E-grāmata: Redefining Multicultural Families in South Korea: Reflections and Future Directions

Contributed by sociology, anthropology, and public policy scholars from Asia and the US, the 10 essays in this volume explore aspects of multicultural families in South Korea in the context of the country’s multicultural family policies. They argue that redefining what is meant by “multicultural families” is necessary to change the course of these policies to include immigrants in different areas of society, rather than just social adaptation programs for newcomers or education for the public about cultural diversity. They address immigrants' identity, including Filipina marriage immigrants' perception of Jasmine Lee, the first Filipina Korean congresswoman, immigrant mothers’ economic practices that prioritize children's education, and social identity among Korean women with Pakistani husbands. They explore making lives under immigration control, including undocumented migrant women's legal status and the multigenerational experiences of joseonjok families. They also discuss court cases involving married immigrants and citizenship and divorced immigrants' experiences, native Korean women married to Filipino men, educational aspirations among second-generation immigrant children, and the health of adolescents from multicultural families. Annotation ©2022 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

Redefining Multicultural Families in South Korea: Reflections and Future Directions aims to reinvigorate contemporary discussions about Korean families that include immigrants by expanding the scope of what we consider to be multicultural families to include the families of undocumented migrant workers, divorced marriage immigrants, the families of Korean women with immigrant husbands, and by providing a nuanced look at their lives in Korea, not as newcomers but as first-generation immigrants.

Redefining Multicultural Families in South Korea provides an in-depth look at the lives of families in Korea that include immigrants. Ten original chapters in this volume, written by scholars in multiple social science disciplines and covering different methodological approaches, aim to reinvigorate contemporary discussions about these multicultural families. Specially, the volume expands the scope of “multicultural families” by examining the diverse configurations of families with immigrants who crossed the Korean border during and after the 1990s, such as the families of undocumented migrant workers, divorced marriage immigrants, and the families of Korean women with Muslim immigrant husbands. Second, instead of looking at immigrants as newcomers, the volume takes a discursive turn, viewing them as settlers or first-generation immigrants in Korea whose post-migration lives have evolved and whose membership in Korean society has matured, by examining immigrants’ identities, need for political representation, their fights through the court system, and the aspirations of second-generation immigrants.