Joon K. Kim

Insurgency and Advocacy: Unauthorized Foreign Workers and Civil Society in South Korea:

Due to major structural changes in the 1980s, South Korea initiated an international contract labor program known as the industrial trainee system in 1991. Started ostensibly as a temporary measure to deal with domestic labor shortage in the declining manufacturing sector, the program has spread recently to other sectors, including fisheries, construction and agriculture. Currently, over 300,000 unskilled foreigners reside in South Korea, of which two out of every three persons are identified as unauthorized workers. This article examines how the South Korean industrial trainee program systematically produces unauthorized workers and highlights the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in protecting the human rights of foreign workers. The successful collaboration of South Koreas civil society stems from its unique historical formation, rooted in democracy movements of earlier decades. It also implicates strong prospects for substantive integration of foreign workers and, as a consequence, suggests important changes in the countrys social and economic structures.

The Politics of Culture in Multicultural Korea

The South Korean government has demonstrated a strong commitment towards the social integration of international brides and the children of mixed ethnic heritage by establishing 100 ‘multicultural family support centres’ throughout the country. Given its record of opposing the long-term settlement of foreigners in Korea, this recent government announcement signals a very significant change in its policies concerning international migrants. Consequently, the proliferation of migrant support programmes bearing the title ‘multiculturalism’ unwittingly suggests that Korean society is receptive toward the internationalisation of families. In this article I show that the establishment of these support centres represents a governmental response to the accumulated societal pressure from below that sought to improve the precarious social conditions of international migrants and to embrace multiculturalism as an inevitable, but positive, social force. Despite their impressive scope and resource allocation, the contents and approaches of the newly emerging multicultural programmes reproduce, rather than minimise, the cultural hierarchy between Koreans and non-Koreans. I utilise the concepts of ‘cultural paternalism’ and ‘cultural fetishism’ in order to capture the manner in which the dominant members of Korean society define the terms of and approaches to dealing with cultural diversity, reduce the complex issues of social equality to cultural differences, and treat culture as a fetish by uniformly emphasising the expressive dimensions of culture.

State, civil society and international norms : Expanding the political and labor rights of foreigners in South Korea

This paper examines the dynamic role of the state, civil society groups and international conventions in expanding the rights of foreigners in South Korea. While recent scholarship on international migration reflects a growing gap between post-national and state-centered theories, the South Korean case illustrates the dynamic interplay of actors involved in major policy developments concerning interethnic marriages, citizenship, and the temporary foreign worker program. Although the challenges of adopting additional UN and ILO Conventions remain, the passage of the Nationality Act and the Employment Permit System reflects a steady expansion of political and labor rights for foreigners. The increasing number of foreigners marrying Koreans and the strong prospect of long-term dependence on foreign workers accentuate even more the significance of these changes. This paper shows that the expansion of foreigner rights depends on the liberal position of the state, the organizational strength of NGOs, and the system of checks-and-balances structurally embedded in the way the state parties and NGOs cooperate in implementing international instruments.

From Bakke to Grutter: Rearticulating Diversity and Affirmative Action in Higher Education

In the first U.S. Supreme Court case concerning affirmative action in higher education (Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 1978), the splintered court decided that racial diversity serves a compelling state interest, allowing public institutions to count race as one of many diversity factors for admission. Due to the illusive criteria by which Justice Powell opined the racial diversity rationale, various states challenged the Bakke precedent and eliminated affirmative action policies. In this article, I examine 3 states-California, Texas, and Florida-that uniquely responded to the state of disarray that the Bakke decision created, and assesses the contradictions of replacing affirmative action with alternative programs that appeal to notions of meritocracy, equal opportunity, and diversity. Finally, I point out inconsistencies in the second U.S. Supreme Court decision, in Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), particularly as it develops a weak rationale for allowing the University of Michigan Law School to achieve diversity through a critical mass of minority students.

Genderacing immigrant subjects: ‘anchor babies’ and the politics of birthright citizenship

ABSTRACT Birthright citizenship is often a subject of important national debates on immigration. From a historical perspective, the influx of Mexican and Chinese immigrants to the United Stated has elicited politically charged efforts to deny the right of US citizenship to their children. Based on a review of popular discursive frames concerning the politics of birthright citizenship, this essay identifies and critiques the arguments from both ends of the political spectrum. We conclude that, by and large, the substance of their legal and philosophical arguments is old, hackneyed responses from decades ago. However, on many symbolic levels, the current rhetoric is quite uncharacteristically caustic, with a focus on racialized and gendered discourses among nationalist groups. We seek to explain why this is the case. Framed as ‘genderacing immigrant subjects’, this essay examines the politics of naming (or nomenclature) through the construction of the racially gendered referent in public discourse, thereby ascribing socially resonant meanings that naturalize a call for draconian policy measures in order to socially engineer the national body.

Internal Orientalism and multicultural acts: the challenges of multicultural education in Korea

Abstract This essay examines how the projects seeking to promote damunhwa, literally translated as multi-culture, in South Korea inadvertently reinforce cultural stereotypes and reproduce cultural hierarchies. Unlike many studies that focus on discrimination against racial or ethnic minority populations, this paper argues that the seemingly benevolent acts of the majority towards ethnic minority populations in Korea produce unintended consequences. Based on descriptive content analysis of Internet news stories, this paper demonstrates the manner in which the dominant Korean society develops an oppositional binary between citizen and foreigner. Building on Edward Said’s work, this paper introduces the concept of internal Orientalism that highlights the teleology of cultural distinction by rendering minority populations with weak subjectivity and stigmatizing them as vulnerable populations through a multitude of policies and programmes designed to help them. Doing so ironically and simultaneously constructs opportunities for the Korean society to create a benevolent society, thereby crystallizing an interdependent binary between the dominant and minority populations.

Embedded Solidarity: International Migrant Labor Advocacy in South Korea

Abstract Purpose To examine an exceptional case of international labor solidarity and advocacy in a nontraditional labor-receiving country of South Korea. Methodology/approach Ethnographic research on migrant advocacy organization in Korea from its inception in the mid-1990s to the present; theoretical and comparative review of literature on migrant labor mobilization, with a focus on labor unions and migrant advocacy organizations. Findings The significance of the Korean case is that there are an unusually high number of migrant advocacy organizations that increasingly espouse an internationalist ideology. Furthermore, their effectiveness and sustainability rest on embedded solidarity networks across a spectrum of progressive labor and civic organizations. Originality/Value The chapter underscores the agentic power of society’s vulnerable populations, such as undocumented immigrant workers, despite the market-driven forces of globalization that disrupts communities and disciplines workers. Embedded solidarity with migrants from a transnational perspective adds to the much-needed discussion about global protests in the context of globalization and neoliberalism.

HIV/AIDS knowledge among migrant workers in Korea:

This study assesses the level of HIV/AIDS knowledge among migrant workers in Korea and explores key factors contributing to their knowledge. Data were collected from a survey of 1,007 migrant workers from China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia in Gyeong-In region. Results showed that a significant proportion of the respondents had a substantial knowledge deficit concerning HIV/AIDS. Higher levels of knowledge were associated with ethnicity, gender, education and information source. The results of this study suggest that targeted interventions could not only increase knowledge and awareness of HIV/AIDS among migrant workers in Korea but also protect an increasingly vulnerable and socially neglected population against HIV/AIDS infection.