• 제목/요약/키워드: Korean-American Immigrants

검색결과 37건 처리시간 0.019초

미국에 거주하는 한국계 이민자의 생활의례 및 한국인 정체성 (Life Rituals and Korean Ethnic Identities of Korean American Immigrants)

  • 성미애;이소영
    • 가정과삶의질연구
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    • 제34권3호
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    • pp.45-64
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    • 2016
  • In order to understand Korean American immigrants'adjustment to American society, it is important to understand how their life rituals and ethnic identities maintain or change over time and across immigration generations. To achieve this goal, this study examined how Korean Americans who resided in the New York City metropolitan area and New Jersey State performed life rituals and formed ethnic identities. A total of 18 Korean immigrants participated in one-on-one in-depth interviews and the interview data were analyzed with the themes. The results showed that Korean Americans performed life rituals integrating both Korean and American cultural aspects. Many Korean Americans attempted to perform life rituals based on American cultural holidays and procedures. However, a majority of these Koreans also strived to maintain Korean ethnic identities and also practice traditionally Korean life rituals as a way to preserve this ethnic identity. These findings suggest that across time and generation, Korean Americans prefer to maintain their Korean cultural identity, while not shunning the adoption of typical "American" rituals. The way that Korean Americans practice and develop identities differs very little across immigration generation. These findings provide insight on how the Korean government may support foreigners and immigrant families in South Korea and Korean Americans' acculturation processes in the U.S.

A New Challenge to Korean American Religious Identity: Cultural Crisis in Korean American Christianity

  • Ro, Young-Chan
    • 대순사상논총
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    • 제18권
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    • pp.53-79
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    • 2004
  • This paper explores the relationship between Korean immigrants to the United States and their religious identity from the cultural point of view. Most scholarly studies on Korean immigrants in the United States have been dominated by sociological approach and ethnic studies in examining the social dimension of the Korean immigrant communities while neglecting issues concerning their religious identity and cultural heritage. Most Korean immigrants to America attend Korean churches regardless their religious affiliation before they came to America. One of the reasons for this phenomenon is the fact that Korean church has provided a necessary social service for the newly arrived immigrants. Korean churches have been able to play a key role in the life of Korean immigrants. Korean immigrants, however, have shown a unique aspect regarding their religious identity compared to other immigrants communities in the United States. America is a nation of immigrants, coming from different parts of the world. Each immigrant community has brought their unique cultural heritage and religious persuasion. Asian immigrants, for example, brought their own traditional religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism. People from the Middle Eastern countries brought Islamic faith while European Jews brought the Jewish tradition. In these immigrant communities, religious identity and cultural heritage were homo genously harmonized. Jewish people built synagogue and taught Hebrew, Jewish history, culture, and faith. In this case, synagogue was not only the house of worship for Jews but also the center for learning Jewish history, culture, faith, and language. In short, Jewish cultural history was intimately related to Jewish religious history; for Jewish immigrants, learning their social and political history was indeed identical with leaning of their religious history. The same can be said about the relationship between Indian community and Hinduism. Hindu temples serve as the center of Indian immigrantsin providing the social, cultural, and spiritual functions. Buddhist temples, for that matter, serve the same function to the people from the Asian countries. Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Tibetans, and Thais have brought their respective Buddhist traditions to America and practice and maintain both their religious faith and cultural heritage. Middle Eastern people, for example, have brought Islamic faith to the United States, and Mosques have become the center for learning their language, practicing their faith, and maintaining their cultural heritage. Korean immigrants, unlike any other immigrant group, have brought Christianity, which is not a Korean traditional religion but a Western religion they received in 18th and 19th centuries from the West and America, back to the United States, and church has become the center of their lives in America. In this context, Koreans and Korean-Americans have a unique situation in which they practice Christianity as their religion but try to maintain their non-Christian cultural heritage. For the Korean immigrants, their religious identity and cultural identity are not the same. Although Korean church so far has provides the social and religious functions to fill the need of Korean immigrants, but it may not be able to become the most effective institution to provide and maintain Korean cultural heritage. In this respect, Korean churches must be able to open to traditional Korean religions or the religions of Korean origin to cultivate and nurture Korean cultural heritage.

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미국 캘리포니아주에 거주하는 동양인 이민자들의 흡연 및 음주 행동에 영향을 미치는 요인 (Influences on Smoking and Binge Drinking among Asian Immigrants in California)

  • 김영복;김영두
    • 보건교육건강증진학회지
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    • 제26권1호
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    • pp.93-104
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    • 2009
  • Objectives: Although Asian immigrants have lower rates of smoking and binge drinking than other ethnics in the US, Korean Americans have the highest rate of Asian immigrants. This study, therefore, compared with the rates and examined the predictors of smoking and binge drinking by gender and ethnicity among Asian immigrants in California. Methods: In 2001 and 2003, California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) were conducted in English and their original languages with Asian immigrants residing in 58 Counties and 3 Cities, California. We performed analysis to find out the differences of smoking and binge drinking rates using the secondary data, CHIS 2001 and 2003. Multiple logistic regression analysis for survey data identified predictors of smoking and binge drinking behaviors by gender and ethnicity. Results: Korean American males (35.4%) and Japanese American females (15.4%) had higher rates of smoking prevalence compared with other Asian immigrants in California. In binge drinking, 26.5% of male and 8.1% of female among Korean Americans were binge drinker, and the rates were the top with Asian Americans who had lived in California. It showed the remarkable gap between gender of smoking and binge drinking among Vietnamese immigrants, whereas not the striking difference among Japanese Americans. In multiple regression models, age, educational level, occupation, marital status, English proficiency, and health insurance coverage remained significant for smoking and binge drinking behaviors(P<0.05). Even though the time in the US was not significant, it seemed to be related to educational level and English proficiency. In particular among female, smoking and binge drinking behaviors were associated with acculturation. Conclusion: Although Asian Americans had shared with American culture since they had immigrated in the US, they had significantly different prevalence rates of smoking and binge drinking based on gender and ethnicity. Therefore, future efforts should be focused on understanding differences by ethnicity and target at high-risk subgroups. To achieve this, it needs to develop the educational materials in Korean and their original languages.

The Impacts of Sense of Community, Community Provisions, and Acculturation Attitudes on Parental Satisfaction among Korean Immigrants

  • Lee, So-Young
    • International Journal of Human Ecology
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    • 제13권1호
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    • pp.71-87
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    • 2012
  • The purpose of this study is to investigate how a sense of community, community provisions, and acculturation attitudes towards Korean and American cultures are related to Korean immigrant parents' parental satisfaction. 477 surveys, consisting of 291 females and 186 males, were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results showed that a sense of community directly influenced acculturation attitudes toward American culture and parental satisfaction. Acculturation attitudes toward American culture also directly influenced parental satisfaction. A sense of community had significant indirect effects on parental satisfaction. These results imply that a sense of community within a larger community plays an important role in Korean immigrant parents' acquisition of identities as members of a new country. Building a sense of community is also important for them to experience less acculturation stress and become more satisfied with their parenting while adjusting to a new culture. Implications for practice and research are discussed.

미국 신진 디자이너의 작품 특성에 관한 연구 - 중국계 디자이너를 중심으로 - (Characteristics of New Premier American Fashion Designers' work - Focused on Descendants of Chinese Immigrants -)

  • 한자영
    • 패션비즈니스
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    • 제15권4호
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    • pp.28-42
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    • 2011
  • Philp Lim, Alexander Wang and Jason Wu are the American fashion designers as descendants of Chinese immigrants. They had the honor of being given the Swarovski Awards- new premier fashion designer- from CFDA(Council of Fashion Designers of America). The purpose of this study were to investigate the characteristics of their collection, and offered the informations for Korean designers entering the American market. This research categorized characteristics of these designers'- whole characteristics and the characteristics of details such as formal characteristics, optimistic characteristics, tactile characteristics-, and fashion styles from the S/S season of 2009 to the F/W season of 2010 were analyzed. These young and male designers being received attention as a star, didn't make creative art pieces. But they made pragmatic, commercial, and con-temporary works in whole characteristics and succeeded in their fashion business like other American designers. On the other hand they oriented high fashion clearly in terms of the detail characteristics - their own accent color, tiny change in variety, unique material, delicate ornaments. Therefore Lim created chic and stylish, Wang made a sporty street style, Wu made a luxury style with mannish and casual through work characteristics suitable for their costumer.

The Role of Immigrant Churches in the Ethnic Socialization of Korean American Youths

  • Kang, Hyeyoung
    • Child Studies in Asia-Pacific Contexts
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    • 제7권1호
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    • pp.39-55
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    • 2017
  • This study explored the role of Korean immigrant churches as a social context for Korean American youths, with a specific focus on its role in ethnic socialization. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 23 Korean American young adults. The results show that such churches serve as a salient social context for Korean American youths in which day-to-day lives are deeply integrated. Specifically, they serve as a salient context for coethnic peer relationships and family interactions. Moreover, Korean immigrant churches play a salient role as an agent of enculturation for Korean American youths by engaging them in cultural socialization, constructing and transmitting immigrant discourse, and providing a coethnic community. Taken as whole, findings suggest a distinct and salient role of immigrant churches in the lives of Korean American youths and highlight the importance of studying the social context specific to the children of immigrants.

베이비부머의 라이프스타일과 은퇴 후 선호하는 주거특성 - 재미 한인 베이비부머를 중심으로 - (Baby Boomers' Lifestyles and Preferred Characteristics of Postretirement Homes - With a Focus on Korean-American Immigrants -)

  • 김미희;김석경
    • 한국주거학회논문집
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    • 제24권3호
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    • pp.85-94
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    • 2013
  • This research investigates and characterizes lifestyles and housing preferences of Korean-American Baby Boomers in the USA, and proposes future housing design and planning directions to meet their needs. A questionnaire survey was conducted from June to September 2012 examining lifestyles and preferred characteristics of postretirement homes. We targeted Korean-Americans born from 1955 to 1963 in either Korea or the USA who currently reside in New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Lansing, Grand Rapids, and San Francisco. To analyze the 247 responses, we employed factor analysis, cluster analysis, one-way ANOVA, and crosstabs. Respondents preferred three-bedroom, singlefamily housing types with a size of 26-35 pyong, favoring city outskirts or suburbs over urban areas. Four groups having different lifestyle types were identified: innovators, believers, fashion experiencers, and makers. Housing preference differed depending on lifestyle types. The 'innovator' group desired homes 56 pyong or larger, while the other groups preferred 26-36 pyong. The four lifestyle groups did not show statistically significant differences in most of preferred housing features, community facilities, or indoor environmental characteristics. Each group still showed slightly different preferences in some housing planning characteristics, which future planners can refer to when providing postretirement homes for them.

한국인의 스트레스 반응양상 -미국이민 한국인을 대상으로- (A Study on Stress Responses of Korean-American)

  • 이소우
    • 대한간호학회지
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    • 제22권2호
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    • pp.238-247
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    • 1992
  • Immigration of Koreans to the United States has increased since the 1960's. Adjusting to life in the United States produces a great deal of stress for immigrants. Despite better economic opportunites, many see the U.S. culture as threatening to their family and cultural values. Differences in culture, language, expectations and social behavior can lead to misunderstandings between health care providers and clients. These misunderstanding can leaf to frustration on the part of each. The ultimate result of this is that often Korean-immigrants do not get their health care needs met and stress response symptoms can lead to disease if there is no appropriate care. To determine the health care needs and concerns of Korean-Americans, a health needs assessment is needed. Appropriate and adequate information about the health care needs of these individuals is important as it relates to American policy changes allowing greater numbers of immigrants to enter the U.S. The purpose of this prospective study was to describe Korean-American stress response. This study focused on the primary presenting problems for which subjects reported having sought care. These included a variety of stress-related symptoms, including peripheral manifestations, cardiopulmonary symptoms, central-neurological symptoms, gastrointestinal symptoms, muscle tension, habitual patterns, depression, anxiety, emotional irritability and cognitive disorganization. Of the 300 subjects who entered the study, 80% (N=223) completed the questionnaire in full. Demographically, the percentage of females and males was 50% each and they ranged in age from 20 to 69 years. Ninety percent of the subjects were highly educated, 25% owners of business, 25% white collar professionals, 15% employed in sales or as skilled /unskilled labor, 30% had no occupation : and 5% were housewives or students. The SOS inventory is designed to quantify self-perception of behavioral, cognitive, and physiological components of the stress response. It consisted of 94 items divided into 10 subscales. The result of this study are as follows : The total mean 505 of all subjects (N=223 was .8129 ; the mean 505 for male(N=114) was .7665 and for females, (N=108) .8594. The level of symptoms for central-neurologic and muscle tension was higher for than for males. The highest stress response of all subjects was emotional irritability symptoms(1.0644) : the lowest stress response of all subjects was peripheral manifestation symptoms.

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Helping our Children with Homework: Homework as an Activity of Anxiety for First Generation Bilingual Korean American Mothers

  • Park, Hye-Yoon;Jegatheesan, Brinda
    • Child Studies in Asia-Pacific Contexts
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    • 제2권2호
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    • pp.91-107
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    • 2012
  • This study aimed to understand communicative and socialization practices of immigrant bilingual families in everyday learning situations by examining interactions between parents and children in the United States. Drawn on language socialization theory and socio-cultural factors influencing immigrants, this study explored how three Korean American mothers struggled as they helped their children with homework by interviewing the mothers and observing mother-child interaction during homework time. The study paid attention to the emotional values of immigrant parents that they tried to teach their children who are members in two distinctive communities, such as Korean American and mainstream American. The findings showed that parental socialization practices had effects on children's emotional and social competence and at the same time the socialization process was bidirectional. Mothers started with Korean values, but they faced challenges with the English language, different demands for American homework, and children's rejection of their attempts. Mothers needed to change their strategy and borrow American ways of keeping emotional distance from their children by acknowledging their independence. Their struggles are discussed with attention to their language choice and culture.

미국거주 한국여성의 외모스타일에 대한 문화적 담론 분석 (Cultural Discourses of Appearance Style in Korean Community of the US)

  • 전양진
    • 한국의류학회지
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    • 제29권1호
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    • pp.114-123
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    • 2005
  • The purpose of this study is to see how Korean American people use and negotiate appearance in the US. 22 Korean American women at the age of 20s to 50s were interviewed and the verbatim texts from the interviews were interpreted. Discourses on appearance style followed by consumer stories such as American vs. Korean culture, gender, class, generation as well as personal background were recorded. The results of this study revealed that Korean Americans had diverse interpretations about their appearance and styling to fit the condition of their everyday lives. Korean immigrants did not simply assimilate dominant culture over time but maintained transcultural identities depending on contexts. This study showed that researches dealing with cultural variables could have more insights about personal experiences and social meaning processes through interpretative approach.