Ethnic Return Migration of Miguk Hanin (Korean Americans): Entanglement of Diaspora and Transnationalism

Reviewed by: Korean American Evangelicals: New Models for Civic Life Peter Y. Paik, Associate Professor Korean American Evangelicals: New Models for Civic Life. By Elaine Howard Ecklund, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006, 211p. Elaine Howard Ecklund's study of Korean American evangelicals represents a significant contribution to the scholarship on ethnicity and religion in the United States. Based on interviews and surveys carried out at two churches in a small city on the east coast, Ecklund's findings about the religious commitments of second-generation Korean Americans are certain to take many readers by surprise. Evangelical Protestantism has achieved astonishing success in South Korea over the past century, while Korean Americans have become recognized in the United States as one of the most successful immigrant groups. The church has been a center of social life and a provider of vital services for the first generation of Korean immigrants, but what has it meant for the second generation, who have grown up in the United States and have had to contend with expectations from their parents that conflict with the values of mainstream American society? How does the practice of religion change as Korean Americans become more integrated into American ways? The answers that Ecklund gives are quite fascinating. She makes the vital point, easily forgotten in the age of identity politics, that religion can be a means of transcending one's ethnic identity and one's cultural roots. Moreover, newcomers to a diverse society can act in ways to build bridges between groups that did not exist before. Indeed, the spiritual tendencies she sees becoming dominant among second-generation Korean Americans create a sense of cohesion among them, even as they distance themselves from their elders and become more open to influences from American society. But Ecklund emphasizes that religion for Korean Americans leads them to become critical of mainstream society as well, so that they create instead a new, third space between the culture of their parents and the dominant culture of white America. The two churches that are the focus of Ecklund's study are given the names "Grace" and "Manna." The congregation of Grace is made up of second-generation Korean Americans, while Manna is a multiethnic church [End Page 149] with a significant number of Korean American members. Grace grew out of the English language ministry of a first-generation church that invited a second-generation Korean American seminary student to organize a separate service for young people. Manna, by contrast, is a multiethnic church founded by the merging of a Chinese American congregation and a Korean American congregation. The membership of Manna includes a wide range of Asian Americans - Cambodians, Indians, Vietnamese, and Filipino in addition to Koreans and Chinese, but a quarter of the church is made up of whites, blacks, and Latinos. The membership of both churches is composed primarily of young professionals and post-secondary students. While Grace serves a predominantly Korean American congregation, Manna has made the deliberate choice to become a multiethnic congregation. Ecklund notes that this choice came about not from demographic changes nor from a shift in denominational priorities. Rather, the pastors leading the merged congregations decided that building a multiethnic church was a "calling from God" (p. 41). Ecklund argues that multiethnic congregations like Manna enable their members to "negotiate" multiple and malleable identities" and "connect an appreciation of ethnic diversity to religious morality" (p. 143). The members of Manna Church uphold diversity and inclusion as key values of Christianity, leading them to criticize and oppose discrimination and exclusion in American society at large. The goal of many second-generation Korean American evangelicals is neither to assimilate into the dominant white culture, nor to retreat into their own heritage. Rather, what their faith enables them to do is to maintain a critical distance from the hegemonic mainstream while overcoming the limitations of a narrow ethnic perspective. Such a possibility often goes overlooked in standard academic accounts of ethnic or racial identity formation, and Ecklund provides a much-needed corrective to the narrow understanding of identity politics that still prevails in many scholarly circles. Ecklund's study opens up a dynamic perspective on Korean American life. Religion brings...

830 Reviews Reading these diverse yet commonly threaded stories, readers can come to their own conclusions regarding the liminal, fluid, intersectional, multiple, and continuously evolving nature of Korean Americans’ ethnic identity formation. The editors, however, organize the personal narratives by utilizing a typology of ethnic identity development, which they introduce in the beginning and revisit at the end of the book. Ethnic identity formation is dependent on a combination of low and high internal factors (retention of ethnic culture, involvement in ethnic social networks, linkages to the homeland) and external factors (racial discrimination). Based on this typology, the editors conclude that the first cohort of Korean Americans had many more problems in developing their ethnic identity than the later cohort. This is due to the earlier cohort having more difficulty in retaining ethnic culture, being less involved in ethnic social networks, and lacking posi- tive linkages to the homeland than the later cohort. It is also because the earlier cohort grew up encountering more intense and overt racial discrimination in America than the later cohort. Thus, the later cohort of Korean Americans are more likely to have a strong positive ethnic identity as Koreans throughout their lives and have experienced much less inner psychological turmoil over their identity than the earlier cohort. The editors therefore conclude that today’s youn- ger generation of Korean Americans are not forced to accept either a Korean or an Asian label. Instead, they have the luxury of choos- ing whether or not they want to add their Korean ethnic identity onto their American identity. They can pick and choose from American and Korean culture in the ways that suit them best. Readers may find that the personal narra- tives that fill the main body of the book do not fit neatly into the ethnic identity typology provided by the editors. No matter their cohort type, all of the essays share the com- mon thread of being in-between, self- conscious, hybrid, and experiencing an identity evolution. The identity typology insufficiently captures the fluid, situational, intersectional, and evolving nature of identi- ties across time and place. Given that the book seeks to provide a cohort analysis, it would have also been helpful to have a more detailed description of the sample so that readers could know how the two cohorts compared in terms of age, gender, place of socialization, and class. It is also unclear how the essays were selected and how representative they are of the Korean American population. Several of the essay authors are sociology PhDs, and many are leaders in the Korean American community. As the editors recognize, their cohort analysis is also impeded by the fact that there are only three essays from the first cohort and that not all of the same subjects were addressed in the essays. Finally, readers who have a more sys- tematic view of racism in America may ques- tion how easily Korean Americans can now forge an optional ethnicity of their own. Younger-Generation Korean Experiences in the United States is, no doubt, a must-read for anyone interested in the subject of 1.5- and second-generations’ ethnic identity forma- tion. Some readers may find the typology of ethnic identity formation helpful. All readers will find the personal narratives of the second generation’s journey of ethnic identity development moving and thought- provoking. Jalos, USA: Transnational Community and Identity, by Alfredo Mirande´. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2014. 240 pp. $27.00 paper. ISBN: 9780268035327. A BIGAIL A NDREWS University of California, San Diego alandrews@ucsd.edu In a growing literature on transnational migration, Alfredo Mirande´’s book Jalos, USA: Transnational Community and Identity adds a rich portrait of a migrant community, stretched between the hometown of Jalos, in the state of Jalisco, Mexico, and its primary destination of Turlock, in the Central Valley of California. Building on seminal contribu- tions to the study of transnationalism, such as the work of Peggy Levitt (2001) and Robert Smith (2006), Mirande´ uses in-depth interviews and focus groups to portray in detail the workings of a transnational com- munity, including religious festivals and traditions, gender interactions in daily life, the ways people maintain a shared identity Contemporary Sociology 44, 6 Downloaded from csx.sagepub.com at UNIV CALIFORNIA SAN DIEGO on October 27, 2016

This study investigates how second-generation Korean-American students form and transform their senses of ethnicity through their participation in Korean language classes. I did a one-year ethnographic study of the Korean language classes (basic and intermediate levels) at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, which were largely populated by second- and 1.5-generation Korean Americans. From these Korean-American college students, who have 'successfully' negotiated through the American educational system, I learned that becoming an English speaker does not necessarily mean the loss of ethnic identity, and that learning Korean (a 'heritage' language) does not necessarily lead to homogeneous ethnic identity formation. Although the classroom is certainly a place in which language knowledge is imparted, much classroom activity utilises words and grammatical points as semantic mediators of culture, history, and even politics; in short, the stakes are high. My ethnography focuses on the micro-practices of language teaching and learning in order to explore these interactions, and thereby take up identity formation and transformation. Participants' personal language repertoire and use reflect diverse social worlds and locations (including time of immigration, place of residence, and relationship to the homeland) through which their transnational lived histories have been constituted.

ABSTRACTDespite the growing body of research on ethnic return migrants originating from the U.S., few have situated this practice within sociological framings of U.S. race relations or immigrant assimilation. Through in-depth qualitative interviews with 56 Korean American ethnic return migrants, this article demonstrates the manner in which their desires to relocate to an ancestral homeland are intricately linked to their racialization and ethnic identity formation in the U.S. Rather than being a phenomenon simply driven by economic, affective, and/or politico-legal processes, this study contends that these racial/ethnic processes help to reinforce and later channel the already existing “return” desires of Korean Americans. In stating these findings, this article highlights the limitations of examining the experiences Korean Americans (and Asian Americans writ large) solely within an epistemological framework that assumes their domestic incorporation as a foregone conclusion.

Western and domestic researchers admit that ethnic identity is a complex and multifaceted social phenomenon, which is characterized by an individual’s (group’s) awareness of their belonging to a particular ethnic community, understanding, evaluating and experiencing their membership in it. Ethnicity in the United States, depending on what race a person belongs to, can be flexible and voluntary, or it can be something real and imposed by social and political factors. The diaspora community model appears as a real group adaptation strategy. However, not every ethnic group has the ability to create a diaspora, but only an ethnic group which is resistant to assimilation can. The sense of ethnicity for Korean Americans is an important factor that hinders assimilation. Ethnicity is the most significant characteristic of the diaspora. The Korean diaspora in America is represented by first, 1.5, and, to a lesser extent, second generation immigrants. In the diaspora, ethnic identity is manifested in rigidly fixed blood and cultural ties. This is a constant predetermined from birth, and not a result of a choice. Although the family is an important social institution in the formation of the ethnic identity of Koreans, one cannot but agree that the main social institution that plays a significant role in the formation of diaspora identity is the Korean Christian churches. Today, the Korean American community is in the process of diasporaization and has the characteristics of a “new” or “modern” diaspora.

This article examines the question of (return) migration among highly-skilled, 1.5- and second-generation Korean Americans and the particular social, material and cultural capital Korean Americans may acquire in Korea. Undoubtedly, Korean Americans have occupied privileged positions in Korea especially compared to other ethnic return migrants such as Korean Chinese and Zainichi Koreans. However, my research attempts to trouble a monolithic or homogeneous understanding of Korean American privilege. Using ethnographic research and by paying attention to the multifaceted and diverse experiences of Korean American returnees in terms of age, gender, level of education, class, occupation, religion and locality, I complicate Korean American ethnicity and assumptions of a “privileged” status among Korean American returnees. Such monolithic assumptions about the Korean American experience are often implicitly based on the masculine subject as the primary agent of migration and diaspora. However, attention to gender and intersectionality of Korean American returnees exposes subtle forms of pressure and aggression often obscured within narratives of Korean Americans as an elite and fundamentally masculine group. In this way, this article proffers a far more nuanced understanding of the contradictory and “double-edged” experience of Korean Americans upon return migration.

This study compared the ethnic identity and well-being of Korean Americans who were adopted internationally with immigrant/U.S.-born Korean Americans and Korean international students, as well as the relationship between ethnic identity and well-being for each group. One-hundred seven college students completed measures of ethnic identity and subjective well-being. Immigrant/U.S.-born Korean Americans had higher ethnic identity scores than the other two groups. Immigrant/U.S.-born Korean Americans also had higher positive affect scores than international students. Ethnic identity was positively correlated with positive affect for all three groups (r = .27 to .34) but was negatively correlated with negative affect for international students (r = –.44). Overall, the results suggest that ethnic identity, although slightly lower than in non-adopted peers, is relevant to the well-being of adopted Korean American college students.

In contemporary Russia, in the conditions of polyethnicity and multiculturalism, it becomes necessary to form civil and ethnic identities of its citizens. This problem is becoming one of the main directions of the state social policy of the Russian Federation, as there is an active migration within the country, which causes the relocation of Russian citizens from their native region. This circumstance prompted the authors of the article to turn to this topic. In the article, the authors reveal the importance of preserving the identity of the indigenous peoples of Altai (Altaians, Telengites, Tubalars, Kumandins and Chelkans) in the conditions of a large metropolis. They also present the historical facts of preserving their ethnic identity, emphasizing the importance for these peoples of obtaining a new status for their ancestral territory of residence in the 90s and being allocated to the national republic as part of the Russian Federation. They reveal the role of ethnic public organizations in the preservation and development of the culture, traditions and language of the Altai peoples, using the example of the activities of the NROO "TSKN "Tuulu Altai", as well as the formation of ethnic and civil identity in a multicultural society. The purpose of the article is a historical description (way of life, places of traditional residence, etc.) of the indigenous peoples of the Republic of Altai and a description of the role and activities of the non-profit public organization "Tuulu Altai Cultural Heritage Center "for the formation of ethnic and civil identity among the representatives of the indigenous peoples of the Republic of Armenia. The scientific novelty of the provisions proposed in the article is to identify the features of the formation of ethnic and civil identity of representatives of the indigenous peoples of the Altai Republic living in Novosibirsk. The practical significance lies in the possibility of using the materials of the article in organizing the activities of non-profit public organizations for the formation of ethnic and civic identity among young people.

In order to understand Korean American immigrants'adjustment to American society, it is important to understand how their life rituals and ethnic identities maintain or change over time and across immigration generations. To achieve this goal, this study examined how Korean Americans who resided in the New York City metropolitan area and New Jersey State performed life rituals and formed ethnic identities. A total of 18 Korean immigrants participated in one-on-one in-depth interviews and the interview data were analyzed with the themes. The results showed that Korean Americans performed life rituals integrating both Korean and American cultural aspects. Many Korean Americans attempted to perform life rituals based on American cultural holidays and procedures. However, a majority of these Koreans also strived to maintain Korean ethnic identities and also practice traditionally Korean life rituals as a way to preserve this ethnic identity. These findings suggest that across time and generation, Korean Americans prefer to maintain their Korean cultural identity, while not shunning the adoption of typical "American" rituals. The way that Korean Americans practice and develop identities differs very little across immigration generation. These findings provide insight on how the Korean government may support foreigners and immigrant families in South Korea and Korean Americans' acculturation processes in the U.S.

The scientific article systematizes the ideas about the process of the formation of ethnic identity of the population in Samara and Samara region. For this purpose, the concept of “ethnic identity” was analyzed, materials were compared and conclusions of published researches on the problem of the formation and development of ethnic identity of Samara and Samara region population, including cultural-historical, external-attribute, confessional and linguistic aspects were critically analyzed. The author’s definition of ethnic identity as a dynamic and multidimensional formation, which characterizes the feeling (implicit component) and awareness (explicit component) of a person as a member of a particular ethnic group/community, formed in the framework of the socio-psychological approach, was taken as a theoretical basis of the study. Conclusions about the specificity of the process of the formation of ethnic identity in the population of Samara and Samara region are made. It has been established that Samara region and the city of Samara represent a kind of “ideal” region to study the process of harmonious and tolerant formation of ethnic identity in a multi-ethnic external environment: with high ethnic diversity (“local” consider themselves 11 ethnicities at once) in a relatively small territory (0.31 % of the country) a high level of true tolerance as the ability and willingness to accept others in all their diversity is observed. It is determined that an important contribution to the development of ethnic identity is made by pedagogical activities in the region. The results obtained are of high significance as they allow to form a holistic view of the process and the result of the formation of ethnic identity of the population of Samara and Samara region taking into account the specifics of the region and ethnic groups and communities living on its territory, as well as the pedagogical conditions for the formation of ethnic identity created in the region. The prospects for further research into the socio-psychological determinants of the formation of ethnic identity of the population of the Middle Volga region are also outlined.

The concept of identity is increasingly becoming an object of study in many social sciences. Identity plays one of the main roles in the context of growing globalization processes. The ethnic and civic identity of Russians, having become important elements of social identity, are markers of socio-economic and political changes. Scientists came to the conclusion that the formation of civil and ethnic identity occurs in the process of socialization under the influence of various factors of the sociocultural context - cultural, historical, political and economic. In the presented study, the emphasis is on checking the influence of two factors on the formation of the identity of Russians - cultural and historical. Individual values act as indicators of the cultural factor, and perceived ethnic and civil discrimination serve as indicators of the historical factor. The study was conducted with the participation of 1014 respondents. The average age of the studied sample was 41 years. The study revealed the ethnic and civic identity of Russians, their dominant values, as well as perceived ethnic and civic discrimination. It has been established that the cultural factor has the most significant impact on ethnic and civic identity, while the historical factor has a much smaller impact on these variables. At the same time, perceived civic discrimination has the least impact on the formation of ethnic and civic identity. It was also found that the key positive regressor in relation to the civil and ethnic identity of Russians is the value of “tradition”.

In this paper, I demonstrate how Korean American camp counselors locally construct ethnic identity through the practice of self-categorization in discourse. Self-categorization, or the identification of oneself in terms of ethnic identity, serves to position counselors in terms of Korean ethnicity and to associate that identity with one’s personal goals in participating in the Korean camp. Using videotaped data of counselors’ meetings, I show that while debating their views on what a Korean camp should be and their motivations for participating in the camp, counselors make relevant their ethnic identities by describing themselves as more ‘American’, more ‘Korean American’, or more ‘Korean’. In addition, the counselors discuss whether the teaching of Korean heritage or the mentorship of the campers should be the primary objective of the camp. This opposition between ‘heritage’ and ‘mentorship’ is cast as a source of tensions that map onto ideologies of identity, whereby ‘Korean American’ identity acquires the local meaning of being linked to the importance of mentorship over Korean heritage. In this way, counselors construct their ethnic identities as a means of classifying themselves relationally within a field of oppositions, at the same time indexing a particular stance about what a Korean camp should be.

Scholarly and popular commentators lament the deterioration of civil society as a result of American individualism, a decline in some part based on eroding religious participation. In this context, it is important to ask how second-generation immigrants use religious resources to understand, participate in, and potentially change American religion. Scholars stress that religion was vital for the civic integration of earlier European immigrants. However, studies of religion among our nation's newest immigrants largely focus on how religion serves the immigrant community -- for example by creating job networks and helping retain ethnic identity in the second generation. In this book Ecklund widens the inquiry to look at how Korean Americans use religion to negotiate civic responsibility, as well as to create racial and ethnic identity. She compares the views and activities of second generation Korean Americans in two different congregational settings, one ethnically Korean and the other multi-ethnic. Surprisingly, she finds that the Korean churches de-emphasize ethnicity. They look like other evangelical congregations and are concerned about evangelizing in the context of providing social services. Multiethnic churches, in contrast, use evangelical Christianity to legitimate a political and social justice consciousness that values ethnic diversity and and individualized understanding of faith in the context of a conservative Christianity. Korean Americans in both kinds of churches are deeply concerned about helping those in their local community, including non-Koreans and non-Christians. In multiethnic churches, however, Korean Americans also develop an awareness of local politics and a concern with social justice for other ethnic and racial minorities. Ecklund's work is based on ethnographic data from two congregations in one impoverished, primarily non-white city on the east coast, which provided the opportunity to compare how members of each practiced community service in the same urban context. She also conducted more than 100 in-depth interviews with Korean American members of these and seven other churches around the country, and draws extensively on the secondary literature on immigrant religion, American civic life, and Korean American religion. Her book is a unique contribution to the literature on religion, race, and ethnicity and on immigration and civic life.

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to develop an in-depth description of Korean American 1.5- and second-generation young adults’ subjective, lived experiences in two areas: the experience of being 1.5- or second-generation Korean American, and the experience of exploring their ethnic identity—as experienced in a dance/movement therapy workshop structure that incorporates traditional Korean dance/movement forms. Growing up as children of immigrants, the 1.5- and second-generation Asian Americans often experience ambiguity, uncertainty, and tension about their ethnic identity. And this in-between existence causes isolation, alienation, anxiety, vulnerability and identity crises. Dance/movement therapy offers Asian American individuals an opportunity to experience their two different cultural identities and help them integrate those experiences through self-exploration and expression at a bodily level. For the present study, a dance/movement therapy workshop was designed to encourage self-searching and self-expression through creating movements and experiencing Korean traditional dance/movement. Six Korean American young adults participated in the study. Their subject experiences were collected through in-depth interviews and analyzed by phenomenological method. The findings about being a 1.5- or second-generation Korean American experience include: feelings of not belonging to any specific identification; a sense of isolation associated with their ethnic identity; a sense of pride about Korean heritage and their Korean American identity; and bicultural awareness. Exploring ethnic identity through a dance/movement therapy structure workshop incorporating Korean traditional dance/movement forms allowed this population to search deeper within themselves; yielded positive emotional, cognitive gains; helped them to get in touch with the Korean culture. It is seen to be potentially beneficial as an intervention for people who are struggling for ethnic identity.

This study investigated the status of Bai college students’ ethnic identity and examined the contextual factors which influence the formation of this Bai ethnic identity. A questionnaire which consists of the Multigroup Ethic Identity Measure (MEIM) and Contextual Factors (CF) was administered to 260 college students of Bai nationality from five universities in Yunnan Province. A stepwise regression analysis reveals that four contextual factors influence the formation of this Bai ethnic identity: subjects’ place of residence, family, language proficiency, subjects’ opinions and attitudes towards Bai and Han people and Bai and Han culture. Findings show that both male and female Bai college students are in the status of ethnic identity commitment, which means subjects are in high identification with Bai nationality. Gender difference is not so significant in the formation of Bai college students’ ethnic identity. This identification contributes to the maintenance and transmission of Bai ethnic culture without the help of a written system of Bai language.