Table of Contents

Introduction 1
1. The Premigration Condition 14
2. Return Migrants in the South Korean
Immigration System and Labor Market 39
3. Of “Kings” and “Lepers”: The Gendered
Logics of Koreanness in the Social
Lives of Korean Americans 67
4. “Aren’t We All the People of Joseon?”:
Claiming Ethnic Inclusion through
History and Culture 97
5. The Logics of Cosmopolitan Koreanness
and Global Citizenship 114
Conclusion: Finding Family among Foreigners 134
Acknowledgments 143
Appendix A: Research Methods 147
Appendix B: Characteristics of Respondents 149
Notes 155
References 167
Index 175

About the Author

HELENE K. LEE is an assistant professor of sociology at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Reviews

"In this distinct contribution to the field of transnational studies, Helene K. Lee shows how ethnic identity comes to take on a very different significance depending on one's nationality and class position."
*author of Brokered Homeland: Japanese Brazilian Migrants in Japan*

"Lee examines the expectations and experiences of two groups, whose members think of themselves as Korean."
*Asian Affairs*

"The book merits reading to encourage reflection on the current social situation and pondering of the possible transformation of Koreanness in the future." 
*The Review of Korean Studies*

"Lee’s study is a crisply written and cogently argued analysis that makes an original contribution to a range of interrelated subjects that have preoccupied social scientists for decades, including diasporic nationalism, return migration, and (im)migrant incorporation."
*China Review International*

"Lee’s book aptly suggests that we should try to imagine the concept of homeland beyond the simple binary between family and foreign, us and them, and in and out."
*The Journal of Asian Studies*