Renationalizing the nation [electronic resource] : securing Korean national identity in the era of global migration
Keywords: Sociology.

Scholars note that immigration politics in the era of globalization is fundamentally based on contradictory principles. On the one hand, globalization has put pressure on states to make their decisions more attuned to global norms and values, which leads to greater openness to migrants. On the other hand, states have been confronted with the increasing concern that global culture and cosmopolitan identity might replace national culture and identity, which leads to greater barriers to migrants. As globalization proceeds, a growing number of states are confronting this paradoxical situation, but there have been few scholarly attempts to examine how a nation-state adopts and/or rejects immigration in a way that caters to both global and national audiences. South Korea (henceforth, Korea) has recently emerged as a new destination for the migration rush from poorer Asian countries such as China. Given the fact that Korea is a mono-ethnic society which has long maintained strong ethnic nationalism, the influx of foreigners poses a great many questions regarding how Korean society should deal with these "strangers." This dissertation explores how Korean society develops its own unique way of incorporating (and/or rejecting) immigrants so that it simultaneously satisfies the global demand of liberalizing immigration and the national demand of securing national identity. Analyses of the government policies and media discourse around immigration show that the way Korean society handles the immigration issue is rife with contradictions. First of all, Korean society treats migrant workers and marriage migrants, the two major sources of migration in Korea, in totally different manners. Its attitude is unfavorable, hostile, and thus exclusionary toward migrant workers whereas it is favorable, sympathetic, and thus inclusive toward marriage migrants. Second, the government and the media define Korean society as a "multicultural society" even though migrant workers are strictly prohibited from permanent settlement and marriage migrants are required to assimilate into Korean society. My dissertation delves into the hidden motivations that drive these contradictory patterns of adopting migrants. For the analysis, I conducted fieldwork in Seoul, Korea in 2008 and 2009 for six months in total, collecting archival and interview data. I also coded more than 500 newspaper editorials and columns regarding the issue to quantify the tones and frames in which migrants are portrayed in the media. Findings show that marriage migrants, as compared to migrant workers, are perceived as less threatening to Korea's ethnic identity because the "Korean bloodline" is believed to be reproduced only through the paternal line. Furthermore, Korean society, which has suffered from the world's lowest fertility rates, finds marriage migration beneficial in propagating the Korean nation. However, it still seeks to wash away their "foreign-ness" and instill "Korean-ness" in them through assimilation. As assimilation is increasingly regarded as an undemocratic measure in the global community, Korean society dubs its policy "multicultural." While multiculturalism in general connotes tolerance toward multiethnic values and peoples, multiculturalism in Korea is used as rhetorical window-dressing to satisfy the norms of global society and to impress the global audience. In other words, the actual practices of multiculturalism are "decoupled" from its meaning, thereby serving the two contradictory goals of conforming to global norms and maintaining national identity.