Unsettling Korean Migration: Multiple Trajectories and Experiences

Abstract

Introduction to the Special Section

This introduction outlines some of the key ideas about migration and identity that the multidisciplinary works in Korean studies in this special issue delve into, focusing on a few of the great many Korean migrations that have taken place over the last century and continue to do today. After contextualizing Korean migration historically and in contemporary times, it explores concepts and approaches that should be considered in framing human migration and introduces the articles in this special issue.

All articles in this issue present multiple trajectories of Korean migrations while demonstrating how migrants in each group have established and reestablished themselves by embedding and connecting themselves both in their (ancestral) homeland and in the diaspora. By presenting a range of interdisciplinary works focusing on Korean migration and identity, this special issue seeks to highlight how migration fosters a variety of identities and agencies among those who live in (between) multiple homes and residency statuses. In so doing, it aims to spark discussion on the social and experiential plurality of Koreans at home and in the diaspora that mutually reinforces the ethnic complexity of Koreans, deserving as future topics of investigation in Korean studies.