• English & American cultural studies
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.27-54
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• 2017

Brian Ascalon Roley's American Son, one of the outstanding Filipino American novels after the LA riots, critically deals with a racial issue of his community which has been intermingled with the myth of model minority. Gabe and Thomas, considered as obedient Filipino younger immigrants, are asked to achieve the American dream as a way to place themselves at the center of the mainstream white society. However, they recognize that they cannot be accepted as a suitable subject for the invincible racism deeply rooted in the society. While Tomas refuses to become a model minority by identifying himself with the Mexican, Gabe is expected to become an idealistic subject of model minority by his mother since he complies with the rules of the mainstream society. However, he accepts his brother's violent way of life in that violence is necessary to protect his family from the racial discrimination in America. Though he is his mother's hope for model minority, he recognizes the only condition to achieve her expectation is the American society where there is no racism at all. However, by taking the case of Gabe and Thomas, Roley suggests that the younger generation of Filipino American immigrants have no choice but to accept violence to survive in the American society because racism always threatens their life.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.29
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• pp.177-199
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• 2012

Nowadays migrations between the countries are getting each day more active and a mixture of people with different cultural backgrounds strengthens the hybridism, whereupon the point of view on the migration of Koreans has been changed from a diasporan perspective to an transnational one. The expansion of the transnationalism affects the identity of the subsequent generations of the immigration giving way to a psychologically deterritorialized social identity, which is an important consideration in the study of subsequent generations of the immigration. This study examined the Korean immigration history and the current status of the Korean community in Spain since the 1960s. The early immigrants like fishing vessel crew members, instructors of Taekwondo, chicken sexers who, despite the limits of foreigners in Spain, went to find out the source of life with no hesitation, overcame the difficulties of the early settlers and finally managed to achieve local success. Current history of immigration that began in the mid-1960s went through the maturity during the 1970s and 80s and the Koreans in Spain these days, who have undergone differentiation in the occupational structure because of the crisis of pelagic fisheries, face new challenges due to changes in the environment of the country they reside. The Korean community is regarded as an 'exemplary minority group (Model Minority)' even though it is a minority group in number. Now that the interest for overseas Koreans is higher than ever at home and abroad, due to the economic growth of the Republic of Korea, the spread of its cultural influence -the Korean Wave as proof-, and the overseas Koreans suffrage conducted, the research of the Korean residents in Spain will be important as an advanced research of an unexplored field, as well as an opportunity to broaden the horizons of the existing study area that has mainly dealt with major regions only.