동아시아 역내 유학생과 다층적 정체성 : 국가정체성과 초국가적 정체성에 대한 분석

Abstract

This article looks at the changing landscape of migration and itsimplication on the aspects of identity in Northeast Asian context, with particularfocus on the experience of international students. Due to the increase of Asianstudents studying abroad in adjacent countries, the regionalization of highereducation has extended very rapidly in the region. It inquires into the multipleaspects of identity among Asian students based on an empirical survey whichprovides information of 863 Asian students who have studied abroad in Korea,China and Japan. Assuming that social identification for these students aremulti-layered process permeated with various self-concepts and mixed sense ofbelongings, it is important to analyze the relations among three aspects ofidentity: national, regional (Asian), and cosmopolitan (world citizen) orientations. The result shows that the attitude toward national identity is distributeddifferently depending on which country an international student is from. We alsofind that strong attachment to national interests does not necessarily excludethese students’ concern for regional and global issues. ‘Asian identity’ is mainlyinfluenced by experience of respondents in host countries such as perceptionsof the discrimination against foreigners, while ‘world citizen identity’ issignificantly affected by career plan of students. Students who have plans todevelop their careers in foreign countries tend to exhibit remarkable interests ininternational cooperation and mutual coexistence. In this regard, we need anintegrated perspective on international students which regards them not only asconsumers for education industry but also as future citizens of regionalcommunity and the global society. The finding of this research also supports the role of international students and the influence of exchange student programssuch as CAMPUS Asia to alleviate antagonism based on the exclusive nationalidentity and to explore future dynamics for regional and transnational identitiesin Northeast Asia.