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

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-40
Author(s):  
Yang-Sook Kim ◽  
Yi-Chun Chien
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Social Constructions ◽  
South Korean ◽  
Chinese Migrants ◽  
Korean Chinese ◽  
Chinese Migrant Workers ◽  
Subject Making

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.

scholarly journals Prohibition on Changing Workplaces and Fatal Occupational Injuries among Chinese Migrant Workers in South Korea

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (18) ◽  
pp. 3333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ju-Yeun Lee ◽  
Sung-il Cho
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Occupational Safety ◽  
Migrant Worker ◽  
Occupational Injuries ◽  
Safety And Health ◽  
Chinese Workers ◽  
Korean Chinese ◽  
Operator Construction ◽  
Chinese Migrant Workers

We assessed the risk of fatal occupational injuries among migrant workers with two different types of employment permits in South Korea. This observational study used national data from January 2007 to September 2018 and analyzed 42,089 cases of occupationally injured migrant workers of Chinese nationality. Fatality rates were analyzed according to year, sex, age, occupation, industry, and type of employment permit. Chinese workers were permitted to work for one employer and prohibited from changing employers, whereas Korean-Chinese workers were permitted to change their employer. The adjusted fatality rate of occupational injuries of Chinese migrant workers was significantly higher (1.80-fold, 95% confidence interval 1.31–2.46) than that of Korean-Chinese migrant workers. The prohibition on changing workplaces; male sex; age ≥ 45 years; machine operator; construction industry; and agriculture, livestock, and fisheries industry were risk factors for fatal occupational injuries. The results imply a need for revision of the migrant-worker employment permit systems and implementation of occupational safety and health policies for all workers to promote health equity.

Gendered Migration in a Changing Care Regime: A Case of Korean Chinese Migrants in South Korea

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 393-407
Author(s):  
Hyunok Lee
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
International Migration ◽  
Service Sector ◽  
Chinese Women ◽  
Chinese Migrants ◽  
Changing Roles ◽  
Korean Chinese ◽  
Asian Context ◽  
Care Regimes

The feminisation of international migration for care labour has gained prominence in the last three decades. It has been theorised mainly in the context of the changing care regime in the Global North; the changes in other parts of the world have been largely neglected. This article explores the dynamics between changing care regimes, labour markets and international migration in the East Asian context through the case of Korean Chinese migrants to South Korea. Korean Chinese came to South Korea through various legal channels beginning in the late 1980s and occupy the largest share of both male and female migrants in South Korea. Korean Chinese women have engaged in service sector jobs, including domestic work and caregiving, since their influx, yet such work was only legalised during the 2000s in response to demographic changes and the care deficit. This article sheds light on the female Korean Chinese migrants’ engagement in care work in the ambiguous legal space of migration and the care labour market, and their changing roles in the process of development of the care labour market. Based on interviews with Korean Chinese migrants in South Korea, immigration statistics, and the Foreign Employment Survey in 2013, this study explores how the care regime intersects with migration in the process of the care regimes development.

scholarly journals North Koreans’ Public Narratives and Conditional Inclusion in South Korea (In Press)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Hough ◽  
Markus Bell
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Social Status ◽  
Korean Peninsula ◽  
Social Benefits ◽  
Korean Society ◽  
The Public ◽  
South Korean ◽  
The North ◽  
North And South

This article draws on the public testimonies of North Koreans living in South Korea (t’albungmin) and analyzes the role that these narratives play in South Korean society as mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion. North and South Korea technically remain at war, with South Korea claiming sovereignty over the entire Korean peninsula. While t’albungmin are eligible for South Korean citizenship, they describe feeling excluded from full social membership. Although some t’albungmin seek anonymity, this paper considers those who gain social status by speaking publicly about their lives and denouncing the North Korean regime. In so doing, they distance themselves from North Korea and align themselves with the “good” discourse of human rights. However, their actions reinforce a logic of exclusion, implying that t’albungmin who prefer anonymity are “sympathizers,” and consequently restricting their access to social benefits and resources. This case of conditional inclusion illuminates tensions that arise when a sovereignty claim entails the incorporation of people from an enemy state. It also highlights the carefully delineated boundaries of publicly acceptable behavior within which “suspect” citizens must remain as a condition for positive recognition.

The Koreanization of the Australian Sex Industry: A Policy and Legislative Challenge

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 13-36
Author(s):  
Norma Caroine
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Sex Trafficking ◽  
Sex Industry ◽  
Australian Government ◽  
South Korean Government ◽  
South Korean ◽  
Korean Government ◽  
Operating Environments ◽  
The Us

South Korea enacted Legislation in 2004 that penalizes pimps, traffickers, and sex industry customers while decriminalizing people in prostitution and offering assistance to leave the sex industry. In contrast, Australia Legally recognizes most sex industry activities. This article argues that Australia`s Laissezfaire approach to the sex industry hampers South Korean government efforts to prevent the crime of sex trafficking. Since 2004, pimps and traffickers have moved their activities from South Korea to countries like Australia and the US that maintain relatively hospitable operating environments for the sex industry. The Australian government should reconsider its approach to prostitution on the basis of its diplomatic obligations to countries Like South Korea and the need to uphold the human rights of women in Asia who are being trafficked and murdered as a result of sexual demand emanating from Australia. Australia should coordinate its policy on prostitution with South Korea to strengthen the region`s transnational anti-trafficking response.

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