Korean International Students and the Making of Racialized Transnational Elites

An analysis of the ways in which the intersection of class, race, and ethnicity shape the practices of diaspora-building and knowledge transfer and cause heterogeneous consequences in society, this book examines emergent highly skilled Asian migrants as racialized transnational elites through interviews with Korean international students.

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By examining privileged and highly skilled Asian migrants, such as international students who acquire legal permanent residency in the United States, this book registers and traces these transnational figures as racialized transnational elites and illuminates the intersectionality and reconfiguration of race, class, ethnicity, and nationality. Using in-depth interviews with Korean international students in New York City and Koreans in South Korea as a case study, this book argues racialized transnational elites are embedded in racial and ethnic dynamics in the United States as well as in class and nationalist conflicts with non-migrant co-ethnics in the sending country. Sung-Choon Park further argues strategic responses to the local, social dynamics shape transnational practices such as diaspora-building, transfer of knowledge, conversion of cultural capital, and cross-border communication about race, causing heterogeneous social consequences in both societies.