• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.676-694
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• 2012

This paper investigates the regional distribution of female transnational marriage migrants by nationalities in South Korea. In addition, this research explores the regional distribution by nationalities, migration processes, and socioeconomic characteristics of female transnational marriage migrants in Chungcheongbuk-do in South Korea. Regarding the regional distribution of female transnational marriage migrants in South Korea, using location quotient, this study seeks to categorizes cities and counties in South Korea into five groups. Furthermore, using Thomas method, this paper tries to stereotype cities and counties in Chungcheongbuk-do into six groups, in order to identify significant nationalities in each group. The concept of transnationalism refers to the recent phenomenon that transnational social networks are prominent, linking societies at the global scale, as international migration has been rapidly increasing due to the globalization. Transnationalism provides insight into the in-depth understanding of socio-spatial structure of international migrants, transnational social networks, transnational identities, cultural hybridization, and so on.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.141-158
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• 2008

The goal of this paper is to analyze Korean migration to the Russian Far East(RFE) from the perspective of transnationalism. The analysis suggests that the Korean migrants could have constructed their transnational identities using the following practices: religious ritual, language uses, collective remittances, ethnic businesses, immigrant newspapers, and immigrant associations. In particular, the Korean migrants could have retained transnational interconnection between the places of origin and destination even without the process of globalization, which is regarded as an inevitable incentive to transnationalism in the literature. The Korean case indicates that the contextual changes in the sending and receiving countries, for instance, the establishment of a Japanese protectorate over Korea and the Russian Revolution, significantly facilitated the formation of transnational relationships among the Korean immigrants.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.31-72
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• 2010

This study is to explain the nature of transnational activities being involved in by Filipina intermarriage migrants in Korea by examining the institutional backgrounds of market, society and the state. The increasing number of Filipina intermarriage with Korean coincides with the advance of liberal market economy, which governs internal and bilateral interactions between and among the three institutions in both countries. While existing various reasons for engaging in intermarriage, a significant number of Filipina wives in Korea ventured into it with uncertain expectations that they might earn better lives and could support their families. Such hopes usually turn out in vain when they meet the real lives in Korea. It is mainly because their spouses in Korea would rather be those who left behind in the marriage market due to their lack of competitiveness. Filipina wives are also suffering from social isolation caused by language and other barriers such as family relations or rural life they might settle in. Their transnational activities usually tend to be their effort to breakthrough their unexpected condition of difficult lives in Korea. They usually make use of transnational sort of community activities to cultivate chances to engage in bread earning activity. Migrant's transnational activity has a great impact on sociocultural changes in the country of origin and of arrival. Transnational activity provides migrants with economic opportunities, and uplifts self-esteem as well. Intermarriage couples, especially with Southeast Asian wives, and their offsprings show a tendency of downward assimilation to Korean society. Korean state policy toward them should not simply apply undiscriminated assimilation theory, but take into account their possible strength of transnational identity with which they could find a means to integrate themselves successfully into the mainstream Korean society.

• Acta Via Serica
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.51-90
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• 2020

The city of Sumqayit in Azerbaijan was famous in the USSR for its chemical plants, which supplied the whole country with plastics, detergents, and fertilizers. While production increased in the post-WWII period, young people from remote Caucasian villages were attracted as workers to the industrial settlement on the shore of the Caspian Sea and worked together with specialists from all over the USSR. Migration did not stop when the USSR collapsed. To the contrary, mobility increased as Azerbaijani refugees from Armenia and IDPs from Karabakh fled to Sumqayit, which grew to become the second-largest city of Azerbaijan. Although a generation has passed since the ceasefire, IDPs still are separately administered. In the last 20 years, more and more internal migrants have chosen the Greater Baku Region as their destination, mostly finding jobs in the informal labor market. In the post-independence transformative period, informal housing has offered migrants a place to stay in the city. Sumqayit can be regarded as an arrival city, an established urban platform for migrants who prefer internal over transnational migration.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.89-110
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• 2010

Relying on the concept of "multicultural space", this paper aims to examine the ways in which the adaptation of foreign professional migrants to the Korean society has been geographically differentiated. Due to the limits of spatial perspectives, existing studies on the adaptation of foreign migrants to the Korean society tend to ignore the geographical variations in the ways in, and the degrees at, which foreign migrants have been adapted into the Korean society. There are, however, significant regional variations in the living conditions, physical and cultural environments, and economic opportunities that are given to the foreign migrants in Korea, so that the adaptation of foreign migrants to the Korean society is regionally differentiated. In order to prove this, this paper explores whether and how the ways in which foreign professional migrants have adapted to the Korean society have been regionally differentiated on the basis of questionnaire surveys and statistical analyses.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.393-408
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• 2009

The drastic growth of transnational marriage since the mid-1990s has been a new challenge to Korea. This article aims to provide a comprehension of new ethnicity by focusing on transnational marriage migration in Korea. A steep increase of foreign brides from China and Southeast countries such as Vietnam and the Philippines can be understood in terms of globalization from below. In this context, Korean trend is similar to Taiwan and Japanese ones. But, there are also some differences between them. The inflow of foreign brides has been gradually weakened since 2005 in Korea, as Taiwan has experienced since 2003. In the ratio of foreign brides among total marriage in Korea, rural area show in average two-fold higher than urban areas. However, most foreign brides have settled down in urban areas in aspect of absolute number. Korean Chinese wives most densely concentrate in urban area, followed by Chinese wives, Nevertheless, there are significant differences among foreign brides' residential areas with their nationalities. In this point, the geography of new ethnicity with foreign brides in Korea is likely to be a multi-dimensional space.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.370-392
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• 2018

This study aims to reveal that the changes in the population and housing consumption of foreigners, which are constantly undergoing structural changes, affect both the housing market of home and host country. The cause and the change of foreigners' housing market in Seoul were analyzed to be that the foreigners' continuous inflows occurred due to the 'fixed effect of rent' on the rental market, which is different from the domestic housing market. Korean-Chinese, who tend to be circular migration, make the current concentration of the housing market. Meanwhile, Korean-Chinese, who have experienced migration from Korea, emerged as major housing consumers, causing a real estate boom in Yanji City. Housing investment by Korean-Chinese is concentrated in the 'West' from Yanbian University, closely related to the city's urban planning that affects housing supply. This transnational housing consumption of immigrants connects the housing market of home and host country, in turn, causes the filtering process in the two countries simultaneously, which results the 'transnational housing filtering process'.

• 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.

• 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.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.77-115
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• 2017

This study examines how a Burmese migrant clinic in a Thai border town cares for migrant patients and activates cross-border health care mobility. Established in 1989, the clinic has developed its capacity and serves as a prominent healthcare institution across the border. Despite its illegality, Thai authorities recognize its importance and collaborate with the clinic. The study reveals that collaborations with various partners play important roles in the constitution of the clinic. Unlike existing literature on the health of migrants, which concerns structural constraints, the study emphasizes migrants' agency in creating their own health care institution through collective partnerships, shedding light on the cross-border health care mobility of underprivileged patients. The legitimate presence of the migrant clinic in the border town mediates and strengthens their transnational mobility across the border. Partnerships with various individuals and organizations have empowered the clinic to undertake a unique role in the border society.