'Ethnic capital' and 'flexible citizenship' in unfavourable legal contexts: stepwise migration of the Korean Chinese within and beyond northeast Asia. Issue 6 (26th April 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kim, Jaeeun
• Is Part Of: Journal of ethnic and migration studies. Volume 45:Issue 6(2019)
• Page Start: 939
• Page End: 957
• Publication Date: 2019-04-26
• Subjects: Ethnic capital -- stepwise migration -- flexible citizenship -- mobility regimes -- Korea -- China; Ethnic relations -- Periodicals; Race relations -- Periodicals; Emigration and immigration -- Periodicals; Assimilation (Sociology) -- Periodicals; 305.8005
• DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2018.1440489
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1369-183X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article examines how migrants mobilise ethnicity for migration purposes by drawing on the migration trajectories of ethnic Korean migrants from northeast China (Korean Chinese) – through various steppingstone countries, including South Korea – to the U.S. I focus on how regulatory authorities, various intermediaries, and aspiring migrants interact over the valorisation, conversion, and legitimisation of what I call 'ethnic capital'. Drawing on ethnographic field research in China, South Korea, and the U.S., I show how multiple manifestations of ethnic capital – coethnic networks, Korean proficiency, perceived phenotypical affinities, kinship relations with South Korean citizens, and derivatively, South Korean citizenship/passports (obtained legally or illegally) – facilitate Korean Chinese stepwise migration. I also examine how the differential endowment of migration-facilitating capital (including ethnic capital) produces fine-grained material and symbolic stratification in the sending community and identify the distinctive moral economy that informs Korean Chinese navigation of global mobility regimes. By illuminating the strategies of capital-constrained migrants facing policy contexts markedly different from the much-studied European cases, this article highlights the contested process through which ethnicity is turned into migration-facilitating capital, expands our inquiry on the 'flexible citizenship' practices beyond the jet-setting managerial class, and deepens our comparative understanding of ethnic affinity migration and external citizenship.