In-Between: Transnational Liminality and the Making of Diasporic Citizenship by Hwagyo Chinese in South Korea

• In Event: Student Forum Roundtables Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Roundtable 6: Migration and Belonging

Abstract

This article examines how Hwagyo, a long-established ethnic Chinese diaspora in South Korea, construct a distinctive mode of citizenship that departs from dominant models of immigrant incorporation by strategically navigating transnational liminality—a condition of simultaneous embeddedness in, yet incomplete incorporation into, multiple national regimes. Shaped by East Asia’s intertwined histories of colonialism, Cold War division, and ethnic-nationalist state formation, the Hwagyo community occupies a structurally produced position of in-betweenness: historically rooted in Shandong province in Qing China, yet lacking formal incorporation into the contemporary Chinese state; partially recognized as overseas nationals with limited entitlements by Taiwan; and excluded from South Korean citizenship as long-term resident aliens. This study examines how this structurally produced liminality is navigated by diasporic descendants within specific local contexts of settlement. Drawing on in-depth interviews with sixteen third- and fourth-generation Hwagyo youths in the Seoul metropolitan area, the article shows how local institutional environments—particularly Seoul’s hyper-competitive educational system, foreigners’ university admissions tracks, militarized civic culture, and ethnic-nationalist citizenship regimes—mediate how transnational liminality is experienced and strategically mobilized. Across three interrelated dimensions—socio-institutional, civic-moral, and ethno-cultural—Hwagyo individuals leverage liminal status to access alternative educational pathways, minimize civic obligations such as military conscription, and flexibly negotiate hybrid identities in everyday social life. These practices constitute what I theorize as diasporic citizenship: a lived, relational mode of belonging enacted through selective participation, calibrated distance, and strategic negotiation across fragmented regimes of membership without opting for complete institutional incorporation. Theoretically, the article reorients citizenship scholarship away from status-based and state-centric frameworks, foregrounding liminality as a generative terrain of belonging. It also contributes to scholarship on immigrant integration by showing how local institutional contexts interact with transnational liminality to shape the life chances and belonging of immigrant descendants in a seldom-studied East Asian setting.

Author

• Min Jee Lee, University of California-Berkeley