Redefining Multicultural Families in South Korea: Reflections and Future Directions

Redefining Multicultural Families in South Korea provides an in-depth look at the lives of families in Korea that include immigrants. Ten original chapters in this volume, written by scholars in multiple social science disciplines and covering different methodological approaches, aim to reinvigorate contemporary discussions about these multicultural families. Specially, the volume expands the scope of “multicultural families” by examining the diverse configurations of families with immigrants who crossed the Korean border during and after the 1990s, such as the families of undocumented migrant workers, divorced marriage immigrants, and the families of Korean women with Muslim immigrant husbands. Second, instead of looking at immigrants as newcomers, the volume takes a discursive turn, viewing them as settlers or first-generation immigrants in Korea whose post-migration lives have evolved and whose membership in Korean society has matured, by examining immigrants’ identities, need for political representation, their fights through the court system, and the aspirations of second-generation immigrants.

MINJEONG KIM is an associate professor of sociology at San Diego State University in California. She is the author of Elusive Belonging: Marriage Immigrants and “Multiculturalism” in Rural South Korea.

HYEYOUNG WOO is a professor of sociology and a faculty affiliate at the Institute for Asian Studies at Portland State University in Oregon. She is the co-editor (with Hyunjoon Park) of Korean Families Yesterday and Today.

Source: publisher’s website

Contents

Introduction to Redefining Multicultural Families in South Korea | Minjeong Kim and Hyeyoung Woo

Part I: Negotiating Identities

1. To Be Accepted as We Are: Multiple Identity Formation of Filipina Marriage Immigrants through Jasmine Lee | Ilju Kim
2. Money Matters in Immigrant Motherhood | Julie S. Kim
3. Developing and Negotiating Social Identity among Korean Women with Pakistani Husbands | YoonKyung Kwak

Part II: Making Lives under Immigration Control

4. Precarious Family Making among Undocumented Migrant Women | Hyun Mee Kim and Yu Seon Yu
5. Open Sesame: Korean Chinese Kinship Relations and Codes to Reclaim Time in South Korea | Sohoon Yi

Part III: Claiming Rights and Building Lives

6. Unbearable Weightiness of Marriage: Citizenship and Marriage in Multicultural South Korea | Nora Hui-Jung Kim
7. Integration, Mobility, and Wellbeing after Divorce: Patterns and Strategies of Social Relationships among Intra-Asia Marriage Immigrants in South Korea | Hsin-Chieh Chang

Part IV: Meanings of Multicultural Family and Intergenerational Relationships

8. Being Labeled as a “Multicultural Family” in South Korea: The Stories of Korean Wives, Filipino Husbands, and Their Children | Minjung Kim
9. Happy Mothers, Successful Children: Marital Satisfaction and Educational Aspirations among Second-Generation Immigrant Children in South Korea | Harris Hyun-soo Kim
10. Second Generation Disadvantage: Health of Adolescents from Multicultural Families in South Korea | Hyeyoung Woo, Lindsey Wilkinson, Wonjeong Jeong and Sojung Lim

Concluding Remarks: Going Forward | Minjeong Kim