The Flip from Fraught to Assumed Use: Mobile communication of North Korean Migrant Women During Their Journey to South Korea

• In Event: Mobility and Migration

Abstract

This study focuses on the role of mobile communication in the migratory experiences of North Korean women as they journeyed to South Korea. We examine how mobile telephony plays into their transition from the world’s most digitally-disconnected country to one of the most digitally-oriented societies. Based on the interviews with 20 North Korean women living in South Korea, we examine their use of mobile communication in North Korea and during their journey where it was extremely restricted, clandestine and fraught. Nonetheless, the phone was often instrumental in their escape/journey. By contrast, upon entering the South, their use of the mobile phone is structured into everyday life. In this case, not to have a phone is problematic. Thus, the mobile phone becomes a lens with which to understand power relationships and the shifting positions of these migrants vis-à-vis different power structures.

Authors

• Juhee Kang, United Nations University Institute on Computing and Society

• Rich Ling, Nanyang Technological U/Telenor

• Arul Chib, Nanyang Technological Univ