Korean Diaspora by Charles Armstrong

¶ … Korean Diaspora by Charles Armstrong (pg 88-129) The Korean Diaspora by Charles Armstrong chronicles patterns of Korean immigration and discusses the presence of Koreans in different nations such as Japan and China, as well as population in America, Canada, and Australia. Immigration has become an integral part of the Korean experience. However, Koreans frequently experience discrimination abroad, especially in Japan, where they were often encouraged to conceal their Korean surnames and identity.

This is ironic, given that Japan has a plummeting birthrate, and one would think that new, younger immigrants could inject some vitality into its economy. However, Japan seems reluctant to diversify its relatively homogeneous society, or even to admit the discrimination that does occur against Japanese citizens of Korean origin. There is also a substantial, slow growing minority of Koreans in Mainland China, which has a long-standing history of absorbing ethnic minorities into its fold.

Many Koreans moved to China to escape the Japanese control of their homeland and hunger during World War II, just as many Koreas immigrated to the U.S. after the Korean War to seek a better life and freedom from national conflicts. The Japanese and Chinese examples are potent illustrations of the desperation that drove many Koreans from their homelands.

Koreans have not been fully integrated and accepted into either Japan or China, despite the fact that both societies could logically benefit from the contributions made by immigrants, culturally as well as economically. Koreans exist 'betwixt and between' their two cultures in both societies. Even in societies where Koreans have emerged as a strong community presence, such as the United States, full assimilation has proven elusive in many areas.

Reaction Paper: "Our adoptee, our alien: Transnational adoptees as specters of foreignness and family in South Korea" by Eleana Kim (pg 497-525) The popular American notion that we are all the same under the skin is often challenged by inter-ethnic and inter-racial adoption. Families are often conflicted about the degree to which they should socialize the child in the culture of their homeland, particularly if they are not of that child's origin. This conflict is often seen in adoptions of Korean children.

Eleana Kim has argued that such attempts by parents are often futile, and simply confuse the child with static, folkloric representations of the home nation that bear little resemblance to Korea when the child actually pays a visit. However, Kim does not dismiss the value of trying to return to Korea, so long as it is not an act of false nostalgia.

Instead, "adoptees who may have returned to Korea with fantasies of national or familial reintegration discover an adoptee expatriate community that supplements or even replaces other, essentialized or biologically-defined forms of relatedness" (Kim 497). The new connections with adoptees that have similar experiences become the most authentic forms of kinship between these returning Koreans. After a long period in which the South Korean government actively.