female international students. Although there are many studies on international students in Korea, there are only a few that highlight gender factors in the study of international students. Kim and Choi examine female international students from non-Western countries who were enrolled in the Korean Government Scholarship Program (KGSP).Footnote 14 Their study revealed that these students conformed to the Korean government’s ideal of international talent while simultaneously leveraging the scholarship to gain global mobility. Although this research provides an important—and previously overlooked—gendered perspective on international students in Korea, the authors acknowledged that their multinational participant sample limited the study’s ability to fully capture the specific cultural contexts and experiences of students from individual countries.
Onward Migration and Gender
Onward migration can be defined as the phenomenon in which migrants initially settle in one destination country but later move on to another. One example is migrants who have acquired citizenship in one EU country and subsequently use their EU citizenship to relocate to another member state.Footnote 15 According to the OECD, between 20 and 50 percent of migrants relocate to another country within five years of their initial migration.Footnote 16 Onward migration occurs in the context of economic motivations, secondary migration from an initial place of asylum, and movement toward a final destination. Factors such as changes in legal status, socioeconomic background, education level, gender, race, and ethnicity are key determinants influencing migrants’ experiences with onward migration.Footnote 17 For instance, research on onward migration from Sweden to the United Kingdom among migrants from Somalia, Iran, and Nigeria shows that many participants who were unable to access higher education programs in their initial EU country relocated to London to enroll in universities or graduate schools in the UK.Footnote 18 These internationally mobile students believed that UK universities would offer them more prestigious educational opportunities and that degrees obtained in the UK would be more readily recognized if they were to return to their home countries. Onward migration is particularly common among diaspora populations, such as Iranians, who often do not see return migration as a viable option after studying or working abroad.
In her analysis of highly educated Iranians migrating onward from Sweden to the UK, Melissa Kelly found that these individuals were more highly educated than those who remained in Sweden, but they also had experienced extended periods of unemployment there.Footnote 19 According to Kelly, factors such as employment opportunities, career advancement, the multicultural environment in the UK, and the relatively larger Iranian diaspora community in the UK influenced the decision to move onward.Footnote 20 Although Iranian migrants often perceive the UK as offering greater opportunities than Sweden, individuals who engage in repeated international movement often face identity-related challenges and, in the case of international students, a lack of stability. Despite the diverse motivations behind onward migration, life in a foreign country without a sense of long-term settlement remains far from easy for many.
Onward migration can manifest differently depending on gender. As Laura E. Ortensi and Eliana Barbiano di Belgiojoso observe, “Women tend to have a stronger risk-avoidance orientation than men and, as a result of their first migration experience, become more aware of the risks involved in migration, which leads them to adopt a more cautious approach toward subsequent migration.”Footnote 21 However, in the case of Iranian women studying in South Korea, such general tendencies appear to diverge. Contrary to expectations, these women actively consider onward migration. This can be interpreted as a result of the interplay between gender inequality in Iranian society and the limited opportunities available to them in Korea. The role of gender in onward migration also often is emphasized in the context of family relations, in which decisions around further migration may be shaped by familial responsibilities, expectations, and gendered roles within both origin and host societies.Footnote 22
This highlights the fact that women are not merely passive participants in the migration process but rather play an active and strategic role in shaping decisions concerning the future of their families. In Ortensi and di Belgiojoso’s study, the role of Bangladeshi women in Italy was crucial in the decision to pursue onward migration to the United Kingdom for the sake of their children’s education. This suggests that women often take on a more prominent role as cultural intermediaries during transnational mobility than men. It is a dimension that should be closely examined in future research on the onward migration of Iranian women. Onward migration should be understood not simply as a matter of geographic relocation, but as a gendered process—manifesting across various domains such as family relations, labor market participation, and access to educational opportunities.
When analyzing the study abroad experiences of Iranian women in South Korea, it is essential to consider the complex interplay between their agency and the structural constraints they face. These women are active agents who pursue self-realization and explore new possibilities through educational migration. At the same time, they must navigate and negotiate the structural inequalities embedded in global education and labor markets. Some choose to settle, while others continue to seek new opportunities through onward migration. Adopting this perspective allows for a richer and more contextually grounded understanding of the experiences of Iranian female international students.
Significance of Iranian Women’s Migration to South Korea
Iran has seen a surge in emigration in recent years due to ongoing economic hardships and sociocultural challenges. This outflow includes both women and men, and the resulting brain drain has become one of the country’s major social concerns.Footnote 23 However, South Korea is neither a traditional study-abroad destination nor a preferred migration country for most Iranians. This raises questions: Why are some choosing South Korea for their studies? Who are the Iranian women coming to South Korea? And how has South Korea come to be chosen as their destination for educational migration? Iran has traditionally regarded English-speaking countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom as primary destinations for international education. According to Ron Kelley, who studied the Iranian community in Los Angeles in the 1980s, “Western-style” education has been one of the most highly valued status markers across all social strata in Iran. By the late 20th century, “Sending one’s children to study in Europe had come to signify dignity, sophistication, respectability, and membership in the upper class for economically privileged Iranians.”Footnote 24 This cultural valuation has persisted into the postrevolutionary era, as Iranian students continue to perceive Western education as superior and a means of accessing global knowledge and cultural capital.Footnote 25 Despite conservative warnings against “Westoxification,” over 100,000 Iranian students were studying abroad by 2024, driven by both the enduring prestige of foreign credentials and deteriorating domestic conditions.Footnote 26
In recent years, however, this pattern has begun to diversify. Increasing political and economic constraints have led many Iranian students, particularly women, to seek opportunities beyond traditional Western destinations, including East Asian countries like South Korea.Footnote 27 This shift reflects a broader trend: over the past decade, intra-Asian educational migration has grown significantly, with increasing numbers of students choosing destinations such as Singapore, China, and South Korea.Footnote 28
A similar pattern has been observed in Turkey, a neighbor of Iran that also experienced a strong Korean Wave boom. A study examining national image and study abroad intentions among Turkish female students found that the more interest they had in the Korean Wave, the more positively they evaluated Korea’s national image. Furthermore, students with more favorable attitudes toward Korean dramas, films, and music showed a significantly higher intention to study in Korea.Footnote 29 Likewise, in the study by Kim Dohye and Choi Heejung, it was found that most GKS recipients from non-Western countries had been consuming Korean cultural content before learning about the scholarship.Footnote 30 This cultural engagement later played a part in their decision to pursue education in Korea.Footnote 31 In short, the Korean Wave has disrupted traditional formulas for studying abroad. Multiple cases now show that interest in Korean popular culture and the Korean language has become a key driver of educational migration to Korea.
This culturally driven pattern is similarly evident among Iranian female international students in South Korea. Nearly all of them spent their childhood and adolescence during the 2000s, a period when Korean dramas such as Dae Jang Geum and Jumong were widely popular across Iran. As they moved through middle school and attended university, their exposure to the Korean Wave (Hallyu)—which became a major subculture among Generation Z in Iran—deepened. This early cultural exposure fostered a deeper interest in Korean culture, ultimately motivating them to learn the Korean language and consider Korea a viable study-abroad destination.
I must have been around 9 or 10 years old when I first became aware of Korea, as my whole family loved watching the dramas Jumong and Dae Jang Geum at the time. Later, in high school, a K-pop craze swept through Iranian teenagers. I listened to SHINee, and also to older Korean singers like Kim Kwang-seok—my taste was a bit unique, wasn’t it? That’s when I started teaching myself Korean because I wanted to understand the lyrics of Korean songs. Then, in my final year of high school, I enrolled at the King Sejong Institute. From that point on, I began studying Korean in earnest and started watching Korean dramas and films more intensively. (D, 26 years old)
Beginning around 2010, the Korean Wave began to take hold in Iran, starting with Korean dramas. As it gained momentum, a fan culture—composed primarily of women—began to form. Within the conservative social constraints of Iranian society, especially those imposed on women in the name of religion, Korean popular culture provided women with a sense of alternative community identity.Footnote 32 In a society in which women face numerous restrictions, activities centered around King Sejong institutes, fan clubs, and engagement with Korean content—often conveying positive messages—offered a form of empowerment. For many, Korea became an imagined foreign land representing hope and possibility. Moreover, exposure to Korean pop culture and news media shaped favorable perceptions among the students’ parents, making the idea of studying in Korea a socially and culturally acceptable path.
In Iran, the university enrollment rate for women often surpasses that of men. The core issue lies not in access to education but in the postgraduation landscape: women face significantly higher unemployment rates, much lower labor force participation, and a deeply entrenched glass ceiling within the labor market. Persistent societal and domestic inequalities continue to place women in a disadvantaged position, which become a driving force of their decision to pursue education abroad.Footnote 33
During the 1402 Iranian calendar year (March 21, 2023 to March 20, 2024), the employment rate for men ages 15 and over was 68.9 percent, whereas that for women was only 12.1 percent, revealing a stark gender disparity.Footnote 34 Among highly educated individuals ages 15 and over, the unemployment rate was 28.2 percent for men and 8 percent for women—more than three times higher for men. Chronic gender-based discrimination in Iranian society and a series of sociopolitical crises such as the 2022 hijab protests have further motivated many Iranian women to leave their country. “Anyone who can leave, will,” is the common sentiment.
Living in Korea makes me feel a surge of anger—more than I ever felt while I was in Iran. Watching Korean university students my age enjoy their freedom, spend time leisurely, and live happily, I can’t help but feel sorry for young people back in Iran. There’s nothing in Iran that allows us to enjoy life the way people do here. After coming to Korea, I felt a deep sense of frustration and resentment. It made me question why I had to live the way I did in Iran until now. (A, 21 years old)
The political situation in Iran has never been stable. Perhaps because of that, my parents have been encouraging me to study abroad ever since I was young. Honestly, if a war were to break out in Iran tomorrow, it wouldn’t surprise me—it’s always unstable. What I appreciated most after coming to Korea was the ability to have the kinds of ordinary concerns typical of people in their 20s in other countries. That sense of normalcy was truly comforting. (B, 23 years old)
Meanwhile, with the launch of the Study Korea Project in 2004 and the Korean Government Scholarship Program in 2009, the number of invited scholarship recipients began to increase significantly. In 2010, these two initiatives were integrated as a more comprehensive scholarship system known as the Global Korea Scholarship (GKS).Footnote 35
I first became aware of Korea as a child, watching historical dramas like Dae Jang Geum and Jumong. In middle school, I began listening to K-pop and watching related videos, which led me to start studying the Korean language. As I continued learning Korean, I found Korean dramas incredibly entertaining. It all began with SS501, and later I became a fan of BTS. Around 2014–15, with the rise of social media, Korean Wave fan club activities began to take off in Iran, with organized gatherings and communities forming. When I entered university—one of the top institutions in Iran—it was common for students to go abroad for graduate studies in countries like the United States or Canada. So at first, people didn’t understand why I wanted to go to Korea. Even my academic advisor, while writing my recommendation letter, scolded me for choosing Korea, asking, “Why would you go there?” But then I discovered the GKS, and through that opportunity, I was able to come to Korea. (F, 28 years old)
Not all international students were able to come to Korea as recipients of the GKS, as in the case described above. However, for Korean Wave fans—those with a deep interest in Korean popular culture and society fostered by the Korean Wave—GKS was a highly attractive option. To relatives and acquaintances who were skeptical or opposed to the idea of studying in Korea, the scholarship’s generous benefits—full tuition exemption, a monthly stipend of 900,000 KRW for undergraduate students and 1,000,000 KRW for graduate students—offered compelling justification. For many Iranians who longed to leave their country, GKS represented not only a chance to continue their academic pursuits, but also a rare opportunity to become a “successful fan,” achieving both personal fulfillment and educational advancement.
At the same time, for Iranian women coming from a society with numerous restrictions, transnational mobility to Korea was not only a pathway to opportunity, but also a profound challenge—an experience of forging a new identity and navigating unfamiliar social and cultural landscapes.
In Iran, there are inevitably restrictions placed on women: don’t go anywhere alone, don’t do anything dangerous. Honestly, life was much easier for me back in Iran. My home environment was comfortable and well-off, and if anything happened, I could just call my father and he would take care of it. But here, I have to handle everything on my own. In that sense, Iranian female students in Korea are taking on far greater challenges than women from many other countries. When I stop and think about it, I genuinely feel proud of myself. I’m living so much more independently than I did in Iran. It feels like I am the one creating and shaping my life. And because of that, I am proud of who I am becoming. (L, 31 years old)
True to their identity as Korean Wave fans and women in their 20s, most of these international students are highly engaged on social media. One prominent example is a student who, after graduating from a Korean university and securing employment, has amassed over 390,000 followers on social media and now works as a video content creator while running a YouTube channel and an online store. Among them, several also have appeared in South Korea as foreign models or participants in various talk and reality shows, further expanding their presence in Korean media and society.
Just as these prominent figures, the majority of Iranian female international students in Korea actively share their lives in Seoul through social media. They frequently post about K-pop concerts—often featuring idols with large fan bases in Iran—as well as Korea’s popular tourist attractions. The image of Iranian women in Korea portrayed through these platforms is one of freedom: they are seen without hijabs, openly enjoying Korean pop culture and various local experiences.Footnote 36 Rather than facing hardship specifically because they are women in Korea, these students often describe discovering a newfound sense of independence and self—something they felt was unattainable back in Iran.
Some of these Iranian student influencers, with follower counts exceeding 40,000 or 50,000, receive an overwhelming number of direct messages from people in Iran. Many of these messages are inquiries about how to study abroad in Korea, to the point that the influencers admit it is difficult to respond to them all individually. However, the reality of life in Korea for these Iranian students is far from easy. From the moment they arrive, they are confronted by daunting challenges and unexpected obstacles. The following section will explore the specific difficulties faced by Iranian international students in Korea, and the barriers they encounter when considering long-term settlement.
Settlement or Onward Migration: The Difficult Reality for Iranian Students
I think it feels like Korea is trying to solve all of its social problems—like population decline and the disappearance of rural areas—by bringing in foreigners. You can see this in the recent efforts to recruit international students to regional universities. But once we actually arrive in Korea, it seems like the country is afraid of us staying long-term. Korea doesn’t really feel like a stable or secure place for foreigners. For me, checking Google every day and studying Korea’s visa policies has basically become part of my daily routine. (D, 27 years old)
A graduate who came to Korea through GKS remarked ironically on Korea’s current policies toward international students, reflecting on how the nation’s period of “hospitality” effectively ends the moment one graduates. Outside the curated virtual image of Korea, most international students do not become the successful members of society they once envisioned. Although these students are the very talents the Korean government by policy seeks to attract, they often have found themselves unable to attain a sense of stability after relocating. The national scholarship program, which initially filled them with pride in choosing Korea as their study destination, turned out to be far from generous. In fact, it came with numerous constraints—especially burdensome in Seoul, where the high cost of living meant that the scholarship barely covered basic expenses. Because they were not permitted to work, students had to find safe ways to earn money while navigating the gray area between legal and illegal means of survival.
Even as national scholarship recipients, their Iranian nationality rendered the supposed privilege of being “invited” to Korea meaningless, as they faced numerous practical difficulties in everyday life. Above all, Korea proved to be a country where long-term settlement as a foreigner was exceptionally difficult. Although students from other countries also struggled with visa issues, Iranian students encountered additional complications specifically attributable to their nationality. All ten students interviewed expressed the same sentiment repeatedly: “It’s not hard because we’re Muslim—it’s hard because we’re from Iran.”
Following the unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA by US President Donald Trump in 2018, sweeping international sanctions were imposed on Iran. The effects of these sanctions were felt even by Iranian students in Korea. Beginning in 2018, domestic banks in Korea started closing the bank accounts of Iranian students. Despite being used only for scholarship deposits and living expenses in Korean currency, these accounts were blocked simply because the account holders were Iranian. As one interviewee, L—who had been studying at Seoul National University for six years—recalled: “I brought all the necessary documents—scholarship certificates, financial proof, bank letters—but they wouldn’t even look at the paperwork. They just told me the account had to be closed.”Footnote 37 The following year, L relocated to Canada.
Iranian students who faced significant issues opening or maintaining bank accounts in Korea voiced frustration. One student even admitted that her experiences with Korean banks led her to seriously consider naturalizing as a Korean citizen. In the summer of 2024, a student recalled depositing about $400 into a foreign currency account under their name, only to be told they could not withdraw the money simply because of their Iranian nationality. They described spending nearly five hours at the bank, feeling humiliated. Bank staff, speaking on the phone in front of them, said things like, “We have an Iranian customer here. They’re from a high-risk country. What should we do?”—making the student feel as if they were being treated like a criminal.
For many Iranian students, the real challenges began after completing their degrees—the point at which the so-called hospitality extended to foreign students effectively ends.Footnote 38 In fact, some reported falling into depression even years before graduation, burdened by uncertainty about their future. Graduate students, in particular, often experienced conflicts with their academic advisors but endured them silently to maintain their student visa status. These students found themselves at the crossroads between settlement and onward migration. Although some expressed a desire to settle in Korea, they were often pushed to consider onward migration due to the difficulty of securing employment or marrying a Korean national. Notably, none of the interviewees considered returning to Iran an option.
Since 2018, Iran has remained in a dire economic state due to strong international sanctions, with the Iranian rial losing more than twenty times its value. As a result, the willingness of Iranian students to return home is understandably low. This is especially true for female students, many of whom, in the aftermath of the 2022 Women, Life, Freedom protests, hold deeply negative views of the Iranian government’s policies on women’s and human rights. For them, returning to Iran is not a viable path. For Iranian women in Korea, the only realistic pathways to long-term settlement are either employment or marriage to a Korean man. However, for students in the humanities and social sciences—particularly those from non-English-speaking countries—opportunities for employment in Korea are rare.Footnote 39
Typically, after the expiration of a student visa (D-2-1-4, D-2-7), international students can remain in Korea for up to two years on a D-10 visa, which is only available to individuals with university degrees while they seek employment in specialized fields in South Korea. Although the overall number of D-10 job seeker visas held by Iranian women remains relatively small, the increase from zero in 2013 to 14 in 2022 suggests that women are increasingly using this visa category as a transitional period with the hope of gaining employment and settling in Korea (Table 5). Moreover, compared to only 3 Iranian men who received the D-10 visa in 2022, the fact that 14 Iranian women obtained it highlights the greater efforts Iranian women are making toward establishing long-term residency in Korea.
Table 5. Statistics of Iranian D-10 Job Seeker Visas (n = persons)
Source: Ministry of Justice (Republic of Korea), “Statistics on Immigration and Aliens: Status of Foreigners Staying in Korea by Nationality (Region) and Status of Residence (2013–2022),” accessed October 3, 2025, https://kosis.kr/statHtml/statHtml.do?orgId=111&tblId=DT_1B040A5A&conn_path=I2.
One doctoral student, F, who had completed her master’s degree and was considering applying for a PhD program abroad, was in a similar situation. She had been exploring study options in Canada and Germany after her master’s, but the COVID-19 pandemic, combined with the worsening economic situation in Iran, forced her into a state of uncertainty. During a 2021 interview, F shed tears as she expressed her anxiety and frustration over her situation.
I don’t know what I should do. Sometimes I wonder—if I had spent this time in another country, would my situation be different now? A friend of mine, also from Iran and working as a model here, said the same thing. If we had spent the past few years—almost 10 years—in countries like Canada or Australia instead of Korea, wouldn’t we already have citizenship, permanent residency, or at least a more stable visa by now? There are moments when I feel like all the time I’ve spent here has been such a waste. (F, 28 years old)
In the end, F decided to apply for the doctoral program at the same graduate school in Korea and is now approaching the completion of her degree. However, her concerns are far from over. As she once again nears graduation, F is currently sending emails to professors at top universities in the United States, Canada, and Germany to apply for postdoctoral positions, but has yet to receive a single response—an increasingly frustrating reality. This student belongs to the early wave of Iranian women who came to Korea during the initial boom in Korean studies among Iranian students. Because most Iranian students do not consider returning to their home country, a new phase of uncertainty begins as soon as they complete their degrees—facing the challenge of how to renew or change their visa status in Korea, just like the student described above.
For female students in Korea, a stable life is constantly under threat—unless they are married to a Korean man. In one instance, a doctoral advisor at a major university casually and irresponsibly told a student who was deeply worried about her future and visa status, “Why don’t you just marry a Korean man and open an Iranian restaurant?” None of the women interviewed saw “marrying a Korean man” as a solution to their visa concerns. However, some did admit—albeit reluctantly—that they occasionally felt envious of Iranian women who had married Korean men and, as a result, secured stable visas and the freedom to travel in and out of Korea without stress.
One student, who just two years earlier told me with sparkling eyes how proud she was of herself for studying and living in Korea, is now in crisis. After enduring Islamophobic and racially discriminatory comments, along with a power-abusing advisor, she could no longer bear the situation and was forced to transfer schools and restart her PhD program from the beginning. Unfortunately, she found herself in conflict once again with her new advisor. Due to the nature of her major, she was required to be in the lab regularly, but this second breakdown in the advisor-student relationship left her unable to attend classes for an entire semester. She has recently begun dating an Iranian man in Korea and dreams of building a life with him—not in a third country, but in Korea. Yet she admits that she still has not found a way to make that life possible.
I’m really going through a hard time. I truly love my field, and I’m so close to earning my PhD—but now I’m in conflict again, even with my new advisor, and I don’t know what to do anymore. Transferring to another university again seems difficult, especially since it’s the same major, and people might see me negatively for changing schools twice. I’m so exhausted that I’ve thought about giving up, but then all the work and effort I’ve put in until now feels too precious to throw away. I keep wondering—should I go to Germany? Should I move to Canada and start studying again? But if I go abroad again, I’ll have to start everything from scratch. Getting a work visa right now is really difficult too. But the thing is … I genuinely love Korea. I want to stay and build my life here. I’ve pleaded with my advisor, but they told me it’s something I have to resolve on my own. I just don’t know anymore. I feel so depressed and overwhelmed. (K, 30 years old)
Even after going through the hardship of earning a degree in Korea, the country is not an easy place for foreigners to settle. South Korea’s strict residency requirements make it difficult not only for Iranians but for many international students to remain long-term. As a result, Korea is often perceived as a country one must eventually leave. The phenomenon of onward migration is often driven by the pursuit of higher degrees, better job opportunities, or improved socioeconomic conditions—but it also can result from racial discrimination or the instability of one’s legal status in the host country.Footnote 40 For Iranian female students, Korea offers safety, convenience, and access to well-developed infrastructure, but the moment they begin to consider permanent settlement, they are met with restrictive immigration policies and complex visa challenges that ultimately hold them back and lead them to consider onward migration.
I like Korea, but after finishing my master’s degree, I know I’ll have to make a decision—and I already have a lot on my mind. I think I’ll have to seriously reconsider everything once I graduate. Honestly, I love Korea, but finding a job here is difficult, and more than anything, living conditions are not favorable for someone with Iranian nationality. In Canada, by contrast, there’s an established Iranian community and the infrastructure is in place, so many of us are drawn to the idea of going there. Life seems much more manageable. That’s why so many people are thinking about it. But I’ve also heard that Canada isn’t easy either. Apparently, so many Iranians have already gone there that finding a job is also becoming a challenge. (J, 29 years old)
G, a student in a master’s program in the social sciences, faced these dilemmas even more intensely due to the nature of her field. Although she successfully completed her degree, the concerns she had during her studies quickly became a reality. Even after graduating from a prestigious university in Seoul, G was unable to secure employment for nearly six months. She was surviving on a D-10 job seeker visa, doing her best to hold on. She expressed experiencing severe stress and anxiety and struggled for several months before finally starting a one-month internship at a large company. Only some interns are given the opportunity to be hired as full-time employees, and because the probability of that is around 50 percent if the internship ends without a job offer G will again face an unstable period trying to secure a new visa. For that reason, although she started the demanding internship, she told me that she could not give up her “sweet part-time job” on the weekends. However, foreigners with a D-10 job seeker visa must obtain permission for activities outside their visa status to legally work part-time, and if caught doing so illegally they are subject to punishment under the Immigration Control Act. After repeatedly failing to secure a job, G began preparing to apply for the F-2-7 points-based outstanding talent residency visa. Introduced in 2022, applicants for the F-2-7 are evaluated based on age, education, Korean language proficiency, completion of the social integration program, and annual income. G is currently making efforts to qualify, including completing the social integration program. If her total score exceeds 130 points or the income score exceeds 50 points, her permitted stay period could range from 3 to 5 years. She explained that preparing for this visa is possible because she is a GKS recipient, a government-invited scholarship student. The problem is that most Iranian students do not plan to return to their home country, which narrows their options even further. The preference for STEM fields also is reflected in the scoring criteria of the outstanding talent residency visa, making it more challenging for those in the social sciences, like G.Footnote 41
Interviewee I also had to endure a long period of silent struggle due to visa issues. Because she majored in Korean studies, these concerns became even more complicated. She has already obtained the potential outstanding talent residency visa (F-2) that G is currently preparing for, but I’s ultimate goal is to acquire Korean citizenship. To obtain Korean citizenship without marrying a Korean national, she must first obtain permanent residency, and to do this she must first secure a mid- to long-term residency status—leading to her effort to acquire the F-2 visa rather than remain on a student visa. However, I stated that even the F-2 was far from stable. One year she received a one-year F-2 visa, and the following year a two-year one, as determined by her points score.
For I to obtain Korean citizenship, she must either marry a Korean man or be employed by a company with an annual salary exceeding 40 million KRW. In the past, when sanctions against Iran were lifted, interviewee I worked on a project with a major Korean corporation, acting as a regional specialist connecting Korea and Iran. However, when Iran was subjected to comprehensive international sanctions again in 2018, her specialization in Persian interpretation and translation lost its value in Korea.
As a result, although she has been in Korea for nearly 10 years, I still lives in constant anxiety over visa issues. She shared that she felt deep envy when seeing other Iranian women on Instagram who had married Korean men and now live happily and stably in Korea, freely traveling abroad. Recently, feeling overwhelmed and anxious, she even called a high-end matchmaking agency—with a membership fee in the millions of won—to try to sign up. But she was rejected outright, because she is Iranian and Muslim. Last year, she considered onward migration to another country and applied to attend a conference in Canada, but her visa application was denied, and she was not able to attend. The idea of starting over “from zero” in another country was also incredibly daunting. Although she had lived in Korea for over 10 years, her life remained filled with uncertainty.
One Iranian female student who was preparing for naturalization in Korea spent the entire year of 2023 contemplating onward migration. A major influence was her older brother, who also had been living in Korea before leaving to study in Austria. Both her brother and sister-in-law had entered a Korean engineering graduate program after she did, but about two years later they chose to migrate onward to Austria. The typical demands of Korean engineering labs—such as staying late and always being available—proved too difficult for the Iranian couple. Furthermore, serious conflicts with their advisor—a challenge that several other interviewees also mentioned experiencing to varying degrees—led them to leave Korea after completing their doctoral coursework. Now, several years later, she looks at her brother and sister-in-law’s transformed situation with envy. They were able to find employment while continuing their studies and are now studying German diligently in hope of acquiring Austrian citizenship.
Interviewee H, who recently completed her master’s degree, also has been actively applying to positions and attending job interviews in the UK, the US, Canada, and other countries. Although she briefly worked at a Korean global trade company, she continued sending numerous applications abroad. As an Iranian, visa issues posed a constant source of anxiety for her. She felt that Korean companies often regarded her nationality not as a diversity asset, but rather as an administrative inconvenience. Ultimately, she left the Korean company after just one month and switched back to a D-10 job seeker visa. She reported that she is still sending out dozens of applications to the UK, Canada, Germany, and elsewhere. H shared her frustration, saying that if she had known how difficult it would be to secure a visa and find employment after graduation, she would never have chosen to study in Korea. She is now seriously considering onward migration.
As the experiences of these Iranian women show, there is a significant gap between the Korean government’s expectations that highly skilled foreign talent will serve as a solution to issues like regional depopulation and low birth rates and the aspirations of Iranian female students who seek a more secure and free life abroad. Faced with this disparity, Iranian women must either master the complexities of Korea’s visa policies or pursue onward migration in search of a stable life outside of Iran—and South Korea.
Conclusion
The experiences of Iranian female students in Korea serve as an important case study of the evolving patterns of global educational migration. Their stories illustrate the complex dimensions of modern migration, including cultural influence, gender-specific challenges, and transnational mobility. Given the scarcity of research on Iranian diaspora migration to East Asia, this study contributes meaningfully to the expansion of Iranian diaspora studies by situating the presence and experiences of Iranians within the Korean context. What kind of diverging dreams are the South Korean government and Iranian female international students envisioning? The experiences of these students are not merely the result of personal choices or individual capabilities—they are shaped by a complex interplay of factors, including international politics, cultural trends, government policies, and labor market structures. This complexity calls for rethinking existing paradigms in educational migration research.
Traditionally, the study of educational migration has been framed within a binary structure of “sending” and “receiving” countries. However, the phenomenon of onward migration revealed in this study clearly demonstrates the limitations of that binary. The experiences of Iranian women studying in South Korea do not end with their initial move from Iran to Korea. Rather, many begin to consider a subsequent move to a third country based on their experiences in South Korea. This indicates that educational migration should be understood as a more dynamic and multilayered process. This researcher plans a follow-up study on onward migration among Iranian diaspora members who, after completing their degrees in Korea, choose to migrate again to countries such as Canada or the United States.
In addition, this research highlights the impact of cultural factors on educational migration. The Korean Wave, as a cultural phenomenon, served as a key motivator for study abroad decisions, adding a new dimension to migration theories that have traditionally emphasized economic or political factors. This suggests that future research on educational migration must pay greater attention to the role of cultural influence.
The incorporation of gender perspective is also a significant contribution of this study. The experiences of Iranian women show that educational migration is not merely about academic mobility but also involves liberation from gendered expectations and the formation of new identities. This underscores the need to treat gender not as a secondary variable but as a central axis of analysis in migration studies. A more detailed examination of gender dynamics in educational migration is needed—not only of the experiences of female students, but also those of male Iranian students, and the interactions and power dynamics between the two groups. Such work can serve as an opportunity to apply the theory of intersectionality to educational migration research.
Through the lens of Iranian female students, this study has exposed the limitations of South Korea’s foreign student policies and labor market structure and has shed light on how transnational mobility affects individual lives. Future research should include comparative studies involving male Iranian students, and students from other regions and national backgrounds, as well as long-term follow-up studies and deeper analyses of Korean policies and labor market conditions.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2020S1A5A8041154). This paper is a translated and partially revised version of an article published in Space and Society 34, no. 3 (2024): 34–75.
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