ABOUT THIS BOOK

Redefining Multicultural Families in South Korea provides an in-depth look at the lives of families in Korea that include immigrants. Ten original chapters in this volume, written by scholars in multiple social science disciplines and covering different methodological approaches, aim to reinvigorate contemporary discussions about these multicultural families. Specially, the volume expands the scope of “multicultural families” by examining the diverse configurations of families with immigrants who crossed the Korean border during and after the 1990s, such as the families of undocumented migrant workers, divorced marriage immigrants, and the families of Korean women with Muslim immigrant husbands. Second, instead of looking at immigrants as newcomers, the volume takes a discursive turn, viewing them as settlers or first-generation immigrants in Korea whose post-migration lives have evolved and whose membership in Korean society has matured, by examining immigrants’ identities, need for political representation, their fights through the court system, and the aspirations of second-generation immigrants.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

MINJEONG KIM is an associate professor of sociology at San Diego State University in California. She is the author of Elusive Belonging: Marriage Immigrants and “Multiculturalism” in Rural South Korea.

HYEYOUNG WOO is a professor of sociology and a faculty affiliate at the Institute for Asian Studies at Portland State University in Oregon. She is the co-editor (with Hyunjoon Park) of Korean Families Yesterday and Today.

REVIEWS

"Drawing on an eclectic set of methodological strategies and data sources, Redefining Multicultural Families in South Korea does the important work of broadening and updating our understanding of family change in Korea. Whether the reader is versed in quantitative statistical methods or is more inclined toward qualitative narrative accounts, this volume marks an important programmatic shift in the study of multiculturalism in South Korea. The empirical analyses offered in the different chapters bring the field up to speed, reflecting a new research agenda that is surely likely to inform future studies of the Korean family."— The Journal of Asian Studies

"Redefining Multicultural Families in South Korea is requisite reading not only for students and scholars intrigued by South Korea, but also for those interested in contemporary struggles over multiculturalism and migration, family forms and gender relations, and identity and conviviality. Minjeong Kim and Hyeyoung Woo have assembled a collection of pathbreaking and illuminating essays."

— John Lie, author of Japan, the Sustainable Society: The Artisanal Ethos, Ordinary Virtues, and Everyday Life i

“In a country that views itself as ethnically homogeneous, South Korea has witnessed a growth in multicultural or multiethnic families. In this excellent edited volume, Minjeong Kim, Hyeyoung Woo, and their colleagues explore the growth and variety of these families, whose presence challenges the notion of 'pure' Koreans as the only Koreans.”

— Grace Kao, coauthor of The Company We Keep: Interracial Friendships and Romantic Relationships from Adolescence

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Redefining Multicultural Families in South Korea