Korean Immigrants in Latin America - (Korean Communities Across the World) by Kyeyoung Park (Hardcover)

About the Book

The volume examines the transnational Korean communities in Latin America, addressing issues such as historical processes of Korean migration, intra-ethnic diversity, community.

Book Synopsis

Korean Immigrants in Latin America: Home Away from Home is a multidisciplinary volume exploring the evolution of transnational Korean communities, tracing migration experiences, processes of cultural adjustment, and the formation of new identities across varied Latin American settings.
Bringing together scholars from diverse countries and academic fields, the book uses historical, ethnographic, and qualitative methods to analyze how Korean immigrants have navigated identity, integration, and community-building in Argentina, Mexico, Paraguay, and Brazil. Topics include migration history, intra-ethnic diversity, economic and cultural development, acculturation, and globalization. Addressing key questions about why Koreans migrated, how they integrated and prospered, and how they've negotiated identity, culture, and relationships with local societies and states, this collection offers richly textured insights into Korean diaspora experiences and transnational community dynamics.

Review Quotes

As a child of Korean immigrants raised in Paraguay, the rich accounts of the history, challenges, resilience, achievements, and unique perspectives of Korean communities in Argentina, Mexico, Paraguay, and Brazil feel deeply personal, rekindling memories of my upbringing. This rare anthology, which covers the experiences of first-, 1.5-, and second-generation Korean immigrants, offers a compelling analysis of migration, ethnicity, identity, transnationalism, assimilation, and integration. It is a much-needed contribution to the growing body of scholarship on Korean immigration to Latin America and the global Korean diaspora.
Dae Young Kim, George Mason University

This book provides a very innovative perspective on diasporas by examining both the historical formation of various Korean immigrant communities in Latin American while also addressing their contemporary ethnic and cultural status. Unlike other edited books about diasporas, it is not merely a compilation of isolated case studies in different countries. Instead, the book convincingly demonstrates that Korean diasporic communities in Latin America are not simply constituted by migratory dispersal from the ethnic homeland, but are also embedded in continuing migration patterns to and from various countries in the Americas and elsewhere.
Takeyuki Tsuda, Arizona State University

About the Author

Kyeyoung Park is professor and the Korea Times-Hankook Ilbo Endowed Chair in Korean American Studies at the University of California Los Angeles.