The Peculiar Consensus and Racial Unconscious in Migration Studies on Korea

• In Event: 1284 - Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 04. International Conceptions of Race/Ethnicity

Abstract

This paper overviews migration studies on South Korea and problematizes their implicit consensus and racial unconscious. As South Korea has started to experience unprecedented influx of migrants since the late 1990s, migration studies on the new social phenomena has been one of the most burgeoning fields in Korean Studies. However, due to their relatively short period of establishment and various disciplinary backgrounds, less effort has been made to synthesize those flourishing works. Accordingly, first, this paper examines the migration studies from different disciplines and identify recurring themes and major debates – who has been the major driving actor(s) of change and issues of ethnic Koreans. Second, the paper then questions peculiar consensus that presumes demographic issues such as low fertility rate and aging population as the main cause of the "multicultural" turn or "citizenship project" that assumes voluntary recruitment of marriage migrants by the state. Without much consideration to race, however, those works fail to recognize race as a significant organization principle in policy making in Korea overshadowed by discourse of ethnicity. Based on theories in sociology of race that identify race as a fundamental and independent structure, this paper argues that important theoretical finings in sociology of race, while they might be initially born by concepts and theories heavily driven by the experiences in the United States, are still valid in race beyond the United Sates. In a similar context that critiques immigration studies in the US being dominated by assimilation models, this paper reveals that how migration studies on South Korea has followed the similar path, without questioning how the perspective maintains the racial status quo, and therefore urges perspectives centering on racialization and structural racism.

Authors

• Yeon-Hwa Lee, State University of New York-Binghamton

• Jae Kyun Kim, University of Southern California