• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.102-119
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• 2016

This paper aims at analyzing the role of Korean ethnic network in the settlement process of Korean immigrants, and elucidating their activation strategies. through the case study of Korean Immigrants in London metropolitan area. The main results of this study are as follows. Firstly, the majority of respondents use Korean ethnic networks in the initial immigration process. Secondly, respondents more frequently use Korean ethnic network in the activities such as church, shopping and education. Thirdly, considering the cognition of respondents about the necessity of Korean ethnic networks, respondents prefer supports of Koran government as activation strategies of Korean ethnic network. Finally, a model of activation strategies of Korean ethnic networks is proposed, which is a differentiated and integrated model according to the maturity stage.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.876-891
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• 2014

Previous studies of ethnic enclaves did not provide an adequate explanation of the geographical contexts and spatial implications of industrial production systems, as a result of emphasizing ethnic networks with stagnant participation from geographers. The objective of this study was to identify and examine the formation mechanism of Korean ethnic enclaves through the case of Bom Retiro's Korean garment industrial district in Brazil, specifically by performing an integrated review of the development path of Bom Retiro, the garment industry's production systems, and ethnic networks. The research findings indicated that the formation of this region's ethnic enclave was indeed highly influenced by ethnic networks; however, it was also affected by the development path of the region as a migrant garment industrial district and spatial convergence pertaining to the production systems of garment industries. Moreover, the formation of Bom Retiro's ethnic enclave also involved active participation of non-ethnic immigrant communities and local Brazilians.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.469-488
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• 2012

International marriage is composed over 10% among total marriage in Korea. Korea is changing rapidly to the multi-cultural society. The researches need to inquire into what the state of 'ethnic communities of the immigrant wives as the minorities' is and how the immigrant wives build and develop the ethnic networks longitudinally. At the beginning, this study tried to know what kinds of social networks the immigrant wives use for the process of being married and for the adjusting to marriage and Korean culture. For the purposes of this study FGI and the interviews were applied for the immigrant wives and the specialist groups in metropolitan city DaeGu. 18 interviewees from Vietnam, China, Philippine, etc.. were collected by the snow-ball sampling. The social networks of the immigrant wives in DaeGu were mainly private, but were deterritorialized and reterritorialized actively. They managed the close relationship with their family members of motherland, and had the networks sticky with relatives, friends, and other immigrant wives from the same countries. Even though they acquired the Korean nationality, they have the transnational identities. But the internet environment of Korea can contribute to activate the social networks for the ethnic communities of the immigrant wives.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.286-303
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• 2015

This paper aims at analyzing the role of Korean ethnic network in the settlement process of Korean immigrants, and elucidating their utilization measures, through the case Study of Korean Immigrants in LA. The main results of this study are as follows. Firstly, the majority of respondents used Korean ethnic networks and Korean town in the immigration process. According to the results of ANOVA test, Korean ethnic network are more importantly considered by the groups such as elderly, livers in Korean town, and people who the first settlement was LA. Secondly, respondents more frequently use Korean ethnic network in the activities such as church, shopping and business. Especially, the groups such as short immigration term, elderly, poor English ability are more frequently use Korean ethnic network. Thirdly, Viewing the cognition of respondents about the necessity of Korean ethnic networks, respondents want to use them for strengthening the ties of domination society. Finally, utilization of Korean ethnic churches, Korean ethnic business organizations and Korean ethnic web-site portal are proposed for activating Korean ethnic networks.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.523-539
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to explain the growth of the business area for migrant workers and the spatial characteristics of the start-up of business, location selection and market area of the employers from foreign countries by focusing on the ethnic networks in Wongok-Dong, Ansan. The results of this study are summarized as follows. The businesses for Chinese workers among migrant workers are located densely and have many kinds of businesses relative to the businesses for migrants from other countries having small number of migrant workers in this area. Moreover, The employers from foreign countries come to Korea through the migrant networks. And they are located in Wongok-Dong, Ansan in which the migrants community is developed. These things made it clear that they regard ethnic networks as important factor for migrant businesses. While the market area of businesses for Chinese workers is restricted to Wongok-Dong or Ansan city, the market areas of businesses for migrant workers from other countries are expanded nationwide through ethnic networks.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.159-180
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• 2010

Research on regional innovation has recently emphasized the significance and necessities of global networks. However, theoretical arguments have not provided the answers for how global networks are actually formed and work, and the related discussions have not been cohesive while introducing separate concepts originated from diverse disciplines without connecting them with each other. This paper intends to critically review theoretical concepts on spatialities of regional innovation networks and demonstrate limits of each concept, arguing that a synthetic perspective is necessary for understanding how global innovation networks work. The author introduces, specifically, the concept of transnational ethnic communities, which has been recently given much attention to investigate global innovation networks, and provide its theoretical and policy implications.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.540-556
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• 2006

The purpose of this paper is to analyze a process of formation of an ethnic community in the global era, taking an example of foreign workers in Igok-Dong, Dalseo-gu, Taegu. Previous studies suggest that playing a role as a hub of culture, resources and ethnic networks an ethnic community becomes an imagined space where its members can feel "us". Through this imagined space, ethnic people communicate and exchange information with each other and establish transnational linkages between their origin and destination countries or the third countries. In my research in Igok-Dong it was observed that ethnic shops had become the centers of the community of foreign workers and helped them connect with their own ethnic people from wider areas than their residence. Partly because of such networks exclusively focused on their own ethnics, there was little connection developed between foreign workers and locals. A social distance between the two parties may turn into antagonism as the ethnic community grows in number. Since it is foreseen that demands for foreign workers will continue to rise in Igok-Dong it is necessary to seek ways to achieve a more inclusive and harmonious multi-ethnic society for both foreign workers and locals.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.42 no.4
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• pp.601-615
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• 2007

Many Korean migrants in Japan have established small businesses using their ethnic networks as they were discriminated and excluded from Japanese society and labour market. The aim of this study is to explore the changes in characteristics of Korean migrants' businesses by generation, focusing on the role of co-ethnic relationships including ethnic networks and resources on their businesses. This study analyzed Korean migrants' dependence of the ethnic resources to understand the relationship between the ethnic. When Koreans first moved to Japan, laborers amounted the most, but the number of the professionals and the small business owners has increased gradually. This change was influenced by the change of generation and the improvement of education, as well as recognition of Japanese society and the change of policies toward Korean migrants in Japan. In early times when the number of small business owners started to increase, many cases such as a business, an employment, the use of Korean banks used to depend on ethnic resources. Also there were many businesses of which main customers were Koreans. However, the dependence of the ethnic resources has become diverse as the structure of the occupation has changed. The maintenance or exclusion of co-ethnic relationship depends on the structure of society and economy, and its result affect the relationship between Korean migrants in Japan and Japanese.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.376-389
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• 2012

Ethnic entrepreneurship, an important means by which immigrants improve economic status, is widely believed to be facilitated by their residential concentration, i.e. ethnic enclaves. However, the recent immigrants' residential dispersion and re-clustering in some selected well-to-do suburbs portend changes in the role of ethnic enclave as a nest of immigrant entrepreneurship. This paper investigates the impacts of the residential dispersal on ethnic entrepreneurship with a case study of Korean small businessmen in Chicago, Illinois PMSA. The research utilizes the Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) to know the overall changes in Korean entrepreneurship through 1990s and conducts a survey to understand reactions and surviving strategies of Korean enclave businessmen to the residential shifts. Relevant to those analyses is the enclave-economy hypothesis which argues benefit from spatial clustering of co-ethnic entrepreneurs by yielding more business opportunities and higher returns.

• SUVANNABHUMI
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.125-157
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• 2019

It has been widely argued that Area Studies is in a critical condition especially in Australia, Europe and the US. However, in the Southeast Asian region, most especially Indonesia, we are witnessing the rise of Area Studies programs with the establishment of several such programs both in research institutions and universities. In this paper, I will discuss a few examples of Area Studies research on the emerging diasporic connections in Southeast Asia and reflect on the constitution of ethnic networks as "sites" where transnational identities are forged beyond state boundaries. Indeed, transnational movements of people have occurred and continue to happen due to particular events like wars and political turmoil, as well as for economic reasons. Today, we find many diasporic groups, including minorities, in the border areas of Southeast Asian countries and historically, minorities have been known for their movements in mainland Southeast Asia. If previously, the diasporic connections, especially with the homeland, had been very limited or even non-existent, today such connections have emerged across national boundaries. On top of this, economic and social networkings are equally on the rise both within and at transnational levels. It is, therefore, important to discuss the identity of diasporic groups and transnational networkings in the cases of two border areas in Southeast Asia.