This book analyzes the intersections of race, class, gender and inequalities in global migration through an examination of migration policies and migrants in South Korea from undocumented workers to white elite migrants. The chapters reveal the differentiation and divergence of migration experiences due to race, class, gender, and place of origin.

Newcomers and Global Migration in Contemporary South Korea: Across National Boundaries examines the intersections of race, class, gender and inequalities in global migration in contemporary South Korea. The contributors explore South Korean migration policies and study diverse migrants living and working in South Korea as low-wage undocumented workers, refugees, Korean returnees, migrant women married to Korean men, and white professionals. The chapters in this collection make visible the differentiation and divergence of migration experiences due to race, class, gender, and place of origin, which are all also mediated by local inequalities in South Korea.

Part I: New Migration Regime in South Korea

Chapter 1: Multiculturalism as a Political Project for a New Korean Nation-Building: Explaining the Political Consensus on Multiculturalism Policy

Mi-Kyung Kim

Chapter 2: Explaining South Korea’s Diaspora Engagement Policies

Timothy C. Lim and Dong-Hoon Seol

Chapter 3: Globalization and Language Education: English Village in South Korea

Jamie Shinhee Lee

Part II: Return Migrants from Uneven and Unequal Korean Diaspora

Chapter 4: Hierarchical Citizenship in Perspective: South Korea’s Korean Chinese

Woo Park

Chapter 5: A Research on Social and Self Perspective towards Highly Educated Korean Returnees Focusing on Business Context

Keunsun You

Chapter 6: Acquiring Higher Education Credentials at Home: Korean Student Return Migrants from Latin America

Jin Suk Bae

Part III: Labor Migration from the Global North & South

Chapter 7: Living as Foreign Scientists: Stories of Nineteen Expatriate Professors in South Korea.

Hyung Wook Park

Chapter 8: Creating Hidden Social Capital: A Case of Indonesian Immigrants of Wongok-dong in South Korea

Kwang Woo Park

Chapter 9: The Construction of Migrant ‘Illegality’: The Case of Thai Migrant Workers in South Korea

Julia Jiwon Shin and Don Tajaroensuk

Part IV: Family Migration and Refugees

Chapter 10: Freeing the Migrant Women in South Korea from a Shackle of Poverty: An Inquiry into the Causes of Poverty and the Suggestion of Policy Responses

Soon-yang Kim and Soo-jung Go

Chapter 11: Exploring how Mobility Affects Muslim lives: The Case of Yemeni Refugees on Jeju Island

Farrah Sheikh