Maternal guardians: Intimate labor and the pursuit of gendered citizenship among South Korean volunteers for migrant women

Abstract

This article uses ethnographic research to examine the intimate labor of South Korean middle-class women who volunteer in immigrant integration programs for migrant women entering South Korea via cross-border marriages. I show that volunteers participate in South Korea’s nation-building project under globalization as the “maternal guardians” of migrant women, thus challenging their own gender-based subordination while sustaining the racial and class hierarchy and the heteronormativity of the Korean nation. These women use intimate knowledge about migrant women as a medium to pursue respect in the face of gendered discontent and transform themselves as new global South Korean citizens.