CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020
| Author | Yun, Albina |
|---|---|
| Title | A Biopolitical Approach to Kareisky Migrants: The Subject Formation of Other Koreans under South Korean Ethnic Low-Skilled Labor Migration Policies |
| Summary | This thesis examines the low-skilled labor ethnic return migration to South Korea, which has substantially increased since the introduction of ethnic labor H-2 visa in 2007. While existing discourses on the issue focus on the importance of economic utility and economic national interests of South Korea for developing low-skilled ethnic migration policies, I aim to offer an alternative approach to the issue through the lens of Foucauldian biopolitics. This approach offers a more holistic understanding of the ethnic return migration that can account for how demographic changes such as fertility rate, education, shortage of particular labor force and globalization are closely interwoven with economy and politics in South Korea. I contend that it is this set of processes that constitute a biopolitical regime in South Korea within which low-skilled ethnic return migration policies have been developing, and it is within this biopolitical regime Koryo Saram are being racialized as inferior other Koreans. Furthermore, based on in-depth interviews with Koryo Saram, participant observation, Facebook groups’ analysis, and autoethnography, I explore the ways Koryo Saram navigate and (re)negotiate their sense of who they are while working as low-skilled ethnic migrants in South Korea within the biopolitical regime. This research highlights how the intersections of nationality, labor, ethnicity, gendered and cultural aspects, and being a migrant can be both the tools for biopolitical racialization and an opportunity for a better live. It is along these lines that subject formation of Koryo Saram is taking place within the regime in South Korea. Finally, this thesis illustrates a multiplicity and heterogeneity of subject formation of Koryo Saram, albeit as low-skilled ethnic migrants. |
| Supervisor | Yoon, Hyaesin |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2020/yun_albina.pdf |
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