한민족 이산(Diaspora)과 한민족공동체 형성방안

Abstract

Diaspora is a useful concept which enables us to compare and examine diverse experiences of overseas Koreans within a consistent analytic framework. Diaspora as a discursive analytic term does not limit itself to immigration but incorporates community, culture, and identity, and thus facilitates various phenomena which develop in the course of immigration and settlement to be examined in relation to each other. However, in the contemporary Korean diaspora there are new phenomena that do not square with the concept of diaspora. The concept presupposes an ethnic group and its community expelled from the homeland that intends to repatriate to the homeland. However, middle-class backgrounds of new Korean immigrants after the 1960s, bidirectional flow of international migration, the formation of transnational families and communities, the emergence of multiple identities are several features of contemporary overseas Koreans that cannot be adequately explained by the original concept of diaspora. Even though the gap between the concept and the phenomena can be addressed by expanding the original concept, there is a concern that the analytic value of the original concept will then be diminished. For that reason, I think it is more practical to incorporate the concept of transnationalism to explain the current situation of Korean immigration and settlement worldwide. In this article, Korean Chinese were chosen for a case study and their current migration, economic life, family life, and social relations were examined through the lens of transnationalism. Also, I propose policy recommendations for overseas Koreans from the perspective of transnationalism.