Redefining Multicultural Families in South Korea

Reflections and Future Directions

Edited by Minjeong Kim and Hyeyoung Woo

SERIES: Politics of Marriage and Gender: Global Issues in Local Contexts

Rutgers University Press

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.

Redefining Multicultural Families in South Korea is requisite reading not only for students and scholars intrigued by South Korea, but also for those interested in contemporary struggles over multiculturalism and migration, family forms and gender relations, and identity and conviviality. Minjeong Kim and Hyeyoung Woo have assembled a collection of pathbreaking and illuminating essays. John Lie, author of Japan, the Sustainable Society: The Artisanal Ethos, Ordinary Virtues, and Everyday Life in the Age of Limits

In a country that views itself as ethnically homogeneous, South Korea has witnessed a growth in multicultural or multiethnic families. In this excellent edited volume, Minjeong Kim, Hyeyoung Woo, and their colleagues explore the growth and variety of these families, whose presence challenges the notion of 'pure' Koreans as the only Koreans. Grace Kao, co-author of The Company We Keep: Interracial Friendships and Romantic Relationships from Adolescence to Adulthood

Redefining Multicultural Families in South Korea is requisite reading not only for students and scholars intrigued by South Korea, but also for those interested in contemporary struggles over multiculturalism and migration, family forms and gender relations, and identity and conviviality. Minjeong Kim and Hyeyoung Woo have assembled a collection of pathbreaking and illuminating essays. John Lie, author of Japan, the Sustainable Society: The Artisanal Ethos, Ordinary Virtues, and Everyday Life i

In a country that views itself as ethnically homogeneous, South Korea has witnessed a growth in multicultural or multiethnic families. In this excellent edited volume, Minjeong Kim, Hyeyoung Woo, and their colleagues explore the growth and variety of these families, whose presence challenges the notion of 'pure' Koreans as the only Koreans. Grace Kao, co-author of The Company We Keep: Interracial Friendships and Romantic Relationships from Adolescenc

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.

List of Figures and Tables
Series Foreword by Péter Berta
Introduction to Redefining Multicultural Families in South Korea by Minjeong Kim and Hyeyoung Woo

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

Part II: Making Lives under Immigration Control
Chapter 4: Precarious Family Making among Undocumented Migrant Women by Hyun Mee Kim and Yu Seon Yu
Chapter 5: Open Sesame: Korean Chinese Kinship Relations and Codes to Reclaim Time in South Korea by Sohoon Yi

Part III: Claiming Rights and Building Lives
Chapter 6: Unbearable Weightiness of Marriage: Citizenship and Marriage in Multicultural South Korea by Nora Hui-Jung Kim
Chapter 7: Integration, Mobility, and Wellbeing after Divorce: Patterns and Strategies of Social Relationships among Intra-Asia Marriage Immigrants in South Korea by Hsin-Chieh Chang

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

Acknowledgements
Notes on Contributors
About the Editors
Index

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