Transnational Making and Remaking of Education: Education of Immigrant Koreans, Transnationally Mobile Koreans, and Non-migrant Koreans in Korea and the U.S.

Abstract

Asians in the U.S., especially those of the same ethnic or national origin, are still often imagined and analyzed as a monolithic group. Glossing over the diversity in migration statuses and processes of Asian migrants to the U.S., a long line of research on Asian migration to the U.S. has focused largely on the dichotomous relationships between immigrants and natives. The heavy focus on immigrants and their relationships with native-borns or other immigrants overlooks how the experiences of immigrants settled in the receiving society and migrants on non-linear, non-permanent migrant trajectories diverge and are shaped and reshaped by the transnational transmissions and interactions of people, norms, practices, and institutions. My dissertation thus examines the transnational transmission and transformation of educational norms, practices, and institutions between immigrants, temporary migrants, and non-migrants of the same national origin, showing how coethnic immigrants, temporary migrants, and non-migrants hold different values and norms, develop different strategies in navigating the same educational institutions, and shape one another’s experiences across the sending and receiving societies. This dissertation draws on 115 in-depth interviews with ethnic Koreans of varying migration statuses. These include non-migrant Korean, temporary Korean and Korean American migrant, and Korean American students, parents, and teachers in Korea and the U.S. on their perception and usage of private supplementary education, for-profit, private education that takes place outside of schools including private tutoring, college counseling, and programs that take place in physical institutions like hagwons. The empirical chapters together explain how educational norms, practices, and institutions of the sending and receiving countries are transmitted between non-migrants, temporary migrants, and immigrants, and how their experiences are shaped across borders. First, I document the education of non-migrants in the sending society, focusing on how Korean students and parents perceive and implement private supplementary education. After tracing the transnational origin of immigrant-led educational institutions, I examine in the next chapter how immigrant Koreans negotiate between the values, norms, and practices of sending and receiving societies in navigating hagwons, the transnationally transmitted institutions. Third, I examine the interactions between immigrants and transnationally mobile migrants: specifically, I investigate how the contemporary homeland educational norms and practices transnationally mobile Koreans transmit impact how immigrant Koreans perceive and implement education in the U.S. Finally, I zoom in on the education of transnationally mobile migrants, exploring how they integrate transnational and local educational strategies to provide their children experiences and resources inaccessible to those settled in one society. Building on research on transnational migration and Asian (American) education, this project illuminates the divergent experiences of and dynamic interactions between Korean non-migrants, temporary migrants, and immigrants in Korea and the U.S. And these findings spotlight how the transnational inflow and outflow of people, norms, practices, and institutions result in meaningful social changes across national boundaries.