Rethinking belongingness in Korea: Transnational migration, "migrant marriages" and the politics of multiculturalism

Pacific Affairs

Volumn 83, Issue 1, 2010, Pages 51-71

  Lim, Timothy ^a  

^a CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CITIZENSHIP; CLASS; CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY; GENDER; INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION; MARRIAGE; MULTICULTURALISM; NATIONAL IDENTITY; RACE;

SOUTH KOREA;

EID: 77950250413     PISSN: 0030851X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.5509/201083151     Document Type: Article

References (74)

1. Mary Lee, "Mixed Race Peoples in the Korean National Imaginary and Family," Korean Studies, vol. 32 (2008), p. 57.
2. By the official government definition, a foreign resident is any non-citizen residing in Korea for 91 days or longer. There are a number of minor exceptions to this rule, including any member of diplomatic delegation or consular corps, members of international organizations, and Canadian citizens residing in Korea up to six months. The number of short-term (91 days to one year) foreign residents has likely remained fairly constant, so the recent and dramatic increase in the overall foreign resident population is overwhelmingly based on individuals staying in South Korea for longer periods of time.
3. Korean Immigration Service, Statistics (various years).
4. The term "denizen" refers to a foreign citizen with a legal and permanent resident status in the host state but who does not possess certain rights and duties common to native citizens. See Tomas Hammar, Democracy and the Nation State: Aliens, Denizens and Citizens in a World of International Migration (Aldershot: Gower Publishing, 1990), p.1.
5. Han Geon-Soo, "Multicultural Korea: Celebration or Challenge of Multiethnic Shift in Contemporary Korea?" Korea Journal, vol. 47, no. 4 (2007), p. 57. In his article, Han also provides a convenient summary of prominent academic critiques of the current discourse and policy on multiculturalism in South Korea. See pp. 55-58.
6. Korea Development Institute (KDI), Korea's Economy: Past and Present (Seoul: KDI, 1975), p. 280.
7. Philip Martin, Andrew Mason and Nagayama Toshikazu, "Introduction to Special Issue on the Dynamics of Labor Migration in Asia," Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, vol. 5, nos. 2-3 (1996), pp. 171-72.
8. Seol Dong-Hoon, "Past and Present of Foreign Workers in Korea, 1987-2000," Asia Solidarity Quarterly, vol. 2 (2000), pp. 6-31
9. Timothy C. Lim, "The Fight for Equal Rights: The Power of Foreign Workers in South Korea," Alternatives, vol. 24 (1999), pp. 329-359.
10. Lim, "Fight for Equal Rights," pp. 338-339.
11. Lim, "Fight for Equal Rights," pp. 340-341.
12. Quoted from "Cardinal Kim Apologizes to Foreign Workers in Seoul," Reuters World Service 10 January 1995.
13. Based on a personal observation by the author. January 1995.
14. Jamie Doucette, "The New Minjung? Migrant Workers in South Korea." Korean Quarterly, vol. 8, no. 4 (2005), pp. 11-13.
15. William A. Hayes, "From Minjung to Citizen: The Politics of Public Memory in South Korea (1987-2002)," paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Philadelphia, Penn., August 2005, p. 4.
16. Hayes, "From Minjung to Citizen," p. 17.
17. Doucette, "The New Minjung."
18. For a more detailed discussion of these changes, see Timothy C. Lim, "Will South Korea Follow the German Experience? Democracy, the Migratory Process, and the Prospects for Permanent Immigration in Korea," Korean Studies, vol. 32 (2008), pp. 33-36.
19. Two of the most important of these "notable exceptions," were a strict three-year time limit, and restrictions on (freely) moving from one employer to another. Foreign worker organizations, especially the Migrants' Trade Union (MTU), were strongly opposed to both and began campaigning immediately for changes.
20. One important set of factors is "domestic political considerations"-i.e., a framework of democratic norms and legal procedures. See Christian Joppke, "Why Liberal States Accept Unwanted Immigration," in Anthony M. Messina and Gallya Lahav, eds., The Migration Reader: Exploring Politics and Policies (Boulder CO: Lynne Rienner, 2006), pp. 526-551.
21. Timothy C. Lim, "Racing from the Bottom in South Korea? The Nexus between Civil Society and Transnational Migrants in South Korea," Asian Survey, vol. 43, no. 3 (2003), pp. 423-442.
22. Based on various interviews by author in South Korea in 2001, 2002 and 2006, specifically: We Jung-Hee, director of the Buddhist Coalition for Economic Justice (BCEJ), 21 June 2001; Park Seok- Won, director of the Labour Human Rights Centre, 22 June 2001; Kim Mi Sun, director of the Public and International Department, Joint Committee with Migrants in Korea (JCMK), 14 June 2002; Choi Hyun-Mo, General Secretary of the Korea Migrant Workers' Human Rights Centre, Incheon, 5 June 2006; and Shakil, Acting President, Migrants' Trade Union (MTU), 22 May 2006.
23. Interview by author, Seoul, South Korea, 21 June 2001.
24. "The Abuse of Foreign Laborers' Human Rights," Civil Society, vol. 1, no. 1 (1994), p. 3. Cited in Lim, "Racing from the Bottom," p. 434.
25. Kim Hae-Sung, President of the Migrant Workers' House and Migrant Workers' Hospital, interview by author, Seoul, 18 June 2006.
26. The one tool that foreign workers always had at their disposal, however, was the capacity to "walk away" from their places of employment, which they did with regularity.
27. Kim Hae-Sung, interview by author, Seoul, South Korea,18 June 2006.
28. For example, Kim almost single-handedly created the Migrant Workers' Hospital in 2004, which provides free-and much needed-medical care, including surgical procedures, exclusively to foreign workers. In its first two full years of operation, the hospital served over 50,000 patients. Interestingly, Kim was able to convince the South Korean government to provide in-kind assistance; thus, while he receives no government funding, the Ministry of Health and Welfare assigns five doctors to the hospital, who work there in lieu of military service.
29. Precise figures for 2000 are unavailable. In 2005, however, the Korean Immigration Service estimated that 49,412 undocumented foreign nationals had resided in South Korea for at least five years. The number in 2000 may have been higher, since the number of undocumented workers in 2000 was higher than in 2005 (188,995 compared to 180,792). See Korean Immigration Service, Statistics 2000-2005, available from http://www.immigration.go.kr/HP/IMM/primage/e20-24.pdf, last accessed 30 June 2009.
30. For example, the EPS was restricted to foreign nationals of countries that had signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with South Korea and generally restricted workers to certain employers and certain industries.
31. The Migrants' Trade Union (MTU) developed from the ETU-MB.
32. Shakil (acting president of the MTU) quoted in "Migrants Want Flexible Employment System", Korea Times, 1 January 2006.
33. Kwon, "Prospects and Challenges."
34. Cited in Korean Immigration Service (KIS), The First Basic Plan for Immigration Policy, 2008-2012 (Seoul, June 2009), p. 26.
35. Korean Immigration Service (KIS), KIS Statistics 2008, available from http://seoul.immigration. go.kr, last accessed 6 July 2009.
36. Patricia R. Pessar and Sarah J. Mahler, "Transnational Migration: Bringing Gender In," International Migration Review, vol. 37, no. 3 (Fall 2003), p. 818.
37. Pessar and Mahler, "Bringing Gender In."
38. KDI, Korea's Economy, pp. 280-281.
39. Oishi is very clear that, while state emigration policies are important, so too are micro-level factors, "such as the willingness and motivation of individual women," who generally make decisions by themselves and sometimes against the wishes of their husbands or parents. Nana Oishi, " Gender and Migration: An Integrative Approach," Working Paper 49 (The Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, University of California, San Diego), March 2002, pp. 11-12.
40. Oishi, "Gender and Migration," p. 5.
41. Figures are for 2007 and are calculated by author. KIS, KIS Statistics 2008.
42. Ministry of Labour, unpublished data cited in Julia Jiwon Chin, "The Gendered and Racialised Division in the Korean Labour Market: The Case of Migrant Workers in the Catering Sector," East Asia, vol. 26 (2009), p. 101.
43. It is more accurate to say, perhaps, that we can see an ethno-national division of job categories.
44. KIS Statistics 2008.
45. The term "Amerasian" was originally coined by Pearl S. Buck, who used it to refer to any child of born to an "Asian" parent and an American parent in the aftermath of US military interventions in Asia. Thus, there are Amerasian children in Korea, the Philippines, Japan, and most prominently, Vietnam. The fathers of most Amerasian children, for obvious reasons, are US soldiers.
46. See, for example, Mary Lee, "Mixed Race Peoples in the Korean National Imaginary and Family," Korean Studies, vol. 32 (2008), pp. 65-71
47. Katherine Moon, Sex Among Allies: Military Prostitution in US-Korea Relations (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997).
48. Park Kyung-Tae, "Left Behind: Amerasians Living in Korea," paper presented at the Korean Nation and Its 'Others' in the Age of Globalization conference, University of Hawaii, 20-21 April 2007.
49. Lee, "Mixed Race Peoples," p. 59.
50. See Park Kyung-Tae, "Left Behind: Amerasians Living in Korea."
51. Korea National Statistical Office (KNSO), Population Dynamics (Marriage and Divorce), cited in Seol Dong-Hoon, "Migrants' Citizenship in Korea: With a Focus on Migrant Workers and Marriage-Based Immigrants," unpublished paper (n.d.).
52. Cited in KIS, The First Basic Plan, p. 45.
53. Statistics Korea, "Marriage Statistics in 2008," Statistics Korea News, 3 March 2009, available from http://kostat.go.kr/, last accessed 29 November 2009.
54. Lee Yean-Ju, Seol Dong-Hoon, and Cho Sung-Nam, "International Marriages in South Korea: The Significance of Nationality and Ethnicity," Journal of Population Research, vol. 23, no. 2 (2006), pp. 166-167.
55. KIS, The First Basic Plan, p. 45. This figure also includes Korean men engaged in fishing.
56. Lee Hye-Kyung, "International Marriage and the State in South Korea: Focusing on Governmental Policy," Citizenship Studies, vol. 12, no. 1 (February 2008), p. 111.
57. Lee, "International Marriage and the State," p. 111.
58. Abelmann and Kim, "A Failed Attempt," p. 108.
59. Cited in Lee, "International Marriage and the State," p. 112.
60. Lee, "International Marriage and the State," p. 114.
61. Caren Freeman, "Marrying Up and Marrying Down: The Paradoxes of Marital Mobility for Chosonjok Brides in South Korea," in Constable, ed., Cross-Border Marriages, p. 97.
62. Seol Dong-Hoon, "International Matchmaking Agencies in Korea and Their Regulation Policies," paper presented at the Asia Culture Forum 2006, Kwangju, South Korea, October 2006.
63. For an extended discussion of the role of the Unification Church, see Kim Minjeong, "'Salvation' Through Marriage: Gendered Desire, Heteronormativity, and Religious Identities in the Transnational Context," paper presented at the Gender, Religion and Identity in Social Theory Symposium, Blacksburg VA, April 2009.
64. Kim, "'Salvation' Through Marriage."
65. May Cordova, "Organizing Migrants and Experiences of Collective Action among Filipino Women Marriage Migrants in South Korea," n.d., available from http://www.arenaonline.org, last accessed 29 November 2009.
66. Cited in KIS, The First Basic Plan, p. 46.
67. Seol, "Migrants' Citizenship in Korea."
68. See Lee, "International Marriage and the State," p. 120.
69. KIS, The First Basic Plan, p. 48.
70. KIS, The First Basic Plan, p. 58.
71. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 2006 Revision (New York: United Nations, 2007), available from http://www.un.org/esa/population/, last accessed 29 November 2009.
72. "Educating Children of Foreign Residents," Korea Herald, 24 June 2008.
73. By the mid-1990s, the phenomenon of migrant brides abandoning their marriages to Korean men became common enough that Chosōnjok women, in particular, were represented in the Korean media as "runaway brides." As Freeman argues, "running away" from a marriage often signifies a purposeful and strategic choice. Freeman, "Marrying Up and Marrying Down."
74. May Cordova, "My Story of a Marriage Migrant in Korea," We! no. 2 (October 2008).