Korean Immigrants

As immigration issues and debates become increasingly politicized, people oftentimes forget who the migrants are. Today’s migrants are some of the nation’s most hardworking and humble individuals, simply trying to make a better life for their family. After interviewing my mother and learning about her own personal experience migrating from South Korea to the United States, I feel inspired by her constant dedication to make a better life for her children. My mother, just like many immigrant parents today, are part of the sacrifice generation. These individuals give up their lives in their home country and their own educational and career aspirations in order to migrate to the United States. These migrants are willing to face downward mobility
Author Caroline Bretell in Gender and Migration notes, “the men are the primary migrants and have high status in the US labor market. Women have lower or equal status [and] often stay at home to take care of children” (139). Initially, many migrant households aim to maintain traditional roles in the household and labor market. However, my parents soon realized my father’s single income could not sustain the family. Bretell highlights how “married Korean women [in the US] have much higher rates of labor force participation than do women in Korea” (138). Migration transforms gender roles, requiring migrant women to take on greater
However, my mother’s experience proves how assimilation is not a one-way process. The racial and ethnic disadvantage model asserts that “ethnicity can constitute a resource as well as a burden for achieving economic mobility” (Brown and Bean 2006). When my parents initially migrated to Los Angeles, California, they benefited from the strong social networks in Koreatown. Many of my father’s friends who had migrated in years past had assisted my parents in finding a place to live and work. Through the Korean community, my parents learned some of the most basic tasks, such as how to shop at a grocery store or send mail. At the same time, there was an inflated level of familiarity that contributed to the inability to diverge from her comfort zone and remain in residentially segregated areas. However, the recognition of “lingering discrimination and institutional barriers to employment…blocks complete assimilation” (Brown and Bean 2006). Rather than pure assimilation, my mother incorporated into American society through integration, which is a much slower and mutually exchanging process (Castles 268). Her faith has also been an instrumental force in my mother’s life, from the migration itself to incorporation and acculturation. The church has generously provided resources and a place of refuge for newcomers just like my mother. Alejandro Portes and