In Second-Generation Korean Experiences in the United States and Canada, Pyong Gap Min and Samuel Noh have compiled a comprehensive examination of 1.5- and second-generation Korean experiences in the United States and Canada. As the chapters demonstrate, comparing younger-generation Koreans with first-generation immigrants highlights generational changes in many areas of life. The contributors discuss socioeconomic attainments, self-employment rates and business patterns, marital patterns, participation in electoral politics, ethnic insularity among Korean Protestants, the relationship between perceived discrimination and mental health, the role of ethnic identity as stress moderator, and responses to racial marginalization. Using both quantitative and qualitative data sources, this collection is unique in its examination of several different aspects of second-generation Korean experiences in the United States and Canada. An indispensable source for those scholars and students researching Korean Americans or Korean Canadians, the volume provides insight for students and scholars of minorities, migration, ethnicity and race, and identity formation.

This is the only anthology that covers several different topics related to Koreans’ experiences in the U.S. and Canada. The topics covered are Koreans’ immigration and settlement patterns, changes in Korean immigrants’ business patterns, Korean immigrant churches’ social functions, differences between Korean immigrant intact families and geese families, transnational ties, second-generation Koreans’ identity issues, and Korean international students’ gender issues. This book focuses on Korean Americans’ twenty-first century experiences. It provides basic statistics about Koreans’ immigration, settlement and business patterns, while it also provides meaningful qualitative data on gender issues and ethnic identity. The annotated bibliography on Korean Americans in Chapter 10 will serve as important guides for beginning researchers studying Korean Americans.

A Companion to Korean American Studies presents interdisciplinary works from a number of authors who have contributed to the field of Korean American Studies. This collection ranges from chapters detailing the histories of Korean migration to the United States to contemporary flows of popular culture between South Korea and the United States. The authors present on Korean American history, gender relations, cultural formations, social relations, and politics. Contributors are: Sohyun An, Chinbo Chong, Angie Y. Chung, Rhoanne Esteban, Sue-Je Lee Gage, Hahrie Han, Jane Hong, Michael Hurt, Rachael Miyung Joo, Jane Junn, Miliann Kang, Ann H. Kim, Anthony Yooshin Kim, Eleana Kim, Jinwon Kim, Ju Yon Kim, Kevin Y. Kim, Nadia Y. Kim, Soo Mee Kim, Robert Ji-Song Ku, EunSook Lee, Se Hwa Lee, S. Heijin Lee, Shelley Sang-Hee Lee, John Lie, Pei-te Lien, Kimberly McKee, Pyong Gap Min, Arissa H. Oh, Edward J.W. Park, Jerry Z. Park, Josephine Nock-Hee Park, Margaret Rhee and Kenneth Vaughan.

Winner, ASA Book Award on Asia/Transnational (2017) This book compares the Korean diasporic groups in Japan and the United States. It highlights the contrasting adaptation of Koreans in Japan and the United States, and illuminates how the destinies of immigrants who originally belonged to the same ethnic/national collectivity diverge depending upon destinations and how they are received in a certain state and society within particular historical contexts. The author finds that the mode of incorporation (a specific combination of contextual factors), rather than ethnic ‘culture’ and ‘race,’ plays a decisive role in determining the fates of these Korean immigrant groups. In other words, what matters most for immigrants’ integration is not their particular cultural background or racial similarity to the dominant group, but the way they are received by the host state and other institutions. Thus, this book is not just about Korean immigrants; it is also about how contexts of reception including different conceptualizations of ‘race’ in relation to nationhood affect the adaptation of immigrants from the same ethnic/national origin.

Many second-generation Korean Americans (SGKAs) are living lives of marginality on the edge of Korean American and American cultures. This double life often leads to heightened mental health concerns. The rise of Asian hate crimes in this country in recent months have added to the distress in this population. Due to cultural stigma, however, SGKAs may not seek out counseling or other mental health services. If they do, their unique cultural formation is often not fully addressed, impeding growth and healing. Red Door Ministry (RDM), a pastoral counseling center that started at a local Korean-American church, serves as a model for addressing this issue. Built from a postcolonial understanding of third space, RDM is constructed with various culturally sensitive elements that allow SGKAs to move from places of shame on the margins to empowered new centers. This transformation is examined by four in-depth interviews of RDM clients. These clients show that healing and empowerment were possible because their complex cultural hybridity was addressed in the process of counseling. This process is analyzed using concepts from Western psychological theories, Korean American theology, and postcolonial theory.

This open access book examines the lived experiences of diasporic Korean youth in light of the transnational flows of South Korean popular culture, known as the Korean Wave, or Hallyu. Drawing on an ethnographic study of Korean Canadian youth and their engagement with the Korean Wave, the book proposes a critical understanding of the interactions between diasporic youth audiences and popular culture. By examining the Korean Wave as diasporic cultural practices rather than the diffusion of national cultural products, the book reveals the diversified ways in which cultural flows are negotiated by audiences who take up relatively ambivalent reception positions between two or more national and cultural contexts. This book expands the scope of transnational audience studies and youth cultural studies by focusing attention on the diasporic media practices of young people.

Koreans are one of the fastest-growing visible minority groups in Canada today. However, very few studies of their experiences in Canada or their paths of integration are available to public and academic communities. Korean Immigrants in Canada provides the first scholarly collection of papers on Korean immigrants and their offspring from interdisciplinary, social scientific perspectives. The contributors explore the historical, psychological, social, and economic dimensions of Korean migration, settlement, and integration across the country. A variety of important topics are covered, including the demographic profile of Korean-Canadians, immigrant entrepreneurship, mental health and stress, elder care, language maintenance, and the experiences of students and the second generation. Readers will find interconnecting themes and synthesized findings throughout the chapters. Most importantly, this collection serves as a platform for future research on Koreans in Canada.

Drawing on vivid ethnographic field studies of youth on the transnational move, across Seoul, Toronto, and Vancouver, this book examines transnational flows of Korean youth and their digital media practices. This book explores how digital media are integrated into various forms of transnational life and imagination, focusing on young Koreans and their digital media practices. By combining theoretical discussion and in depth empirical analysis, the book provides engaging narratives of transnational media fans, sojourners, and migrants. Each chapter illustrates a form of mediascape, in which transnational Korean youth culture and digital media are uniquely articulated. This perceptive research offers new insights into the transnationalization of youth cultural practices, from K-pop fandom to smartphone-driven storytelling. A transnational and ethnographic focus makes this book the first of its kind, with an interdisciplinary approach that goes beyond the scope of existing digital media studies, youth culture studies, and Asian studies. It will be essential reading for scholars and students in media studies, migration studies, popular culture studies, and Asian studies.

Younger-Generation Korean Experiences in the United States: Personal Narratives on Ethnic and Racial Identities compares the formation of the ethnic identities of two distinct cohorts of Korean Americans. Through personal essays, the book explores four influential factors of ethnic identity: retention of ethnic culture; participation in ethnic social networks; links to the mother country and its global power and influence; and experiences with racial prejudice and discrimination. The essays reflect certain major changes between the two cohorts—the first growing up in the 1960s and early 1970s and the second growing up during the 1980s and early 1990s— and proves how an increase in the Korean population and in the number of ethnic organizations helped the second-cohort Korean Americans retain their cultural heritage in a more voluntary, and therefore meaningful, way. This book’s combination of first-hand experiences and critical analysis makes it a valuable resource for studies of ethnicity, culture, identity formation, and the Asian-American experience.

Tiger Mom. Asian patriarchy. Model minority children. Generation gap. The many images used to describe the prototypical Asian family have given rise to two versions of the Asian immigrant family myth. The first celebrates Asian families for upholding the traditional heteronormative ideal of the “normal (white) American family” based on a hard-working male breadwinner and a devoted wife and mother who raises obedient children. The other demonizes Asian families around these very same cultural values by highlighting the dangers of excessive parenting, oppressive hierarchies, and emotionless pragmatism in Asian cultures. Saving Face cuts through these myths, offering a more nuanced portrait of Asian immigrant families in a changing world as recalled by the people who lived them first-hand: the grown children of Chinese and Korean immigrants. Drawing on extensive interviews, sociologist Angie Y. Chung examines how these second-generation children negotiate the complex and conflicted feelings they have toward their family responsibilities and upbringing. Although they know little about their parents’ lives, she reveals how Korean and Chinese Americans assemble fragments of their childhood memories, kinship narratives, and racial myths to make sense of their family experiences. However, Chung also finds that these adaptive strategies come at a considerable social and psychological cost and do less to reconcile the social stresses that minority immigrant families endure today. Saving Face not only gives readers a new appreciation for the often painful generation gap between immigrants and their children, it also reveals the love, empathy, and communication strategies families use to help bridge those rifts.