earticle

영어

This paper examines the cultural citizenship of the Korean-Chinese return migrants in the context of Korean multiculturalism. Drawn upon Kymlicka’s and Rosaldo’s ideas, this study uses the concept of “cultural citizenship” and emphasizes the struggle over the rights of being recognized by other citizens as well as of gaining the legal status from the state. After many years of struggle for legal status, now most of the return migrants come to hold either the Working-Visit or the Overseas-Korean status. However, the research conducted in the town of Daerim, where the return migrants are most concentrated, shows the Korean-Chinese residents struggle for cultural citizenship. Korean residents are reluctant to welcome these cultural “others” as members of the community. Koreans complain that their town has become less clean, less quiet, and less safe, after the influx of return migrants. Many Korean-Chinese know that they are discriminated against by Koreans and blame Korean multiculturalism which treats the Korean-Chinese as foreigners rather than as citizens of an ethnic Korean community. Thus Korean-Chinese make struggles for recognition to gain cultural citizenship by learning Korean manners and accents and participating in voluntary activities such as street cleaning and night watch patrol.