Includes bibliographical references (pages 173-195) and index.
Contents:
Introduction -- Marrying into South Korean rural towns -- Loving strangers -- Clashing at home -- Making multiculturalism -- Challenging and transforming the community -- Searching for Filipina sisterhood.
Summary:
Based on ethnographic fieldwork, Elusive Belonging examines Filipinas who married rural South Korean bachelors in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Turning away from the common stereotype of Filipinas as victims of domestic violence at the mercy of husbands and in-laws, Minjeong Kim provides a nuanced understanding of both the conflicts and emotional attachments of their relationships with marital families and communities. Her close-up accounts of the day-to-day operations of the state's multicultural policies and public programs show intimate relationships between Filipinas, South Korean husbands, in-laws, and multicultural agents, and how various emotions of love, care, anxiety, and gratitude affect immigrant women's fragmented citizenship and elusive sense of belonging to their new country. By offering the perspectives of varied actors, the book reveals how women's experiences of tension and marginalization are not generated within the family alone; they also reflect the socioeconomic conditions of rural Korea and the state's unbalanced approach to "multiculturalism."
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.