Exiled Aliens: Christianity and Korean Migrant Nationalism, 1903–1945

Abstract

The merger of Christianity and migrant nationalism during the first wave of Korean migration created a synergy that provided a sense of liberation and belonging to Korean migrant religious communities. In this article, I argue that Christianity played a pivotal role in fostering nationalist sensibilities away from home. Conversely, migrant nationalism propelled the spread of a contextualized Christianity based on Korean migrant ethnic identity that was distinct from the dominant White American Christianity during the early 1900s. Korean migrant churches functioned as repositories of national pride as Koreans negotiated their sense of belonging, identity, and agency in a foreign land.