Events

CHAIRPERSON

Prof Jean Yeung, Asia Research Institute and Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

The notion of citizenship has become increasingly important with the influx of marriage migrants in South Korea. A range of policies on “the multicultural family” have been implemented by the Korean government. The legal rights of marriage migrants are usually not questioned because they are granted by marriage. The policy issue is often framed as the gap between the citizenship of marriage migrant and the cultural context. Although efforts towards multicultural society are valuable, this frame doesn’t necessarily help us understanding citizenship as a relationship between a marriage migrant and the Korean state. The ways in which the citizenship of marriage migrants is defined reflects how marriage migrants are understood by the Korean authority. It opens up the discussion for the undefined grounds of understanding citizenship and the social contract in Korean society. In this paper, I attempt to examine how the citizenship of marriage migrants is constructed based on the membership of a family rather than as individual rights by reviewing relevant legislations. Then I will discuss the meaning of this construct in a broader context of the welfare regime change in South Korea which has been largely dependent on family.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Lee Hyunok recently received her PhD at the Department of Development Sociology, Cornell University in USA. She obtained her MA in Gender and Development from the University of Sussex, and BA in Political Science and Diplomacy from Yonsei University. She is interested in exploring gender relations in the political economic changes. She wrote a dissertation on the political economy of cross border marriage between South Korean men and Vietnamese women.

REGISTRATION

Admission is free. We would greatly appreciate if you RSVP Mr Jonathan Lee via email: jonathan.lee@nus.edu.sg