• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.207-251
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• 2014

This study explores the mobility patterns of Korean Early Study Aborad (ESA, hereafter) students in Singapore through a follow-up longitudinal case study, which was initially conducted about five years before this study. This study takes up transnational migration approach, focusing on family strategies and mobilization, which steered their mobility. Interviews with seven original families as well as 7 families additionally recruited in Singapore in 2012 were collected and analyzed by NVivo 9. In short, this study found that transnational mobility is composed of mobilities at global, regional and local levels. There were four types of mobilities; continuation of stay in Singapore, move from a third county to Singapore, return to Korea, and, what this research calls, fluid mobility. Examining the process of these mobilities shows that we need to consider at least three factors (performance of children's schooling; change of family circumstances; context of reception for both Singapore and Korea) as basic backgrounds. On this basis, the interplay between the context of receptions when aspirations for children's advancement by these transnational families made either facilitate or constrain their mobilities: contexts of Singapore and Korea may play a role of hurdle or trampoline. Also, local context of Singapore largely facilitate mobilities of Korean ESA families at both local and global levels.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.295-318
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• 2009

This paper explores micro-contexts of transnational migration and decision-making process of foreign migrants in Korea with four types, that is, married immigrants, immigrant workers, professional immigrants, and foreign students, analyzing dates of questionaries and interviews. Some findings can be summarized as follows. First, married immigrants and immigrant workers show relative lower level of micro-environments than professional immigrants and foreign students. Secondly, immigrants workers fill closest in geographical contiguity among immigrants' types, while married immigrants recognize more different in cultural comparison than the former. Both immigrants workers and foreign students think living environments of Korea better than other types, but immigrants workers consider relatively higher the level of technology, while foreign students evaluate lower that of education in Korea than other types. Thirdly, married immigrants give a relatively low score to the easiness of immigration, while both immigrant workers and professional immigrants give a high score to the job environment of Korea. Finally, all types of immigrants show a high portion in a self-decision making for international migration, while professional immigrants have much more experiences on visiting other countries than other types, and both married immigrants and foreign students seem to have utilized their networks with family members who live abroad.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.64-88
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• 2010

Rapidly increasing transnational migration can be seen as a typical process which has proceeded under macro-contexts of socio-spatial characters of origin and destination country and their relationships, shaped with global uneven regional development in the process of glocalization and development of transportation and communication on the global level. In order to consider macro-contexts of transnational migration, this paper emphasizes the concept of multicultural space and some key elements implied in it, that is, place, territory, network, scale (suggested by Jessop et al.) and spatial flow and difference. As results of questionnaire analysis of foreign immigrants' recognition of macro-contexts, this paper suggests some findings: that is, a high level of recognition of all types of foreign immigrants on global changes, the most negative recognition of migrant workers among 4 types of foreign immigrants on economic and social conditions of their origin country, a positive recognition of people in all regions of their origin (except few countries such as Japan) on international migration, and a low level of their recognition in all types on S. Korea's characters as their destination country.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.275-294
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• 2010

In recent years, international migration of professional workers is significantly increasing as globalization has been deepened more and more. South Korea is not an exception for this case. Immigration of professional workers have steadily increased since 2000 in Korea, and the number reached approximately to 50,000 in 2009. In addition, it is a major trend that immigrants of short-sojourn are decreasing and ones of long-sojourn increasing. Our research shows that foreign language instructor has the greatest number of foreign professional immigrants. The next is professional immigrants related to business-activities. There are considerably entertainers, but they have greatly decreased since 2003. Majority of foreign professional immigrants settle down in a few metropolises. Especially, they reside in Seoul Metropolitan Area and Southeast coastal region. Professional immigrants trend to do with Korean on the base of their offices rather than residental communities in terms of adaptation, and they do not have strong will to reside permanently in Korea. Moreover, they are located at a blind spot of Korean government's foreign immigrant policy, comparing to foreign workers and female marriage immigrants.

• Journal of the Daesoon Academy of Sciences
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• v.43
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• pp.1-29
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• 2022

In this era of transnational migration, it is necessary to recognize the signs of the times regarding religion. During the globalization of Korean society, migration cannot be avoided, and as such, Korea should look towards hospitality with practical themes of religion and religious people aiming for peace. Therefore, this study examines the concept of 'conscience' in Daesoon Thought because this understanding of the conscience connects people to their heavenly endowed nature and their original selves. First, in order to explore the religious ideas of hospitality for transnational migration, this study viewed the issue through three analytical frames: exclusive perception, tolerant perception, and pluralistic perception, and then criticized these from the perspective of hospitality. Furthermore, hospitality was viewed as an attitude of attempting to expand one's sense of self in dealing with others. Religiously, it was derived that the expansion of one's sense of self should aim for relationships of Sangsaeng (相生 mutual beneficence) as these go beyond mere symbiosis. In addition, as a way to overcome otherness, the religious idea of unconditional hospitality towards migrants was explored focusing on the concept of conscience in Daesoon Thought. In Daesoon Thought, the mind is the source of Heaven and Earth and also the essence of human existence. There are two aspects of mind that arise in humans: conscience and private interest. In Daesoon Thought, the conscience enables human potential and aims for a return to the source. In other words, it is to abandon private-interest and regain one's nature and the essence of one's personality. This can be done through Mujagi (無自欺 Guarding against Self-deception); embodying and maintaining a mind that does not deceive itself. In Daesoon Thought, the practice of Sangsaeng ethics based on Mujagi is expressed as Haewon Sangsaeng (解冤相生 the Resolution of Grievances for Mutual Beneficence) and working for the betterment of others. Therefore, when the relational and communal perspectives of Daesoon Truth and Sangsaeng are reinforced, the argument for developing the practical ethics of Haewon Sangsaeng based on Mujagi into the transformation of the human spirit expressed as unconditional hospitality was found to be sound.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.635-654
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• 2009

Recently, concepts of multicultural society and/or multiculturalism have been not only widely discussed across several disciplines, but also actively promoted in government's policy, as the in-flow of foreign immigrants has increased rapidly. This paper suggests the term 'multicultural space' instead of multicultural society in a sense that both international migration of immigrants and their accommodation to a certain locality presuppose a spatial dimension. This paper also points out that the term multiculturalsim should be used very carefully, because this term includes a normative character implied in a sense of recognition of ethnic and cultural diversity and difference on the one hand, and an ideological one reflected on strategic policies of capital and the state on the other. On the basis of recognition of these problems, this paper tries to reformulate spatially the concept of muticultural society which has been supposed to be constructed due to rapidly increasing foreign immigrants, emphasizing some usefulness of multi-scalar approach. It then analyzes economic and political contexts of transnational migration, providing a criticism of multiculturalism as an ideological logic of capital and the state in transnational captialism. Finally it put a stress upon importance of struggle for spaces of recognition as a new glocal ethics in the age of post-globalization.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.203-222
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• 2013

This study has been implemented under the two purposes. One is to critically explore how married immigrant women had experienced or experience conflicts, differentiation and so on occurred in their relations to family, neighbor, friend, organization and nation. The other is to understand married immigrant women and family through a new perspective based on a relational space of interacting trans-nation, local and nation. The results of the study are summarized as the followings. Firstly, transnational space is produced by international marriage between Korean man and foreign woman and kept (or activated ) by (non) everyday activities of married immigrant women and family. There are remittance, children's rearing and education, visits to mother's house, emotional interactions by phone and computer and so on. Secondly, multi-layered and relational local spaces have been (re)produced by married immigrant women's various activities related to family, neighbor, friend, nation and so on. Thirdly, married immigrant women's relations to nation state or government has been specifically presented (or expressed) through the acquiring of Korean nationality and government's activities of supporting multicultural family. Married immigrant women feel that their national identity between mother's nation and Korea is ambiguous and undecided.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.111-158
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• 2018

This paper pays attention to the recent increase of young Koreans working in the low-skilled service sector in Singapore. Such rapid increase largely results from the Korean government's initiatives to promote labour migration of young people and the concurrent proliferation of migration agencies, against the background of growing youth unemployment in South Korea. By exploring the motivations and trajectories of young people's labour migration to Singapore, this study examines to what extent they think their expectations have been met and how they interpret their migration and work experiences. There has been little research that examines the actual voices of young migrants as part of migration studies, whilst the majority of previous research focuses on the evaluation of government support programmes based on job matching rates, surveys of participant satisfaction and etc. Young people who went to Singapore to improve their English language skills and qualifications for future employment in Korea have become frustrated due to low-skilled service jobs that consist of low pay and high labour intensity. Their credentials are devalued and they experience deskilling through this migration process. Most of them were discontent with the Korean migration agencies they used and critical about programmes offered by government institutions and universities/colleges. Despite being subject to deskilling, they did try to actively cope or resist this situation. This study focuses on the various ways these migrants attempted to manage the gap between their initial expectations and reality. It also demonstrates how these migrants interpreted their work experiences after returning to Korea: whilst most of them did not cash off their Singapore work experience for a decent job after returning to Korea, they did not define their experience as a complete failure. Adding to cultural, social capital they gained through this experience, they acquired 'mobility capital' which includes confidence, the desire to move, and capacity to control one's own movement.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.390-413
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• 2010

Facing reconfiguration of world economic order in the process of globalization and changes in domestic economic and social conditions, Japan has experienced a rapid inflow of foreign immigrants and hence a restructuring of labor market and ethic and cultural mixture. This paper explores contexts of inflow and social and spatial characteristics of immigrant workers in Japan. Uneven regional development on the global level and shifting to flexible accumulation regime, depletion of previously underutilized labor resource, better-educated youth and shrinking and aging of Japanese populace on the national level can be pointed out as important elements of immigration contexts. This paper also explains the hierarchizaton of labor market and differentiation of spatial distribution of immigrant workers in Japan in terms of visa condition and nationality. In particular, focusing on the case of Hiroshima prefecture, this paper analyzes residential differentiation of immigrants according to their nationality. Finally, it finds out some problems which immigrant workers have confronted in Hiroshima region.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.12 no.9
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• pp.21-33
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• 2014

This is a research on the characteristic and its limit of Korean migrant women policy to prospect and suggest in the point of interculturalism. The focus of this paper is in summing-up to current situation of multiethnic society which rapidly progressing in Korea and in reviewing the race-oriented, gender-biased issue in the migrant women policy in Korea. However, the migrant women go through by the unique rebuilt progress in the transnational social field which can be continue for several or for decades between delivery country and inflow country but the one-sided, certain movement to a new country. In the above mentioned standpoint, this paper can suggest the implication for the concept and its character of interculturalism, the policy and undertasking case in Europe as a realistic directing point on which the migrant women policy in Korea. The educational program consolidation of intercultural citizenship, the orientation of pluralistic integration through selective assimilation, the consolidation of intercultural adaptation program, the intercultural measurement metrics development and feedback which considered of Korean characteristics are proposed in this paper.