• 한국지역사회생활과학회지
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• 제20권2호
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• pp.205-221
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• 2009

My concern was to explore how the Korean 'wild geese families' functioned to maintain 'familyhood' in spite of spatial separation by using a qualitative approach. I used personal narratives from eleven 'geese mothers' living in the United States. Family paths across time were analyzed to understand their complicated nature. Respondents adopted some coping strategies to obtain the flexibility and the stability for relocating their transnational lives. These were 1) communications, 2) relocation of household work, and 3) reinterpretation of 'sacrifice.' It seemed that their family paths become either the continuous type (prolong their stay) or the discontinuous type (not prolong their stay). These were shaped by complex individual, familial, and social forces which affected differently according to the steps of family life cycles. Therefore, this study showed that the Korean 'wild geese family' did not move toward the uni-direction with the same experiences and nature. More importantly, it is noteworthy to acknowledge that the prevalence of 'wild geese family' reveals the dynamic interactive nature of the family, i.e., actively responding to the changes and challenges from the diverse circumstances. It is inferred that the social and cultural factors such as the class mobility, the education system, and the values may influence the family life style.

• 가족자원경영과 정책
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• 제11권4호
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• pp.171-189
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• 2007

The purpose of this ethnography is to describe and analyze the process of becoming a wild geese mother. Thirteen mothers from New York, California, and Texas of U.S.A. were interviewed with an unstructured questionnaire. There are several different patterns of the process; 'the short term', 're-departure after returning to Korea', 'a step to initiate their family's immigration', 'sudden and unintentional'. In the first stage of the family living rearrangement, the main issues are about the wider free world, proper time for leaving and proper period for staying, where to live and my husband's independent living. The wild geese mothers perform the concrete tasks about the everyday living for the new mother-child family in the foreign country. They report their subjective interpretation for their new life.

• 대한가정학회지
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• 제50권2호
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• pp.11-23
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• 2012

This qualitative study attempts to analyze the separation experiences of wild geese families from a social exchange perspective. The participants of this study were 16 mothers who lived apart from their partners for the purpose of educating their offspring. To collect data, in-depth interviews were conducted with the mothers about the decision-making process and the separation experiences. The results showed that there was a unique educational factor in Korea that affected wild geese families' decision on family separation. Geese families had to face psychological inconvenience caused by negative eyes from society. In addition, the fathers suffered loneliness and had difficulties in doing household chores, and the mothers experienced an overload of child parenting. On the other hand, emotional relationship between the husband and wife was enhanced, and the friendly relationship between a mother and her children was built. The biggest reward from the wild geese families turned out to be the educational achievement of their children.

• 사회복지연구
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• 제41권4호
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• pp.107-133
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• 2010

본 연구는 한국사회에 확산되는 기러기 가족의 구성원으로서 기러기 아빠의 분거가족경험을 총체적으로 이해하기 위해 7명의 기러기 아빠를 대상으로 심층 인터뷰한 후 질적연구 방법을 활용하여 분거가족 경험의 일반적 구조를 파악하였다. 연구 결과, 기러기 아빠의 분거가족경험은 전후 맥락과 시간성을 고려하여 가족분거 결정단계와 초기단계, 유지단계로 구분되었고 5개의 상위 구성요소가 도출되었다. 먼저, 가족분거 결정단계는 "조기유학의 내·외적 필요" 로 나타났고, 가족분거 초기단계는 "가족이탈의 해방과 결핍" 으로 도출되었으며 가족분거 유지단계는 "고갈된 독거인의 삶", "가족없는 공간을 채움", "분거기간의 장기화: 와도 걱정, 안와도 걱정" 으로 나타났다. 이와 같은 연구결과에 근거하여 가족분거를 경험한 기러기아빠에 대한 실천적 함의를 제시하였다.

• 비교문화연구
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• 제32권
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• pp.81-107
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• 2013

This study examines pre-college study abroad (PSA, Chogi yuhak), which is one of the fastest growing phenomena among the various efforts for Koreans to learn English. The discussion includes the reasons why PSA has become so popular in the last decade under the name of globalization, the problems it has caused, and its new impact that this phenomenon has on Korean mothers. This study argues that PSA boom provides Korean mothers with an opportunity to pursue their own self-realization by studying abroad with their school aged children. These "new wild geese" mothers, who make double investments in their own education as well as in their children's in the U.S. represent important aspects of the contemporary Korean society regarding education, gender and neoliberal social atmosphere.