초록 열기/닫기 버튼
This paper investigates multiculturalism in Korea and immigrants’ transnational strategies through a case study in an immigrant-dominated area of a local city in South Korea. The study is based on anthropological fieldwork conducted between 2011 and 2012 in a neighborhood called Wongok-dong in the city of Ansan, located about 40 km southwest of Seoul. Wongok-dong is recognised as a representative multicultural area in South Korea. It has the highest percentage of immigrant population in the country along with well-developed ethnic businesses and various government and non-government organizations supporting immigrants. In 2009 a specific area of Wongok-dong was designated as the “Multicultural Village Special Zone” by the government. The paper first briefly reviews the origin and limit of multiculturalism as an immigration policy and introduces a transnational social field approach as a new perspective to conceptualize international migration. It then examines the process of Wongok-dong, which originally was a residential area for migrant workers, being redeveloped into a multicultural space by the government while adopting multicultural discourse. The paper goes on to describe international migrants’ transnational strategies in Wongok-dong to combine benefits from both sending and receiving societies with their simultaneous embeddedness in a transnational social field. Finally the meanings and implications of the multicultural discourses and the transnational strategies are discussed. The study finds that the government's effort to build Wongok-dong as a multicultural area is an attempt to institutionally accommodate and manage international migrants, but ironically this effort is largely based on the transnational networks and practices initiated by the international migrants, especially the migrant workers who have been excluded from the government’s multicultural policy because of their temporary status. The findings of this study suggest that an alternative policy measure is needed to include these transnational migrants acknowledging their dual belongings.
키워드열기/닫기 버튼
multiculturalism, transnationalism, Wongok-dong, immigrants
