Migrant Network Im/mobilities?: The Case of Southeast Asian Labor Migrants in South Korea
Tue, December 2, 2025 12:00 PM at Zoom
Please save the date of 12 p.m. Tuesday Dec. 2 for Yoojin Jang's dissertation proposal defense via Zoom (link below abstract.)
Title: Migrant Network Im/mobilities?: The Case of Southeast Asian Labor Migrants in South Korea
Abstract:
"Sociological understandings of migrant networks have revealed how social ties help migrants access information about jobs, housing, and support (emotional and financial) in destination countries. Expanding migrant surveillance and regulation regimes, particularly in states that are highly dependent on temporary labor migration flows, raise new questions about how networks are responding to and operating within conditions of constraint. South Korea is a country that relies on approximately 200,000 migrants to sustain a range of key industries, while it also maintains strict limits on permanent residence and family settlement. This dissertation will utilize the im/mobility framework (Bélanger and Silvey, 2020) to examine how social networks may impact the experiences of Southeast Asian migrants in moving to and within Korea’s highly regulated migrant worker regime. Through a mix of interviews and participant observation, I aim to engage Indonesian, Filipino, and Thai workers working and living in Korea to understand how they sustain and build temporary (or not) working lives in Korea. Furthermore, policy documents and digital ethnography of platforms such as Facebook and Instragram will also be analyzed to understand how institutional, social, and technological structures shape migrant im/mobilities. By connecting the im/mobility framework with social network theory, this research will closely examine how networks may serve as infrastructures of both power and movement, creating opportunities for support and agency while reproducing inequality and dependence. This research aims to extend the current debates on migrant integration and mobility by showing how migrant connections can influence movement and belonging under specific restrictive migration policies."
Topic: Yoojin Jang Proposal Defense
Time: Dec 2, 2025 12:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
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Meeting ID: 918 7613 1710
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