• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.616-634
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• 2009

Criticizing the existing social science approaches to transnational migration for their ignorance of spatial perspectives and the resultant limits in the understanding of the concrete processes of international migration and settlement, this paper aims to examine how spatial perspectives and geographical epistemology can positively contribute to the understanding and conceptualization of transnational migration. In particular, it emphasizes that the processes of transnational migration cannot be solely understood in terms of 1) global capitalist restructuring and economic rationality, 2) the impacts of deterritoralized transnational networks, or 3) the operation of immigration regimes constructed at the national scale. Alternatively, this paper argues that the conceptualization of 'transnational space', which is based on the understanding of the socio-spatial dimensions - that is, place, territory, scale and networks - that affect the processes of transnational migration, could significantly contribute to the understanding of the transnational migration.

• The Southeast Asian review
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.135-178
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• 2010

This study is to seek alternatives for regional governance related to transnational labor migration issues in Southeast Asia. This study examined the present situation and trends of labor migration in the region, reviewed involved transnational issues, and identified the current issues of governance to seek alternatives for regional governance. The increase in cross-border labor migration is no doubt a sign of growth and dynamism of the region and greater integration of their economies. But it also poses complex policy and management issues as well as transnational issues over such as unequal economic profits, illegal migration, human rights, and social security issues. In this reality, regional governance is a very important theme and the efforts to manage their migration inherently involve fundamental conflict and tension between related countries and regions. However, politics and governance of transnational migrant workers in Southeast Asia are still pursued at the national level. To resolve these issues, it is urgently required to secure not only collaboration between the parties concerned but also governance at the regional level. Findings of this study are: First, although labor migration has been a relatively long-time transnational issue, the history of addressing the issue at the regional governance is very short and still inceptive. Second, given its size, labor migration in Southeast Asia requires effective regional governance but no breakthrough was possible due to the conflict of interests between origin and destination countries and the conflict of logic between the labor market and the state. Third, the issue of labor migration is an important element for the formation of economic and socio-cultural communities the ASEAN countries have pursued. Fourth, it is urgently needed to seek alternatives for good and effective regional governance as a key to resolving these issues over migrant workers in Southeast Asia.

• 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.

• 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 Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.494-513
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• 2013

In this study, a transnational social space which emerges in a rural village of the northern Vietnam called 'Korean Village' is analyzed. The immigrant women of whom the spouses are Korean were forming transnational network with family members through which frequent and active communications took place. At the same time materialistic exchanges were occurring by means of remittance. Like most rural areas where up-to-date life patterns co-exist with outdated ones, the studied region was turning into a transnational social space under the influence of indigenous locallity, culture and other economic factors. Women were found to play a virtual role as resonator in practicing the transnational activity of migration. With the migration routes getting more and more solidified, the evolution of the transnational social space and the role of resonator, the form of transnational migration which makes involved young women look like a sacrifice is ceaselessly expanding around a specific region. This is noticeable because a rural village seemingly far away from internationalization is not only becoming the transnational social space but also a stage of its evolution.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.712-736
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• 2013

Since the 1990s, the international married couple, who were transnational migration has increased. therefore, there has been many studies on this approaches in the meanwhile, but enough analysis is not being done on the background of female marriage migrant and the adaptation of international marriage couples, because there is limits of the approach method. With the awareness of these issues, this study is about the analysis on the background and adaptation of them, based the data of surveys and in-depth interviews targeted international marriage couples in the area of Daegu and Gyeongbuk. The result of analysis survey on background of international migration was very high level about the recognition of the international marriage couple's global thinking, and analyzed this macro-background does not affect much about the international marriage couple's adaptation. However, this study were analyzed that the advance cognition degree to the other side, which are expected affect directly to the life and adaptation of all the couples is very low level.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.894-913
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• 2008

This study examines scale issues in the contemporary feminist migration literature. Scale appears as important, yet poorly understood concept in this field of study. The increasing attention to the feminization of migration requires not only gendered, but also scalar-sensitive approaches. Feminists criticize the conventional approach to the migration as a gender-blind approach that privileges national scale around which migration processes are organized. Claiming multiscalar and interscalar analyses, they propose investigations ranging from macro to micro processes which include globalized gendered division of labor, transnational family networks, and reproduction which takes place in and through the bodies and homes of migrant women. The migrant women, the major actors in recent transnational migration, cross various borders: the national boundaries and the public and private divides, in particular. This crossover can unsettle patriarchal gender relations which have been established based on the physical and symbolic division of nation-states and public/private spheres. Blurring these divisions accompanies social construction of various scales. The transnational family networks of migrant women, for example, show the construction of a transnational scale by migrant women as well as globalization from below. This paper points out misunderstandings of scale in the feminist migration literature and attempts to fill the gaps by introducing the meanings and implications of scales developed mostly by feminist geographers. In so doing, it promotes the interdisciplinary communication.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.421-436
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• 2013

International marriage is composed over 10% among total marriage in Korea. This study tried to know what kinds of social networks, especially transnational networks, the immigrant wives use for the process of being married and for the adjusting to marriage and Korean culture, and how their Korean families also are affected by the transnational networks. For the purposes of this study FGI and the interviews were applied for the immigrant wives, the multicultural husbands and the specialist groups in metropolitan city DaeGu. 18 migrant interviewees from Vietnam, China, Philippine, etc. were collected by the snow-ball sampling. 5 husbands were collected from the self-help meeting in multicultural families support center. The transnational networks of the immigrant wives in DaeGu were deterritorialized and reterritorialized actively. Migrant wives managed the close relationship with their family members of motherland, and had the networks sticky with relatives, friends, and other fore-immigrant wives from the same countries. Their migrations are characterized as 'chain migration'. Even though they acquired the Korean nationality, they have the transnational identities. They and their Korean families are interrelated and internetworked in exchanging economic resources as goods and money, human beings, love, child caring, foods and culture over local boundaries.

• 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 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.