When and how does a state become a part of the international refugee regime, and how does a state... more When and how does a state become a part of the international refugee regime, and how does a state's role within the regime change over time? Using South Korea as a case study, this article highlights the significance of Cold War politics as a main cause of the expansion of the international refugee regime. South Korea was first entered into the international refugee regime during the US-led Korean War. And it was due to the neocolonial relationship between South Korea and the US that South Korea participated in the Vietnam War, and consequently, South Korea received its first internationally recognized refugees. Pressure from the US largely explains the burden-sharing role that South Korea played during the Indochinese refugee crisis. However, repositioning itself as a subempire in Asia and seeking enhanced international stature, South Korea signed the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, finally becoming an official member of the international refugee regime.
Using South Korea’s involvement in the Vietnam and Iraq Wars as case studies, we explore transnat... more Using South Korea’s involvement in the Vietnam and Iraq Wars as case studies, we explore transnational militarism as a salient (often neglected) force of globalization that has shaped the construct...
The Nationality Law and the Military Service Law in South Korea were changed in 2004 and 2005 res... more The Nationality Law and the Military Service Law in South Korea were changed in 2004 and 2005 respectively to enable tighter control over the conscription of male citizens. This movement stands in contrast to other industrialised countries, where conscription has been replaced by professional and marketised military services. This article explains the Korean exception as "shallow marketisation," one particular way the connection between citizenship and military service is being reconfigured in the era of neo-liberal globalisation. The Korean state and its "flexible citizens" engage in the exchange of citizenship and military service, but their choices are constrained by previous social relations, including the ideals of equal citizens and of national identity and belonging. In this context of shallow marketisation, the state is tightening the linkage between citizenship and military conscription and trying to restore the façade of "universality" to conscription. Flexible male citizens frame their choices not simply as instrumental calculations, but also as decisions based upon their national identity as Koreans. This article fills a lacuna in the scholarship on neo-liberal reconfigurations of citizenship by elucidating how changes in citizenship practices trigger changes in military conscription and vice versa.
This paper analyses the discourse of the migrant worker advocacy movement in South Korea to exami... more This paper analyses the discourse of the migrant worker advocacy movement in South Korea to examine how activists' strategic framing can expedite the mobilisation of international norms despite significant cultural barriers. Korean activists argue on behalf of migrant workers that adopting international norms will help the Korean nation gain more respect from other nation-states and that international norms are not antithetical to the true nature of the Korean nation. These framing strategies have enabled Korean activists to mobilise international norms despite cultural barriers. However, such a framing strategy does not cultivate a truly inclusive nationhood; Korean activists have circumvented cultural barriers, but have not overcome or transformed them.
To cite this article: Nora Hui-Jung Kim (2016): The Janus-faced court of naturalisation: marriage... more To cite this article: Nora Hui-Jung Kim (2016): The Janus-faced court of naturalisation: marriage and kinship in naturalisation litigation in South Korea, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies To link to this article: http://dx.
To cite this article: Nora Hui-Jung Kim (2016): Naturalizing Korean ethnicity and making 'ethnic'... more To cite this article: Nora Hui-Jung Kim (2016): Naturalizing Korean ethnicity and making 'ethnic' difference: a comparison of North Korean settlement and foreign bride incorporation policies in South Korea, Asian Ethnicity To link to this article: http://dx.
In the past 8 years, South Korea (hereafter Korea) has experienced a multicultural explosion—a gr... more In the past 8 years, South Korea (hereafter Korea) has experienced a multicultural explosion—a growing emphasis on multiculturalism in both popular and political discourse. After demonstrating how multiculturalism has been framed as a means, indicator, and object of individual and national development, this article focuses on the improvement of global rank as one reason for the shift in Korea. In the course of diffusing the discourse and policies of multiculturalism, international intergovernmental organizations frame cultural diversity, and tolerance as a matter of development: Cultural diversity is necessary for individual and national development, and the more developed a society is, the more tolerant its people are. Korea's self-perception as a nation in the middle of the global economic and symbolic hierarchy encourages multiculturalism as a way to move toward the core. The Korean case then suggests a possible reason for the retreat of multiculturalism in Western Europe. In Western European countries, the failure of multiculturalism is blamed on (illiberal) immigrant minorities rather than on majority groups, so that retreating from multiculturalism does not threaten perceptions of liberality, democracy, or core status. In Korea, in contrast, achieving multicultural tolerance is construed as a task that nonimmigrant majority Koreans must achieve in order for the nation to gain the status of a truly developed country.
When and how does a state become a part of the international refugee regime, and how does a state... more When and how does a state become a part of the international refugee regime, and how does a state's role within the regime change over time? Using South Korea as a case study, this article highlights the significance of Cold War politics as a main cause of the expansion of the international refugee regime. South Korea was first entered into the international refugee regime during the US-led Korean War. And it was due to the neocolonial relationship between South Korea and the US that South Korea participated in the Vietnam War, and consequently, South Korea received its first internationally recognized refugees. Pressure from the US largely explains the burden-sharing role that South Korea played during the Indochinese refugee crisis. However, repositioning itself as a subempire in Asia and seeking enhanced international stature, South Korea signed the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, finally becoming an official member of the international refugee regime.
Using South Korea’s involvement in the Vietnam and Iraq Wars as case studies, we explore transnat... more Using South Korea’s involvement in the Vietnam and Iraq Wars as case studies, we explore transnational militarism as a salient (often neglected) force of globalization that has shaped the construct...
The Nationality Law and the Military Service Law in South Korea were changed in 2004 and 2005 res... more The Nationality Law and the Military Service Law in South Korea were changed in 2004 and 2005 respectively to enable tighter control over the conscription of male citizens. This movement stands in contrast to other industrialised countries, where conscription has been replaced by professional and marketised military services. This article explains the Korean exception as "shallow marketisation," one particular way the connection between citizenship and military service is being reconfigured in the era of neo-liberal globalisation. The Korean state and its "flexible citizens" engage in the exchange of citizenship and military service, but their choices are constrained by previous social relations, including the ideals of equal citizens and of national identity and belonging. In this context of shallow marketisation, the state is tightening the linkage between citizenship and military conscription and trying to restore the façade of "universality" to conscription. Flexible male citizens frame their choices not simply as instrumental calculations, but also as decisions based upon their national identity as Koreans. This article fills a lacuna in the scholarship on neo-liberal reconfigurations of citizenship by elucidating how changes in citizenship practices trigger changes in military conscription and vice versa.
This paper analyses the discourse of the migrant worker advocacy movement in South Korea to exami... more This paper analyses the discourse of the migrant worker advocacy movement in South Korea to examine how activists' strategic framing can expedite the mobilisation of international norms despite significant cultural barriers. Korean activists argue on behalf of migrant workers that adopting international norms will help the Korean nation gain more respect from other nation-states and that international norms are not antithetical to the true nature of the Korean nation. These framing strategies have enabled Korean activists to mobilise international norms despite cultural barriers. However, such a framing strategy does not cultivate a truly inclusive nationhood; Korean activists have circumvented cultural barriers, but have not overcome or transformed them.
To cite this article: Nora Hui-Jung Kim (2016): The Janus-faced court of naturalisation: marriage... more To cite this article: Nora Hui-Jung Kim (2016): The Janus-faced court of naturalisation: marriage and kinship in naturalisation litigation in South Korea, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies To link to this article: http://dx.
To cite this article: Nora Hui-Jung Kim (2016): Naturalizing Korean ethnicity and making 'ethnic'... more To cite this article: Nora Hui-Jung Kim (2016): Naturalizing Korean ethnicity and making 'ethnic' difference: a comparison of North Korean settlement and foreign bride incorporation policies in South Korea, Asian Ethnicity To link to this article: http://dx.
In the past 8 years, South Korea (hereafter Korea) has experienced a multicultural explosion—a gr... more In the past 8 years, South Korea (hereafter Korea) has experienced a multicultural explosion—a growing emphasis on multiculturalism in both popular and political discourse. After demonstrating how multiculturalism has been framed as a means, indicator, and object of individual and national development, this article focuses on the improvement of global rank as one reason for the shift in Korea. In the course of diffusing the discourse and policies of multiculturalism, international intergovernmental organizations frame cultural diversity, and tolerance as a matter of development: Cultural diversity is necessary for individual and national development, and the more developed a society is, the more tolerant its people are. Korea's self-perception as a nation in the middle of the global economic and symbolic hierarchy encourages multiculturalism as a way to move toward the core. The Korean case then suggests a possible reason for the retreat of multiculturalism in Western Europe. In Western European countries, the failure of multiculturalism is blamed on (illiberal) immigrant minorities rather than on majority groups, so that retreating from multiculturalism does not threaten perceptions of liberality, democracy, or core status. In Korea, in contrast, achieving multicultural tolerance is construed as a task that nonimmigrant majority Koreans must achieve in order for the nation to gain the status of a truly developed country.
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