Abstract
This study examines the complicated interlink between the Korean state’s neoliberal identity politics and working- and lower middle-class Korean students’ study abroad as a form of voluntarily exile. Drawing on a critical discourse analysis and a 14-month ethnographic study, this study discusses how these students’ decisions to study abroad are inextricably intertwined with the authoritarian Korean state’s neoliberal political-economic strategies of pushing out seemingly less-profitable citizens (namely, students and graduates of low-ranking 4-year institutions). This study also examines students’ strategies for simultaneously resisting and conforming to this neoliberal ethos. For working-class and lower middle-class Korean community college students, study abroad means a deviation from the normal educational and life trajectories in Korea while, at the same time, their education in the USA opens a pathway for reentering the Korean neoliberal system as more profitable citizens. Their being recognized as members of a profitable workforce indicates their achievement of neoliberal normalcy.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
All of the post-secondary institution’s and persons’ names are pseudonyms.
I distinguished these students’ social class according to their subjective perceptions of their families’ socioeconomic status, and their parents’ educational level and income. In the case of students from the working class, their parents were either elementary school or middle school graduates, and their parents’ annual incomes were less than $20,000. In the case of students from the lower middle class, their parents were high school graduates or college graduates, and their annual income was less than $30,000.
SKY refers to the top three-ranked universities.
References
Abelmann, N., Park, S., & Kim, H. (2009). College rank and neo-liberal subjectivity in South Korean: the burden of self-development. Inter-Asian Cultural Studies, 10(2), 229–247.
An, H. (2014). Paktaet’ongnyŏng, “kyujenŭn uriŭi wŏnsu, amdŏngŏriro saenggakhaeya” [Regulations are our enemy considering them as cancer]. Kyunghyang.
Bieri, P. (2014). Salmŭi kyŏk (Noble Life): Chonŏmsŏngŭl chik’imyŏ saraganŭn pangbŏp [Noble life: The ways to secure dignity]. (Moon, H. S, Trans.). Seoul: Ūnhaengnamu.
Bourdieu, P. (1989). State of nobility: elite schools in the field of power. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Burchell, G. (1996). Liberal government and techniques of the self. In A. Barry, T. Osborne, & N. Rose (Eds.). Foucault and political reason: Liberalism, neoliberalism, and rationalities of government (19-36). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Chang, K. (2012). Introduction: South Korea’s condensed transition from class politics to citizenship politics. Citizenship Studies, 16(1), 1–12.
Cho, M. (2014). Kŭllobŏl pin’gonŭi t’oemasadŭl: kukka, chabon, kŭrigo yogi kananhan ch’ŏngnyŏndŭl [Exorcists of global poverty, the state, the capital, and here the poor young adults]. In Kim, A. R. (Ed), Chŏngch’iŭi imgye, konggongsŏngŭi mohŏm [Critical politics, experiments of the public] (141–179), P’aju: Hyean.
Choi, S. (2014). 20tae ch’wiŏpcha ch’oejŏ, taejol sirŏmnyul ch’oego: t’onggyech’ŏng 2008–2013 koyongdongang salp’yŏboni [The lowest employment rate of people in their twenties the highest unemployment rate of college and university graduates]. Han’guktaehaksinmun.
Chosun.com. (2014). Paktaet’ongnyŏng, kyujenŭn wŏnsuija amdŏngŏri…hawktŭrŏnaeya [President Park, Reguations are enemies and lumps of cancer must take out them with great puffs]. Chosun.
Fairclough, N. (1995). Critical discourse analysis: the critical study of language. New York: Pearson Education.
Fifield, A. (2016). Young South Koreans call their country ‘hell’ and look for ways out. The Washington Post.
Fong, V. (2011). Paradise redefined: transnational Chinese students and the quest for flexible citizenship in the developed world. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Foucault, M. (1991). Governmentality. In G. Burchell & P. Middler (Eds.), The Foucault effect: studies in governmentality (pp. 87–104). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Harvey, D. (2005). The new imperialism. New York: Oxford University Press.
Hoffman, L. (2010). Patriotic professionalism in urban China: fostering talent. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Ijunojo. (2010). Kijahoegyŏnjip: Koyongju pusongmullo nodongja chŏllaksik’inŭn koyongŏgaje saŏpcha idong chehan kyut’an kijahoegyŏn [Press kit: The news conference denouncing the Employment License System that degenerate migrant workers as adjuncts of employers by restricting workers’ change of their workplaces]. Seoul, Korea: Author.
Kang, Y. (2015). English—only when necessary: literacy practices of Korean undergraduates at a “global university” (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Kim, T. (2014). Kyŏngjehakchadŭl “kyŏngjegaehyŏk 3kaenyŏn kyehoek, aptwiga an manne”: “chuch’aeksijang chŏngsangwaga sobich’okchin?...kagyebuch’aeedo punmyŏngi “chŏksinho [Economists, “3-year economic reform agenda, there are ironies”: Do they say that the revitalization of housing market will encourage consumption? It is surely a red card for households’ debt]. Ohmynews. Retrieved from http://www.ohmynews.com/NWS_Web/View/at_pg.aspx?CNTN_CD=A000194834
Korea Immigration Service. (2015). Ch’uripkuk, oegugin chŏngch’aek t’onggye wŏlbo [The monthly statistical report of immigration/ foreigner policy]. Seoul: Ministry of Justice.
Korean Higher Education Research Institute (KHEI). (2013). KHEI statistics. 3. Seoul: Author.
Lee, P. (2014, October 8). Sunsujaebŏlbip’an2-samsŏng p’yŏn chung: samsŏnggongwaguk [Critic on conglomerates 2 – Samsung: The Samsung Republic]. CalFocus. http://calfocus.com/archives/2512.
Lee, S. (2015). Pak Kŭnhye 'Chungdong p’ant’aji', ch’ŏngnyŏndŭl yagolligi [Park Kŭnhye, ‘Middle-east Fantasy, ridiculing young adults]? Pressian, Retrieved from http://www.pressian.com/news/article.html?no=125022
Lee, M., Park, J., Yeo, H., Jang, S., Lee, Y., Kim, S., & Park, H. (2011). 2020yŏnkkajiŭi Kŭllobŏl Kyoyukpijŏn Suribŭl Wihan Chŏngch’aekchiwŏnbanganyŏn’gu: Illyŏgyangsŏng mit Ch’wiŏpkyoyugŭi Kukchebunŏpch’eje kuch’uk [The Policy study for the development of the global educational vision until 2020]. Seoul: Minisstry of Education, Science and Technology.
Lee-Chung, S. (2014). Ambivalent globalizers, vicarious cosmopolitans: South Korean “Geese-dad” academics (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Mitchell, K. (2006). Neoliberal governmentality in the European Union: education, training, and technologies of citizenship. Society and Space, 24, 389–407.
Ong, A. (2006). Neo-liberalism as exception: mutations in citizenship and sovereignty. Durham & London: Duke University Press.
Paek, U. (2013). Songmul chŏngch’iwa ingyŏ munhwa saiesŏ (between snobbery politics and culture of the surplus). In U. I. Paek (Ed.), Songmulgwa Ingyŏ [the material and the surplus] (pp. 1–34). Seoul: Chisikkongjakso.
Rizvi, F. (2005). International education and the production of cosmopolitan identities. Discussion Paper. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Rose, N. (1996). Governing “advanced” liberal democracies. In A. Barry, T. Osborne, & N. Rose (Eds.), Foucault and political reason: liberalism, neo-liberalism, and rationalities of government (pp. 37–64). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Waters, J. (2006). Geographies of cultural capital: education, international migration and family strategies between Hong Kong and Canada. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 179–192.
Working Holiday Info Center, 2013. Working holiday participants. Diplomatic Service, Korea: Author. Retrieved from http://whic.mofa.go.kr/contents.do?contentsNo=4&menuNo=6.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to several colleagues who read a draft version of this article: Ga Young Chung, Yoonjung Kang, Dohye Kim, Alex Lee, Sangsook Lee-Chung, and Agnes Sohn. I also appreciate Nancy Abelmann who read the very first draft of this manuscript, and Barbara Diller-Young who edited this article. I thank to the reviewers for giving very insightful and concrete comments on my manuscript. I am also thankful to the to the editor for his/her final touch on my manuscript.
Funding
This research was supported by the College of Education of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign under Hardie Dissertation Grant.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kim, S. Voluntarily exiled? Korean state’s cultural politics of young adults’ social belonging and Korean students’ exile to a US community college. High Educ 76, 353–367 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-017-0212-3
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-017-0212-3