Migrants In South Korea Research Articles

The effects of colourism on migrant adaptation in Asia: the racial exclusion of African migrants in South Korea’s “multicultural” society

ABSTRACT While high rates of intra-Asian migration have rendered foreign migrants physically “invisible” in the past, migrants of increasingly racially diverse backgrounds have started to enter South Korea in the past decade. Through in-depth interviews with sub-Saharan African migrants, this article examines the effects of colourism on three levels of migrant adaptation: (1) host government legal policies, (2) host societal reception, and (3) resources within the migrant community. Findings reveal that African migrants, compared to their lighter skinned Asian counterparts, are more vulnerable to precarious living conditions regardless of their legal, educational, or occupational backgrounds. In addition, Africans also lack resources in South Korean civil society as well as within the African migrant community, and thus face formidable barriers in collective resistance. Harsh discrimination in everyday life causes many to adopt maladaptive behaviours – resisting linguistic acquisition and adopting a sojourner orientation – triggering a negative feedback loop that exacerbates their oppression.

Beyond political citizenship: marriage migrant women’s voting practices in South Korea

ABSTRACT This study examined the voting practices of Filipina marriage migrants in South Korea. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 66 women, we examine marriage migrant women’s voting through the lens of cultural and performative citizenship. We focus on the gendered and ethnicized integration of marriage migrants into Korean families and in the larger society and how their marginalised social position shapes the women’s voting practices. We identified three voting patterns – dependent, independent, and transitioned – that vary in their degrees of cultural and performative citizenship. We also unpack the characteristics or factors associated with each voting pattern that facilitated marriage migrants’ ability to engage in performative citizenship; that is, to contest their marginalised status and exercise greater autonomy in their candidate choices. Our findings illustrate how viewing immigrant voting through the perspectives of cultural and performative citizenship provides nuanced insights about the meaning and practice of voting beyond its intrinsic function of political representation.

“We Are Not Foreigners”: Constructing Migrant Subjects through Korean Chinese Migrants’ Claims-Making in South Korea

In this paper, we approach citizenship as a claims-making process consisting of social construction practices that emerge from ongoing negotiations and contestations. We examine the migrant subject-making process of Korean Chinese migrants in South Korea. We draw on the voices of migrants to discuss how Korean Chinese construct their migrant subjectivity by mobilizing a collective understanding of ethnonational belonging and thereby deploy distinctive strategies to support their claims. Our analysis of the data gathered from ethnographic observations and interviews with Korean Chinese migrant workers, activists, South Korean bureaucrats, and policymakers show that Korean Chinese migrants have called upon blood ties and ethnic affinity, continued allegiance, economic contributions, and human rights to construct themselves as legitimate candidates for citizenship in South Korea. By shifting our analytical focus from the state to the migrant subjectivity that emerges through day-to-day negotiations, we aim to unpack the complicated dynamics of social constructions of citizenship.

Social integration and well‐being of North Korean migrants in South Korea

AbstractI examined the social integration and well‐being of North Korean migrants in South Korea, guided by a modified model of migrant integration that includes indicators of both systemic integration and value integration of North Korean migrants. The level of systemic integration was measured using indicators of employment, education, housing, and health. The level of value integration was measured using indicators of a sense of belonging, a sense of trust, and multicultural acceptance. The main data for this study were collected by a telephone survey of 400 North Korean migrants aged 15 and over conducted from November 24, 2016 to December 7, 2016. Data analysis revealed a low level of systemic integration and poor health condition of North Korean migrants. The level of value integration was intermediate. North Korean migrants strongly identified as South Korean citizens and strongly believed that they could reach the same status as South Koreans. However, their North Korean culture and identity were not recognized or accepted in South Korean society and they felt strong pressure to assimilate to South Korean culture and identity.

E‐learning cultural competence for public health workers: A feasibility and pilot study

To describe the development, feasibility, and preliminary efficacy of a seven-module e-learning for enhancing cultural competence of public health workers. The study was based on the framework of the new Medical Research Council; a mixed methods design was used. A four-week pilot cluster-randomized controlled trial was conducted with 39 public health workers and 74 migrants in South Korea. Feasibility and preliminary efficacy were assessed according to initiation, retention, adherence, usability, acceptability, individual and organizational cultural competence, and migrant trust and satisfaction. Quantitative data were collected at baseline, 4weeks, and 12weeks. Focus group interviews were conducted with eight public health workers at 12weeks. Initiation, retention, and adherence rates were high. Participants agreed on acceptability, but exhibited mixed results on usability. Participants were satisfied with "well-structured content," "authentic case stories and videos," "increased interest in migrant care," and "opportunity for self-reflection." However, "flawless and trouble-free system," "screen design for easy navigation," "instructor's expertise," and "more situational cases and videos" were desired. Statistically significant differences were observed for individual cultural competence, migrant trust, and satisfaction. Generally, the intervention seems feasible and has preliminary efficacy, yet usability improvement is necessary for full-scale randomized controlled trials.

결혼이주여성의 사회적 자본 접근성과 우울감 경험: 출신 국가의 영향을 중심으로

This study investigated the relationship between social capital access and depression among female marriage migrants in South Korea. Assuming that the country of origin could play a role as a context in assessing the value of social capital, this study attempted to examine the varying degrees of association between social capital access and depression across countries of origin. Using the National Survey of Multicultural Families 2018, the responses of 5,514 female marriage migrants from China, Japan, Vietnam, and the Philippines, and Korean-Chinese migrants were analyzed. Descriptive statistics and ordered logit models were utilized for analyses. It was found that, in general, only Korean-Chinese females had higher social capital access to Koreans than that to people from the same country of origin. There was a significantly negative association between social capital access to Koreans and depression only for Korean-Chinese female migrants. On the contrary, there was a significantly negative association between depression and social capital access to people from the same country for all female marriage migrants. Among the control variables, negative influences of the satisfaction of couple relationship and that of the parent-child relationship, household income, and subjective health were revealed. Participation in religious activities was positively related to depression. These results imply that there were varying influences of the country of origin as the context for determining the use-value of social capital for female marriage migrants.

Migrant Conversions: Transforming Connections between Peru and South Korea

Erica Vogel’s monograph, which highlights the multifaceted and complicated lives of migrants from the global South in their pursuit of a place in the economy of the global North, is an in-depth ethnographic work spanning five years (2006–11) across Asia and Latin America. While this volume is a welcome addition to the literature focused on the lives of migrants in the field of World Christianity, it also extends itself into accounting for the economic and social dimensions of their experience.Vogel specifically hones in on the lives of Peruvian migrants in South Korea, and in many cases their return to Peru, whether voluntary or involuntary. Her work involved multiple months and trips spanning back and forth between South Korea and Peru. This element of a dual site of research gives the study a balance in following the migrants after their return to their place of origin.The book masterfully paints portraits of the Peruvian migrants wedged in the flux of global economies and showcases their desire to participate in this cosmopolitan arena. Their conversion exemplifies this constant shifting of identities and economic realities, whether, in some cases, a renewed Christian faith, or others, such as their many attempts to send remittances to their family in Peru while balancing their precarious status in a South Korea caught between economic growth and simultaneous decline. Vogel uses the concept of “conversion” as the central heuristic to read the migrants’ lives and their interactions. Conversion is used and developed in three main ways: economic, spiritual, and cosmopolitan. The migrants seen through this lens are always in a state of conversion thus becoming something new, whether in trying to “convert” their hard-earned South Korean Won into “Migradollars” or quite literally trying to “convert” their fellow migrants to their newfound faith in a foreign land.The book is composed of four sections, which follow this sequence of conversions throughout the book. The first chapter serves as a general introduction and outline of the ethnography, offering critical insights into the global picture of economics and migratory policy. It recounts how the research came about and how it developed transnationally, from South Korea to Peru and back. The second chapter kicks off this search for finding “conversion” in a comprehensive study on the dynamics of remittances and their social power in their homeland. This chapter’s strength is that it offers a detailed and insightful look at the double-edged nature of remittances, in some cases propelling families out of poverty while in others plunging them deeper into poverty. The third chapter follows the migrants’ lives in various faith congregations in South Korea, one Catholic, and two Protestant. This section details the religious landscape of a South Korea in the places where migrants convert, worship, and socialize in the undocumented margins of the country. It centers on how this dimension of their migrant experiences becomes, in many cases, the pivotal part of their self-understanding and purpose in migrating to South Korea. The final chapter looks at the Peruvian migrants’ attempts to participate in cosmopolitan projects through marriage to foreigners, education, and new opportunities. The epilogue offers some concluding remarks and some closure to the various characters’ lives who had been interviewed in the book.The author’s notion of conversion is critical to her understanding of migrants’ lives and their desire to convert their labor into remittances that will help their families and set them up as citizens of a global economy regardless of the precarious nature of their status as undocumented workers. On the other hand, however, it shows how, for many, “conversion” to a new faith and, in some cases, “renewal” from a nominal faith into a fervent faith repositions these migrants not merely as undocumented migrants but also as “missionaries,” evangelists, and pastors in their foreign home. Thus, this is a compelling way to look at the migrants’ experience through these lenses, but like many concepts, they are not flawless and risk becoming overdetermined.The monograph is eloquently written and highlights the conversations between the researcher and the interviewees. In a work complete with graphs showing economic fluctuations, color photos, and timelines, Vogel presents her material pedagogically and with a keen eye for clarity. Though the length of this text is relatively short (188 pp.), it leaves the reader with a desire to delve deeper into the migrants’ testimonies and rationales. Its brevity is therefore a plus, making it accessible and easy to engage, thus providing a text that would be ideal for an audience interested in transnationalism, global economics, and the spiritual dimension of migration.

Dual citizenship as claims-making: the case of marriage migrants in South Korea

ABSTRACT Over the past few decades, citizenship scholars have moved from conceptualizing citizenship as a legal status with associated rights to a more process-oriented approach acknowledging the socially constructed nature of citizenship. Although the dual citizenship literature hints at the importance of contention and recognition, it has yet to consider claims-making as a major mechanism shaping dual citizenship. Drawing on in-depth interviews, I examine the dual citizenship claims (or the lack of such claims) among marriage migrant women from the Philippines and Vietnam in South Korea, analyzing how women’s narratives regarding dual citizenship are framed vis-à-vis the normative ideals of citizenship in each state. I suggest the claims-making approach as an analytical framework through which the intersections of the normative, instrumental, and identity aspects of dual citizenship are brought to light in relation to the claimant’s positionality.

From a Spouse to a Citizen: The Gendered and Sexualized Path to Citizenship for Marriage Migrants in South Korea

Morality has been a key factor in naturalization. However, defining what constitutes good moral character has never been specified, leaving interpretation of the good moral character requirement to the discretion of immigration officials and judges. Based on an analysis of court cases filed by marriage migrants, this article expands our understanding of the legal interpretation of the “good morality” requirement in two significant ways. First, by examining the nature of the morality requirements applied to marriage migrants applying for citizenship, we identify that controlling sexual morality is one of the key mechanisms of gendering the path to legal citizenship. Second, our analysis questions the fairness of the judicial rulings and shows that judges are not reliable allies for immigrant spouses. South Korean judges tend to show great deference to the administrative branch and rarely rule against the decisions of the immigration officials. Further, the rulings tend to follow cultural and gendered, rather than legal, understanding of “good” wives and husbands. Ultimately, in the case of South Korea we show that that marriage migrant moral jurisprudence deviates from the developing jurisprudence that decriminalizes intimate choices and challenges the traditional gender roles within a family.

Threatened or Threatening?: Securitization of the Yemeni Asylum Seekers in South Korea

The arrival of many Yemeni people on Jeju Island in 2018 to seek asylum became a mega-political issue in South Korea. This article investigates two questions. First, how and why have Yemeni asylum seekers suddenly become the focus of securitization concerns in South Korea? And second, how have these concerns affected the government’s responses? We argue that three key factors-the influence of media on the refugee crisis in Europe, the Yemenis’ race, gender, and religious background, and South Korea’s internal political and economic situation-have intersected with each other and produced the securitization of Yemeni migration. Amidst highly contested political debates on the protection of forced migrants in South Korea, the state has strictly controlled the border but showed contradictory refugee policies.

“Fake” or “Real” Marriage? Gender, Age, “Race” and Class in the Construction of Un/desirability of Marriage Migrants in South Korea

This paper examines the link between the regulation of marriage migration and national boundary-making processes in South Korea through the analysis of “fraudulent marriage” discourses. Corresponding to the goals of the Korean government based on the gendered and racialized construction of the Korean nation, populations of marriage migrants are hierarchized according to various intersecting axes of gender, age, class, and “race.” Based on a critical race and intersectional feminist framework and critical security studies, I examine multiple intersections of the social relations, which hierarchize marriage migrants. While certain marriage migrants are constructed as desirable because they embody particular sets of characteristics (namely childbearing female marriage migrants from developing countries), other marriage migrants outside these parameters are actively constructed as undesirable and suspected of fraudulent marriage. The discriminatory distinctions drawn among differentially racialized and gendered marriage migrants raise significant social justice concerns. The article concludes with a brief discussion of strategies pursued by marriage migrants and their Korean spouses to undermine discourses of fraudulent marriages.

Development of a Living Lab for a Mobile-Based Health Program for Korean-Chinese Working Women in South Korea: Mixed Methods Study.

BackgroundKorean-Chinese (KC) women make up the largest group of female migrants in South Korea. To prevent and manage chronic diseases in middle-aged KC women working full time, it is necessary to develop health promotion programs that utilize an online platform because such a platform would allow individuals to participate in health promotion interventions at their convenience.ObjectiveThis study aimed to develop a living lab for a mobile-based health (LLm Health) program focused on improving the physical activity and cultural adaptation of KC women workers.MethodsWe used a mixed methods design. Living lab principles were factored into the LLm Health program, including the use of multiple methods, user engagement, multistakeholder participants, real-life settings, and cocreation. The program was developed using the 4 steps of the intervention mapping method: needs assessment, setting of objectives, identification of intervention strategies, and intervention design. Needs assessment was conducted through a literature review, focus group interviews with a total of 16 middle-aged KC women, and an online survey related to health promotion of migrant workers given to 38 stakeholders. KC middle-aged women participated in the early stages of program development and provided the idea of developing programs and mobile apps to enhance physical activity and acculturation. The mobile app developed in the program was validated with the help of 12 KC women and 4 experts, including 3 nursing professors and a professor of physical education. They were asked to rate each item based on content, interface design, and technology on a 4-point scale using a 23-item Smartphone App Evaluation Tool for Health Care.ResultsThe LLm Health program comprised a 24-week walking program using Fitbit devices, the mobile app, and social cognitive interventions. The mobile app contained 6 components: a step counter, an exercise timer, an online chat function, health information, level of cardiovascular risk, and health status. The cultural aspects and lifestyles of KC women were accommodated in the entire process of program development. The content validity of the mobile app was found to be 0.90 and 0.96 according to the 12 KC women and 4 experts, respectively.ConclusionsThe mobile app was found to be valid and acceptable for KC women. The living lab approach was a useful strategy for developing a culturally adaptive LLm Health program for KC women workers, leading to their active participation in the overall research process, including needs assessment, program composition, and pre-evaluation.

North Korean Migrants in South Korea: “Multicultural” or “Global” Citizens?

In the past, the notion of a common Korean ethnicity shaped how North Korean migrants in South Korea understood themselves, and in turn were viewed and assisted by the South Korean government and its resettlement regime. However, new frameworks of belonging have emerged that focus on molding the North Korean migrant population into either “multicultural” (tamunhwa) or “global” (kŭllobŏl) citizens of South Korea. These are two competing, locally inflected idioms of “flexible citizenship” (à la Aihwa Ong) that are meant to capture North Korean migrants’ border crossing experiences and transnational aspirations. Based on 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork, conducted between 2009 and 2017, this article examines the development of these new narratives of belonging. The “multicultural” framework emerged to categorize North Korean migrants and nonethnic Korean migrants together for provisions and services, whereas the “global” framework values the ability of upwardly mobile North Korean migrants to navigate transnational environments extending beyond South Korea. This article examines the process by which the “global citizenry” framework has overpowered the “multicultural” framework because the former provided North Korean migrants with a narrative that granted more economic opportunities and enhanced their role in the envisioned future of a unified Korea. This article brings into sharp relief the key role of the government and its migrant resettlement regime in shaping these new narratives. It also shows the ways in which the “global citizenry” narrative has become intertwined with a new kind of nationalist trope rather than replacing the old ethnic nationalist narrative.

USES OF MIGRANTS’ REMITTANCES IN THE HOME COUNTRY: FOCUSING ON THE CASE OF PAKISTANI LABOR MIGRANTS IN SOUTH KOREA

This research paper has elucidated important factors and international remittance utilization areas in Pakistan. Due to the political and economic situation of the country, the people migrate to developed countries to earn better living standards for themselves and, the left-behind families. As of 2018, the Bureau of Immigration & Overseas Employment, Government of Pakistan counts 15472 Pakistanis living in South Korea. In a bid to fully conduct this research, the structured interviews are conducted with Pakistani labor migrants residing in district Gwangju, South Korea. During the interview, participants are asked about the migration process, difficulties in the settlement, working environment, and volume of monthly remittances sent to their home country. The main purpose of the study is to investigate the current situation of Pakistani labor migrants in South Korea and to explore how their remittances are being utilized by their family members in Pakistan. Pakistani labor migrants are migrating to Korea through the Bureau of Immigration & Overseas Employment, Government of Pakistan, to work in Korean factories. The observed motive of migration is the income generation that is utilized to improve the living standard of their families in Pakistan. As this study shows, transfer remittances are used to cover daily living expenses such as food, health, education, and other emergency needs such as medical, marriages, and funerals. The part of the transfer remittance is also used to establish a business in their home country for extra income generation and creation of employment opportunities for local people. Prior to the migration, the migrants learned the basic level of Korean language skills from their home country, but these skills did not reduce their difficulty in communication. The most prominent problem being faced by the migrants is the unavailability of halal food which is very important regarding their religious beliefs. Key words: Remittance, development, income, labor migrants, remittance utilization areas.

Contending with neo-classical patriarchal bargain: Filipina marriage migrants’ negotiations for naturalization in South Korea

ABSTRACTThis study examines naturalization choices and processes among Filipina marriage migrants in South Korea. Drawing on interviews with 89 Filipina marriage migrants and nine of their spouses, we show how naturalization can become a site of bargaining where female marriage migrants strategize to maximize security and optimize their life options within a patriarchal host society. Citizenship is, for most marriage migrants, informally tied to their fulfillment of gendered expectations as wives, mothers and daughters-in-laws. As such, Filipina marriage migrants’ political incorporation cannot be separated from their gendered performance in the family. We also examine how personal resources such as education and employment prospects influence migrants’ bargaining potential. By focusing on the different social positions of and resources available to female marriage migrants, we show the complex ways in which both gender and human capital influences marriage migrants’ legal and substantive citizenship.

Life Satisfaction of Urban-to-Rural Migrants in South Korea - Income vs. Nature -

Life Satisfaction of Urban-to-Rural Migrants in South Korea - Income vs. Nature -

Transnational Belonging of Bangladeshi Migrants in South Korea

Transnational Belonging of Bangladeshi Migrants in South Korea

Suspicious Mothering: Maternal Labor and Marriage Migration in South Korea

Abstract Inspired by theories of marginalized women’s maternal labor, this article contributes to the literature on the relationship between borders and parenting in Asia. After marital breakdown, marriage migrants in South Korea can extend their stay if they have South Korean children and can present evidence of mothering to the immigration authorities. This article presents a socio-legal analysis of cross-border mothering through in-depth interviews with migrants and relevant stakeholders. Taking cross-border mothering as a site where state intervention encounters migrant subjectivity, I examine maternal norms and scrutiny imposed by immigration authorities and performative maternal labor of migrant mothers.

Acculturative stress as a mental health predictor of North Korean refugees in South Korea

South Korea is an emerging immigration destination where over half of the country’s immigrant population are ethnic return migrants. Thus far, little attention has been given to the effect of acculturation on the mental health of coethnic migrants in non-traditional immigration states such as South Korea. Using 2010 survey data on 1,200 North Korean refugees, this study examines the effect of preserving cultural norms and practices from the home country on the mental health of North Koreans in the South. Based on an acculturation typology, we categorize respondents into four groups based on their attitudes toward home and host cultures. Given South Korea’s homogenous context, our cluster analyses extracted two acculturation types—the integrated and the assimilated groups. The finding that integrated or bicultural individuals had better mental health status than assimilated individuals underscores the crucial role of the culture of origin in attenuating acculturative distress for coethnic migrants in South Korea.

Life Satisfaction of Cross-Border Marriage Migrants in South Korea: Exploring the Social Network Effects

This study examines the recent phenomenon of “cross-border marriage” in South Korea: foreign brides migrating into Korea to get married to Korean bachelors. Using data from the National Survey of Multicultural Families 2009, one of the biggest data sets on marriage migrants, we analyze how the difference in migrants’ initial methods of entry affects the level of their life satisfaction. The findings show greater life satisfaction for those who used personal social networks, when compared with those who used commercial brokers as a method of entry. The analyses also reveal the importance of current social networks and their role in moderating the effect of the initial methods of entry after a prolonged period of residence.