Speaker
Description
Ambivalent Positioning of Korean Immigrants in Chile: Floating, Oscillating, Elusive Belonging
최진옥 (Jinok Choi), Central University of Chile
South Korea’s international status has fluctuated between the Global South and the Global North. This study analyzes the many-faceted ambivalent positioning of Koreans in these transitions, who have settled in Chile, a country of the Global South. Korean immigrants in Chile define themselves as “other” (different but better) immigrants with a sense of superiority because their home country is no longer the Global South. Therefore, they do not regard Chile as a final or ideal destination for migration. However, at the same time, they do acknowledge the relatively fast settlement with economic advantages in Chile, and finally end up in a “intentional floating” life that they do not easily leave neither try to accomplish social integration within the host society. Furthermore, Koreans in Chile are “oscillating” between an unstable high economic class and a diminished social status as one of the “socially inconceivable” Asian immigrants running a small business in the mainstream society. Meanwhile, the Korean second generation in Chile has pursued the Global North as their parents’ hope, heading to the United States or Korea. Nonetheless, there is an increasing number of cases of returning to Chile to build a new business with their strong multilingual skills and high educational attainment, based on their parents’ economic support. While continuing to be on the move in a triangular circulation between Chile, the US, and Korea, they get a sense of “elusive belonging” in which they feel comfortable being treated as foreigners rather than Koreans in Chile or in the United States.
