• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.59-87
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• 2013

The goal of this study is to understand the experiences of emigration to Vietnam for Korean older males through a qualitative case study. The specific research questions are following. Firstly, what do they experience through emigration to Vietnam? Secondly, what are the meanings of emigration to Vietnam for them? Thirdly, what are the contextual meanings of it? To explore these questions, the data were collected through diverse data collection methods including in-depth interviews with seven research participants for eleven months. Each case was carefully examined and summarized in the within-case analysis and major issues appeared in each case were described in the cross-case analysis before the reconstitution of story-telling considering a holistic context on the older males' experiences of emigration to Vietnam. The six integrated themes are 'Motivation and background of immigration', 'Acculturation', 'Social network', 'Meaning of work', 'Family' and 'Spirituality and attitude to the life', 'Perceptions on death'. Finally, the critical results were summarized before indicating limits and implications of this study and then some suggestions for following studies are summarized on the conclusion.