Transnational Return Migration of 1.5 Generation Korean New Zealanders

Jane Yeonjae Lee is visiting research scholar at Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University.

Sandwiched between a myriad of scholarly studies on both the first and the second migrant generations, this book breaks new ground in several respects. It is an engaging enquiry into the lives, identities, and sense of home of a rarely studied yet important migrant cohort—the 1.5 generation—who left their home country when they were children and who now return. Second, it is an ambitious yet nicely nuanced transnational ethnography. It is also, to a certain extent, an ‘auto-ethnography,’ but never in a cloying way. Finally, it is written in an appealing, jargon-free narrative style which enhances its impact and scholarly significance.

• Part I: BeginningsIntroduction: Entering the Field1. Studying the ‘Everyday’ through a Transnational Ethnography2. A Transnational Approach to Return MigrationPart II: Return, Home, and Development3. Korea and its Diaspora4. Why a Return ‘Home’?5. Returnees in the Workforce and Knowledge TransferPart III: Return, Home, and Growth6. Constructing Identities: Challenge, Negotiation, and Growth7. Performing Identities: Re-creating ‘Home’ in KoreaConclusion: Ongoing Quest for ‘Home’