• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.1-22
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• 2017

This paper is to consider conceptually a formation of food-networks and border-crossing of transnational marriage migrant households on the basis of actor-network theory, and to analyze empirical data on the issues collected by interview with marriage migrant women living around Daegu, S.Korea. Some research results can be argued as follows: First, food can be seen, not as a single material object, but as a multiple and hybrid network of human and nonhuman (material and institutional) actors, in which activities of food cooking and eating are regulated by and (re)construct social relations and placeness of households. Secondly, food-networks in marriage migrant households implement relationships of micro-power (and attachment) in the process of its (re)formation, and hence the food-network, it can be argued, is a field of power in which conflicts and compromising around food cooking and eating are intersecting each others. Thirdly, food-networks in marriage migrant households in both their origin country and in the Korean home are not only affected by macro natural and social environments but also by micro placeness of the households, both of which constitute the food-networks and operate in relations with other actors in the netwroks. Finally, food-networks in marriage migrant households reflect multiple and multi-scalar spatial mobility and placeness of transnational food culture, through which they express topologically 'fluid space' and 'absent presence', in which marriage migrant women can (or cannot) conduct social and cultural border-crossing.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.295-318
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• 2009

This paper explores micro-contexts of transnational migration and decision-making process of foreign migrants in Korea with four types, that is, married immigrants, immigrant workers, professional immigrants, and foreign students, analyzing dates of questionaries and interviews. Some findings can be summarized as follows. First, married immigrants and immigrant workers show relative lower level of micro-environments than professional immigrants and foreign students. Secondly, immigrants workers fill closest in geographical contiguity among immigrants' types, while married immigrants recognize more different in cultural comparison than the former. Both immigrants workers and foreign students think living environments of Korea better than other types, but immigrants workers consider relatively higher the level of technology, while foreign students evaluate lower that of education in Korea than other types. Thirdly, married immigrants give a relatively low score to the easiness of immigration, while both immigrant workers and professional immigrants give a high score to the job environment of Korea. Finally, all types of immigrants show a high portion in a self-decision making for international migration, while professional immigrants have much more experiences on visiting other countries than other types, and both married immigrants and foreign students seem to have utilized their networks with family members who live abroad.