Korean Americans and Their Identity Formation: The Marginal Effect of the Korean Popular Culture*

• In Event: Identity

Abstract

This paper explores the extent to which the influence of socioeconomic factors in the U.S. on Korean immigrants’ American identity depends, in part, on the exposure to the growing popular culture, namely the Korean wave, in Korea. While a great number of acculturation and social psychological studies have identified that socioeconomic and intergroup factors have potentially affected immigrants’ national identity, studies have been negligent to look at the direct impact of popular culture as well as its conditional impact on national identity. In this paper, I suggest that the increasing contact with popular culture through media should decrease immigrants’ host identity, and should moderate the impact of socioeconomic and intergroup factors on their host identity. This study finds no strong empirical evidences that Korean Americans who are more exposured to the Korean Wave through ethnic media are less likely to endorse American identity. Further, there are little evidences that Korean immigrants’ increasing media consumption over the Korean popular culture moderates the positive impact of both socioeconomic and intergroup factors on American identity. These results raise considerable doubt about the effect of the growing Korean popular culture whether it influences Korean immigrants to increase American identity or Korean identity in the major American society.

Author

• daehoon han, Texas A&M University-Kingsville