Activism of Resignation: Challenges of Undocumented Korean American Youth Activists and Their Compromise

• In Event: To Romanticize or Not To? Collective Struggles of Marginalized Youth and the Politics of Representation

Abstract

In this study, I examine how the activism of undocumented Korean American youth ironically contributes to the reproduction of the desirable model of minority citizens. Focusing on the relations of power that generate the notion of ideal citizen-youth and the political practices of undocumented Korean American youth, I investigate how the rhetoric and strategy of activism mobilize some youth to represent themselves as “docile immigrants” (Espiritu, 2008; Puar & Rai, 2002), namely those who are morally innocent and academically successful, which in turn isolate other undocumented immigrants who don’t satisfy these conditions. In addition, I point out how their emphasis on “family values” in their activism acts as a way to mobilize against mass deportation in the name of the pain it causes separated families that ends up strengthening heteronormative familism (Butler, 1990; Fraser, 1989; Sedgwick, 1990). For example, (un)documented LGBTQ Korean Americans, located outside of the normal family ideology, are othered in this way. The voice of undocumented Korean-Americans has barely been heard in public. However, the reality is that one out of seven, approximately 230,000, Korean-Americans are undocumented. They are the 8th largest undocumented population in the United States. This research is based on three years-long ethnographic data including in-depth interviews conducted with 12 undocumented Korean-American youth activists; and participant observation at the rallies, petition drives, and workshops in Los Angeles where undocumented Korean-American youth have been very vibrant in recent years. In spite of the undocumented Korean American youth activists’ interest in making their activism inclusive to diverse undocumented groups, such as high school drop-outs, non-heterosexuals, and people who have committed small misdemeanors, there is considerable pressure from the conservative Korean American ethnic community whose interest is positing their youth as model citizens. Professional immigrant rights organizations funded by the government have thus required the youth to compromise their frame of activism by fashioning their rhetoric as desirable state citizens. Restricted by the lack of the right to vote, undocumented Korean American youth activists are unable to challenge the mainstream discourse and practice “insurgent citizenship” (Glenn, 2011). Rather, as they continue their engagement in activism, the youth are likely to resign their inclusive frame and adjust it to the exclusive notion of eligibility of being citizens, thus actually advocating for only particular undocumented immigrants postulated as non-threatening and acceptable. As a result, the activism of undocumented Korean American youths unintentionally contributes to the proliferation and promotion of the model minority myth that locates (un)documented Korean Americans as morally and economically efficient, productive, and accountable. In this study, I examine how the youth activists attempt to negotiate with and intervene in these given restrictions of political practice but often internalize an activism of resigning to the powers that govern them and compromise with the notions of ideal youth/citizen. Ultimately, I argue that the activism of undocumented Korean American youths cannot be understood apart from the politics of inclusion and exclusion in age, race, sexuality, and legal status in a neoliberal state.

Author

• Ga-Young Chung, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign