North Korean Migrants in South Korea: “Multicultural” or “Global” Citizens?

Abstract

In the past, the notion of a common Korean ethnicity shaped how North Korean migrants in South Korea understood themselves, and in turn were viewed and assisted by the South Korean government and its resettlement regime. However, new frameworks of belonging have emerged that focus on molding the North Korean migrant population into either “multicultural” (tamunhwa) or "global” (kullobol) citizens of South Korea. These are two competing, locally inflected idioms of “flexible citizenship” (à la Aihwa Ong) that are meant to capture North Korean migrants’ border crossing experiences and transnational aspirations. Based on 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork, conducted between 2009 and 2017, this article examines the development of these new narratives of belonging.