| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
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I will also illustrate the ways in which research on Asian American issues has entered this debate to produce new narratives that complicate the linear trajectories of immigration and assimilation. Fi-nally, I will show how transnationalism reconceptualizes the ways in which we understand the flow of human, social, and cultural capital. By situating this study in these sociological constructs, I will demonstrate how cultural performance is produced vis à vis ethnicity and race and how this is a profoundly pedagogical process.
Theoretical Framework
Asian Americans and the Complexities of Assimilation
Research on the Korean American population is quite limited, especially in the domain of ethnic identity formation. Although 2003 marked the centennial of Korean immigration to the United States, most immigration to the United States mainland only occurred after the Immigration Act of 1965. Being a relatively young immigrant group, rarely going back three generations, the focus of study has been primarily on the immigrant generation and their incredible rates of up-ward mobility in the United States. Scholarship has only recently turned to the growing native-born second generation. These studies tend to isolate populations by their immigration status, that is, whether they are foreign-born or native-born Koreans and why this makes a difference.
As with many other ethnic groups under the Asian American umbrella, the lives of people of Korean descent in the United States have been interpreted through tropes of model minority, inter-generational conflict between the immigrant and native-born generations, and multiculturalism. Beyond these overarching frameworks, Korean Americans have to contend with the effects of historical events in which the United States was involved, such as the immediate aftermath of World War II and the Korean War. The presence of American military bases in South Korea is a constant reminder of the political ties between the two nationstates dating back to World War II. Also, with the emergence of multinational corporations such as Hyundai and LG, financial links between the two nationstates have strengthened.