Positionalities and belonging amongst migrant youth: the case of Korean-Chinese communities in Seoul, South Korea

This thesis focuses on Korean-Chinese migrant youth (KCMY) in South Korea. Migrant youth have rather often been portrayed as passive beings reliant on parental decisions in family migration. In South Korea, youth migration has recently begun to attract social and policy attention as numbers have grown. There is little research on this group’s migration processes and experiences in their daily lives; a research gap to which this thesis is oriented. The thesis aims to explore the factors and processes influencing how KCMY negotiate their positionalities and belonging according to spatial contexts in their migration process. It draws on results from empirical research in Seoul, South Korea; interviews with KCMY aged 15 to 19 and with migrant organisation staff and policymakers, and through observations in social settings. I argue that KCMY who are involved in migration across their lifespan shift their positionalities and belonging by negotiating their identities in the situated contexts. Their experiences as left-behind children affect their identities and social positions both in their home and host societies. They try to place themselves in the most appropriate position in the social and spatial context by expressing or hiding certain identities among their multiple identities. This strategic positioning demonstrates that they are not just marginalised and passive in the host society but are flexible in utilising their in-betweenness according to the situated context. Their in-betweenness may play a role as a foundation for them to develop their future plans as transmigrants and in consideration of the social, economic and political conditions of both South Korea and China. Therefore, this thesis argues that the exploration of positionalities and belonging of migrant youth in their daily spaces is essential to understand the impact of migration across their lifespan and the ways they utilise situated social and spatial contexts.