Group photo of participants at the Outward and Upward Mobilities: Families from South Korea in a Transnational Era workshop, September 2013
Group photo of participants at the Outward and Upward Mobilities: Families from South Korea in a Transnational Era workshop, September 2013

This international workshop, held over two days in September 2012, welcomed over 30 participants representing Canada, New Zealand, South Korea and the United States. Organized by YCAR’s Faculty Associate, Professor Ann Kim, among others, the main goal of the workshop was to situate transnational families from South Korea in Canada within a broader social, historical, political, economic and institutional context. Session topics included “Comparative perspectives on transnationalism as a strategy of mobility”, “A multiplicity of contexts: Education migration from South Korea to North America”, “Education migration, students and families”, “Institutional bridges: Language and cultural organizations”, “Transmigrants, Health and Well-being”, and “Future directions and opportunities for collaboration.

The full programme is available here.

The workshop was organized by: Ann H. Kim (Sociology, York University), Eunjung Lee (Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto); Min-Jung Kwak (Department of Geography, York University); Wansoo Park (School of Social Work, University of Windsor); Sung Hyun Yun (School of Social Work, University of Windsor).

The workshop was supported by: The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Connections Grant; the Academy of Korean Studies; the SSHRC-funded Strategic Knowledge Cluster on Population Change and Lifecourse at Western University; York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR); and the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies at York University.

Papers presented at the workshop have been published in Student Mobility in South Korea, a special issue of the Asian Pacific Migration Journal (Volume 22, Number 4) and a related edited volume is in progress. The journal issue can be accessed here: http://amj.sagepub.com/content/22/4.toc

 

A call for papers for the edited collection associated with the project, tentatively titled “Outward and upward mobilities: International students, their families, and structuring institutions” can be found here.

This workshop is part of a research programme research programme of Ontario-based scholars focusing on South Korean family and education migration:
> Development, Migration Strategies and Prospects for Integration: Understanding Contemporary Transnationalism among South Korean Families, SSHRC-funded (2009-2012)
> An Analysis of Public and Private Discourses of Education Migration in Canadian Schools: A Case Study of South Korean families, SSHRC-funded (2011-2014)
> Education Migration and its Impact on Children, Parents and Schools: A Pilot Study on Korean Migrant Children in Toronto, Canada, SSHRC-funded (2010-2011)