Social capital and assimilation of migrant workers and foreign wives in South Korea: The case of Wongok community

•Bonding social capital is not strong for both of the migrant workers and foreign wives groups.•Bridging social capital is higher for the foreign wives group.•Longer residency in Korea and motivations to interact with Koreans lead to higher bridging capital for the foreign wives.•Bridging social capital is the major factor for facilitating social assimilation of migrants.•Foreign wives can play an important role in enhancing social capital in Wongok.

This study examines the level of social capital of migrant workers and foreign wives in an ethnically diverse urban community in South Korea and compares the factors affecting differences in the level of social capital between the two groups. Through both quantitative and qualitative analyses, this study finds that bonding social capital is not strong for either group while bridging social capital is stronger for the foreign wives group. We find that higher bridging social capital in the foreign wives group is because of their permanent/longer residency in Korea, living in a Korean family, achieving language fluency, and motivations to interact with Koreans. This study also finds that bridging social capital is the major factor for facilitating social assimilation of migrants. Finally, we propose a framework to enhance social capital in Wongok, South Korea.