Lecture by: Lic. Carolina Mera
Subject: “Korean immigration in Buenos Aires. Rethinking ethnic identity”
A brief history of the Korean Colectivity of Buenos Aires
We can talk about a Korean immigration in Argentina since year 1965. The amount of
population from South Korea in Argentina reached its peak in 1990, when a group of about
42,000 people from this origin resided in Argentina. Half of this population arrived between
the years 1984 and 1989, settling mainly in the Province of Buenos Aires and in Buenos Aires
City. In the year 2000/2001, this figure increased to 25,000 people, while in the present it
does not exceed 20,000 people1.
The first Koreans that arrived to Argentina did so between 1956 and 1957. They were 13
North-Koreans from the army, war-prisoners that were given the option of migrating to other
continent 2 . They will then marry non-Korean women (of Italian, Spanish and Japanese
origin), and some years later they will marry to Korean women, that they have contacted by
mail.
Since 1962, they would arrive to the country in isolated groups, as part of a migratory flow of
displacement towards Latin-America3. They would come by ship, and would settle in Brazil,
Bolivia, Paraguay and Chile. Some of them will reach Buenos Aires by terrestrial means.
Thus, when the “Boys Ben” arrived in 1965, being the first ship of Korean immigrants for
which Argentina was the final destination, Korean families were already installed in our
country.
In 1965 a great number of families arrived and settled in Campo Lamarque, Province of Rio
Negro. The land was acquired by the Korean Overseas Development Corporation (KODCO),
which in 1971 also acquired lands in the district of Lujan, Province of Buenos Aires, to install
a farm for the growth of chicks and pigs, and for the cultivation of legumes as well. In 1977
KOCDO in conjunction with three Korean citizens established in the North-Eastern part of
1
This responds in great measure to the characteristic of displacement and re-emigration of this
migration, as the factor of expulsion that represented the economic recession of the `90, and the
institutional, political and economic instability in the 2001.
2
In October of 1956 Mr. Lim In-Kak arrived to the Argentine territory, with a small group of 7 people.
Some months later, in May of 1957, Kim, Kwan-Ok and Jong Ju-Won arrived, with three people more.
3
In 1962 takes place a migratory current of 30,000 Koreans towards Latin America, mainly to Brazil,
Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia. (Kim Ill Soo, 1981)
the province of Santiago del Estero the Colony CAMPO ISCA YACU, where sixteen families
will then settle.
Although the Colonies were installed in the countryside, we would see that in this period
some people will start to establish isolatedly in Buenos Aires City, the Federal District.
Between 1970 and 1978, around 500 families arrived to the country. These migrants were a
consequence of the migratory policies of the Korean government, which fostered the
“emigration in group” of families to settle in rural areas. However, this strategy did not work
out because the majority of these migrants had never practiced rural activities before (in spite
that it was one of the requirements for migration) and the areas were they settled had little
development, precarious infrastructure and few educational and sanitary services. As a result
of this, they finally moved to urban areas and big cities, so as to devote themselves to
commercial activities
In April 1985, a Procedure Act for the entry of Korean migrants to Argentina was signed in
Buenos Aires. The most relevant characteristics of this document are that the settling place
could be established in any part of the country, with the exception of Buenos Aires city and
the Province of Buenos Aires; the document also sets the obligation of a bank-deposit in order
to prove the economic solvency of the family. They had to deposit u$d 30,000 in the New
York Branch of the Argentina Nacional Bank under the name of the migrants before the
granting of the visa, and that amount would be kept in a fixed account for 60 days in the
central branch of that bank in Buenos Aires. Between 1984 and 1989 more than 11,000
permissions were granted. Although not all the migrants made use of this option, it must be
taken into account that each permission contemplated the family group; therefore the number
of Korean immigrants until 1989 would be of more than 30,000 persons.
The groups that came between 1984 and 1989 arrived by airplane, and have capital available
for investment. They were migrating from a modernized and industrialized Korea, that was
leaving behind a strong economic recession; for this reason, they would have a different
profile from the preceding migrants.
The decade of 1990 meant a qualitative growth and a quantitative decrease for the Korean
collectivity. There was no new entry of migratory flows but expulsion. Only isolated cases of
family regrouping, and single and lonely men. This last data is particularly interesting,
because it was a family-based migration from the very beginning.
Since the mid-nineties, Korean-Chinese migrants arrived to the country. They were Chinese
citizens from the Yanbian region, that once in Buenos Aires were able to integrate much
better to the Korean collectivity, as they spoke Korean, ate Korean food, and recognized
themselves as such. They attend Korean churches and also work in factories and stores from
Koreans.
One of the specific characteristics of all the Korean migratory flows that arrived to Latin
America was the high percentage of re-emigration to other countries: mainly the United States
and Canada.
The settlement
The geographic ubication within the city is closely related to the kind of sociability. The
Korean migrants adopt a strong tendency towards regrouping for all the social activities. This
spatial concentration talks about a net of solidarities based on affective ties founded on the
“ethnic identity”4 historically built in the Argentine context.
From the beginning, the conformation of the ethnic neighborhood strengthened the cohesion
and the existence of the group, and at the same time it shaped in a particular way the kind of
dialogue that it established with the receiving society. The social ties were articulated around
some ethnic institutions, such as churches and gathering associations of different origins.
As it was already mentioned, the first undertakings were aimed to the rural colonies, but their
failure fostered the displacement to the cities.
In Buenos Aires, they established in humble neighborhoods of the city (shantytowns in
Retiro, Bajo Flores, etc.). The concentration within a specific neighborhood first coincided
with the beginning of the activities of textile production, and then, as far as the economic
situation improved, they would start to move to middle-class streets, until they reached the
conformation of the Baek-ku (109).
In 1966, two institutions were founded: the Korean Union Church in Argentina -the first
Korean-evangelic church in the country- and the Association of Koreans.
4
Following different non-essentialist conceptions, we understand the notion of identity like a positional
and narrative construction, whose particularity is to be always relative and dynamic. In the narrative
structure, the multiple identities are apprehended like a sort of vision of the world shared by particular
an historical group that is in a common position in a given social space, being a dynamics that
articulates the individual trajectories socially constructed and the subjective systems of action. On the
other hand, we considered the ethnicity like a principle of collective organization that involves the
individual identification to the group in relationship to the glance of "the other" extra-group.
In 1967 the first textile factory owned by Koreans was opened. In 1969, the church Chae-Il –
one of the largest - was founded.
In 1970 the firsts clothing stores from Korean owners were opened in the Once neighborhood,
and they would grow quantitatively. Newspapers and magazines in Korean also started to
circulate.
In the decade of 1980 a great economic growth could be observed in the textile sector:
factories, workshops, stores for retailers and wholesale sellers are opened. The Korean
Traders Union was created. The community life experienced a process of accelerated
quantitative growth, the existing associations were consolidated and new institutions
appeared, such as APUC, AUCA, MIK, ICA, new newspapers, CICCA, the Association of
Writers, etc...
This qualitative growth can also be observed in Baek-Ku. There, we could find all kind of
stores, most of which have their banners and messages in Korean: bakeries with typical
products, video-clubs where the videotapes are labeled in Korean, fashion stores, beauty
saloons, hairdresser’s shops, dentists, garages, glass-stores, car workshops, supermarkets with
imported Korean products, rice houses, restaurants, fish-shops, property agencies, computer
stores, gift shops, a bookstore and a library with a special renting-book system, photo shops, a
Golf shop, the Argentine Federation of TAE KWON DO, accounting offices, drugstores,
travel and tourism agencies, car-service agencies, etc.
Besides, we could also find in the neighborhood a series of places that allowed the
development of an intense associative life, due to different elements that facilitated to the
members of the Korean community the keeping of specific everyday practices: Korean soap
operas in Korean that are usually broadcasted at restaurants, bars and restaurants, churches,
associations of any kind, means of communication (radio and newspapers) and various kinds
of stores.
We could say that it is in Baek-ku where the specific activities that give identity to the “ethnic
group” are developed. The neighborhood acts as a referential frame in the process of creation
and imposition of a particular identity, and thus it contributes to facilitate the establishment of
more solid channels of communication with the society that surrounds them.
Main Characteristics
The cult centers are the center of the community sociability. The evangelic churches and the
Korean-catholic church are the most important institutions, socially and culturally. In general,
the cult is practiced in Korean, and the ministries, priests and shepards are trained in Korea or
in the United States. These are churches that emphasize nationalism and reinforce the virtues
of the traditional values.
The attendance to these churches goes beyond the spiritual needs, since they play an
important number of secular functions: they are the focus point of interaction for the majority
of the immigrants, through these meetings they become friends, they exchange information
related to work, businesses, services, schools for children, etc.
This is a family-migration that creates an inside-community solidarity net that facilitates the
stay in Argentina. The organization of the family appears to be functional to the insertion of
the group and the success of the migratory project, allowing a good insertion and contributing
to the success of the establishment of their own businesses. It is a sacrifice made by the entire
family, but it is in the role of the women where one of the keys for success for the familygroup relies.
Changes of the traditional model
The extended family, characteristic of the Confucian-patriarchal model, started to give space
to the change towards the modern family, which only covers the primary functions.
The kin relationships that in the traditional system were based only in the paternal line,
appears multiplicated into more frequent contacts with the maternal family. Also, parents
understand that many times the affective love for daughters is better than love “due to
obligation” for the daughters in law.
The elderly people loose the role that they traditionally used to have as wise and guiding
persons because they don not know the new languages, the maneuvering of the space, the new
ways of thinking and the new situations; these elements place them in lower position in regard
with the other members of the family.
The children, that handle the language and the new codes, can communicate fluently, and they
facilitate the communication process of the family with the rest of the society, and this
changes their relationship with the adults.
The woman mediates the different positions, yielding the continuity of the organization of the
group in the ethnic values. It is for this reason that, although she changes several behaviors,
she keeps respecting and reproducing the traditional model. Specific conservative practices
(such as arranged weddings, the priority given to a male son, her dedication to the duties of
the house, etc.) are frequently accepted by women, but within the migrational context they
must be understood as part of the process of construction of the ethnic group; that is, as part
of a community solidarity based on the values of a positive identity in front of the different
cultural values that impose negatively.
Regarding the labor sphere, most of the economic activities are concentrated in the small and
middle textile industries, and also in the commerce of sport clothing, at the wholesale and
retailer levels. In general, the members of the Korean collectivity have experienced an
accelerated process of ascendant social mobility that responds to the kind of social
organization that dominates in the community, the rigid work-discipline, and to the helpsystems within the community (Kye). Great part of these small traders have a degree within a
wide arrange of disciplines, such as dentists, pharmacologists, accountants, historians, artists,
among others. There are two main factors that explain the tendency of professionals towards
the concentration and work on small businesses: 1) the difficulties with the language,
especially the impossibility of setting the equality of their degrees to local degrees. 2) the
nature of this kind of business: the whole family can work there and for a lot of time, and this
element allows a better use of the invested capital.
In the educational system, we can verify a successful insertion of the young people. An
evidence of that is the presence of Korean students in the best high schools, colleges and
universities of Buenos Aires, as well as in the diversity of professionals from Korean origin in
different public and private realms.
It is in the cultural and recreative activities where the multiplicity of figures is evidenced
regarding the insertion, that does not respond only to a logic of exclusion, but also to the
construction of an ethnic identity within the complex net of inter-generational relationships.
It is very difficult that elderly people could maintain relationships of sociability with people
from outside the collectivity, the adults maintain the indispensable relationships for daily life
and work, thus social relationships are kept within the borders of the collectivity.
Hence, the behavioral patterns that guide the adult and the elderly people is based on the
existence of an ideal “Korean identity”, based on the traditional values of the Korea that they
left, and that even in the Korean peninsula are disappearing (divisions by the region of origin,
the role of the woman in the affairs of the house, the respect for older people as if they were
their parents, etc.). It is an imagined identity in relation with certain values, such as ethnic
homogeneity, 5,000 years of shared history, the language, the food, the arts, the organization
based on the respect to the social order.
This situation is emphasized even more because of the lack of knowledge regarding the basic
codes and behaviors of coexistence of Argentina. Thus, the exaltation of the Korean
traditional values is even more stressed, which make them close themselves in social groups
that intend to reproduce the past Korean environment.
Differently from the old people, the adults that handle the basic Spanish (for businesses), have
more access to consumption, but the most general activities (attending the church, playing
golf, going out for lunch, meetings, to watch movies, etc.) are held among the members of the
collectivity. Only in a few cases they set contacts with Non-Korean realms besides work.
Among young people, there are much more spaces of mixed contact; however, we can
identify a difference in the habits, depending on the kind of activities, if they are held with
Korean counterparts or shared with Argentineans. It is very unusual that these two different
worlds would mix. There are certain activities that are shared with Argentine friends and in
Argentine spaces and others that are shared with Korean friends in Korean environments.
Nevertheless, the relationships between Korean partners could not be perceived as
homogeneous, because even within the Korean community there are some differencing
elements, for instance, between those who arrived to Argentina recently and those who settled
here several years ago. In general, those who have been living in Argentina for a long time
shared their activities with others who also have been living in the country for several years;
and the same phenomenon takes place among those who arrived lesser time ago.
Identity and sociability
The fact of being bearers of this double cultural condition places young people in a situation
of permanent conflict. Subjected to a situation of tension between the two cultures, they are
victims of this game since the moment in which in their homes they are receptors of the
customs and habits of their ancestors, and in the school and other institutions they learn the
local behavioral patterns. Besides this, we must bear in mind that play the role of intermediary
between their parents and the “outer world” to the community, frequently feeling closer to
“those others” represented by local people than to their own family.
Differently from their parents and grandparents, young people are more exposed in their
daily life to the discursive maltreatments that, legitimated by the common sense of the
hegemonic culture, devaluate the different manifestations of the ethnic culture, and also,
legitimated by the communitarian discourse devaluate several aspects of the local culture
(especially in opportunities of economic and political crises).
We can verify that the persons that actively participate in the communitarian life revalue with
more emphasis the symbols and discourses that from the interior of the group mean the
“koreanity”. According to our interviews and field work, these are cases of adult migrants or
even their sons that came from Korea with a background of some years in school (Generation
1.5) and that ended –or not- their learning process in Argentina.
It is very important for them that their sons keep the language, value and respect certain
patterns of traditional behavior, that they eat Korean food, and moreover, that they relate with
people from the group: what is fundamentally demanded from them is that they attend the
church and that they marry to Koreans. Among the valued behavioral patterns by the group
we can certainly remark the way to talk to older people, using the manners of courtesy
towards adults and superiors, or calling people by their title or their role in the family, onni,
nuna, oppa, hyong.
We would also have to remark the table rites, such as taking the bottle with both hands when
serving an adult, not to show the teeth when smiling, and the prohibition for women to drink
alcohol or to smoke in the table in the presence of men, etc.
Those that do not participate, or just do so sporadically, are a minority within the group of
young people under 30. They privilege the aspects of the focus of the local mediatic
discourse, where the indicators related to the level of integration that common sense demands
are generally remarked; some of these indicators are: the level of Spanish, to eat Argentine
food, and to have Argentine friends. For these persons, on the other hand, to be Korean is just
a part of an inherited family history. There is no adhesion or feeling of membership towards
the group, and thus, they do not respect its fundamental cohesive patterns. For them, to eat, to
speak, to know how to live as a Korean, is not related to “being Korean” in the present; to the
contrary, it is related only to their historical Korean background. This family heritage, in the
present context, is distanced from daily life with the purpose of reaching an optimal
integration. The young people that do not participate actively in the ethnic group consider its
articulating values as the biggest obstacles for a successful integration in Argentina, and for
this reason they try to take distance of their groups of primary membership, and to
individually enter into the local life.
We could verify that this is accomplished at a high cost in affective terms, since the young
people that places themselves in this space of the relationships, increasingly seek to keep in
lesser contact with their relatives, they also cut ties with their friends from childhood (who are
Koreans). In some cases we can find lonely childhoods and school periods caused by the fact
that they do not wanted to join other Koreans (and avoid being negatively stigmatized).
Hence, we could build, according to the preceding observations, two types of behavior: those
who actively participate and that define themselves in accordance to the characteristics
adopted by the older as well as the adult people of the group, and those who sporadically
participate and that not consider as relevant these attributes, and consequently they do not feel
identified themselves (in a first stage) as members of the group In the second case, we have to
remark that the determining factors of the local common sense hold a negative relationship of
value towards the attributes related to the “being Korean” that significantly contributes to the
process of taking distance.
The kind of contact and relationship that they have with Korea is also a determining factor of
their experience in Argentina. Since it is neatly a family migration, that in many cases also
includes their grandparents and other relatives, they can spend a great number of years
without visiting their country. Those who arrived to Argentina in the sixties (’60) and the
seventies not only did not visit Korea until the late eighties (’80), but also they did not send
their sons to know or visit the relatives that they left there5.
On the other hand, those migrants who arrived since 1984 visit Korea regularly and they also
send their children to study or to visit the country more frequently than the others. This
phenomenon also responds to technological advances and to the decrease in the prices of the
air tickets. These two different behaviors affect young people in a different way: in the first
case, the adhesion to the group is in function of the values transmitted by the adults and the
elderly; in the second case the adhesion also responds to a personal experience, a case in
which the difference between these two countries is evident.
The "Korean Identity in Argentina" 6 , would be, then, the product of the tension and
negotiation of the dialogue between the ideal image of identity constructed in a process of
struggle between the different communitarian sub-groups (old, adult, young, women, etc) and
5
There are people of around 30 years old who arrived to Argentina in their first years of life, that never
visited Korea, and in spite of that, they speak Korean, they live and think like "Korean", or rather, like
Korean Argentineans
6
There is no such a Korean identity in Argentina, but it appears as a multiplicity of positions of the
subjects, marked by the contingency of the different stages and rolls in the life
the result in the space and historical context of Argentina. That is to say, the Korean identity,
marked by the roll of the churches, the majority commercial activity between the Korean
immigrants, by the weakening of the Confucian rituals, by the purchasing power, the
professed religion, the economic and political crises of the country, by the experience of the
difference and the discrimination, and mainly by the experiences of life of each one of the old
men and women, children, young people, adults and elders of the collectivity.
The identity filiations of the members of the group do not arise from the nationality, ethnic or
religious inscription, but that is the result of the relations that the individuals establish in the
interior of the communitarian group and from this one towards the outside. In this dynamics
of production of social meanings, the representations of the others are constructed, setting in
this way, the limits of the difference 7 . It is a constant negotiation between speeches and
images that impose the legitimate vision of "the others" in a certain context.
We can also observe that the struggle for the representation of the group occurs its outside,
but there is also a constant struggle in its interior; it is a constant dispute within the group to
determine the image and definition that of themselves will prevail to them, and if this one will
be accepted -or not-, by the group. This is clear in the different positions of the Associations:
Korean association, Association of professionals, churches.
Negotiation of identities
The Korean identity in Argentina is product of the interaction of the fictional construction of
the adults on the one hand, and of the positions of the different groups of the community, in
the other; always in dialogue with the non-Koreans.
The mechanisms that operate in the election of the different particular cultural elements that
unite the group are presented as the nodal base of the personal and group identity: in one
hand, based on the relations established from the dialogue with other groups and speeches, on
the other hand, of the network of internal relations that exist in the group according to place of
origin of the family, educational level of the immigrants at the time of emigrating and the
educational level obtained in Argentina, the church they attend, and their insertion and
political commitment in Korea, and the relationships that they still hold.
As we have already seen, for the adults of the group, being Korean is to speak Korean, to eat
Korean and to behave (to marry) as a Korean. And any person of "Korean blood" that respects
these behaviors will be considered Korean. This reasoning supposes the existence of an
7
I have worked with the idea of "Korean identity in Argentina" defining therefore the "Koreanity" from
the priorización of the historical reference (spatial and temporary)
intended "Korean identity" (an ideal, fictionally constructed through the 5000 years of history,
language, food, and shared race and blood) for all the Korean communities in the world.
Nevertheless, when the Koreans of Argentina make contact with other Koreans, they realize
that there is a particularity, that they no longer are pure Koreans, that exists specificities for
each country, since it is not the same this "Korean identity" in the U.S.A., Brazil, Canada or
Argentina. This also is perceived in the deception that undergoes the young people that return
to Korea and they realize that they are not only Koreans, that they are Argentine Koreans 8.
The affirmation of a common origin, associated to the experience of the difference
(discrimination), appears as the pillar of the construction of the transmission spaces of the
cohesive values (re-signification of a history, valuation of a culture: language, rites and
behaviors, food, etc.). For this reason, we understand the spaces of ethnic sociability as
communication channels between the particular group and the Argentina society, that is to say,
like spaces where the group constructs its cohesion on the basis of this mechanism of resignification of its origin through different strategies.
The consolidation of the "ethnic identity" of the minority group is a political position directly
related to the place that the group acquires in the new context, and more specifically, to the
degree of discrimination and prejudice that exists towards this group
New challenges
The phenomenon of interethnic relations between the Korean Colectivity and the Argentine
society is conditioned by the type of integration and the specific characteristics of the
migratory movement of which they are product, sending us inevitably to the problem of the
acculturation or assimilation of the minority cultures.
The migratory currents that arrived to the country at the end of the XIX century and at the
beginning of the XX century, had to be culturized and to be assimilated to the Argentine
society, since this was a policy of the National State to create an own identity between so
many immigrants arrived from the world. Today, to the eyes of the multicultural policy that
reigns in the spirit of these times, we can appreciate that the term "assimilation" is replaced by
other terms like "integration" or "insertion”, which contribute to the consolidation of the
cultural pluralism intended by modern societies. The right to the cultural difference is today,
part of the human rights of any town or person.
In the case of the Korean residents in Argentina, we verified that the two figures delineated,
based on the degree of ethnic adhesion suppose different positions about the arguments that
impose a model of assimilating integration. Those that respond to a level of ethnic adhesion
less engaged tend to adopt argumentative guidelines that justify the homogenizing and
assimilating speeches to the official culture, for example: to speak Spanish and non-Korean,
to eat Argentine and non-Korean food9, whereas those that maintain a greater commitment
with the group and with the ethnic culture tend to assume positions nearer to the models that
privilege the cultural diversity, since it is the way to assure the survival of the particular life of
the group.
For non-Koreans the situation is also complex. We know that the social processes require
times to elaborate and to digest the changes. It is for this reason that in Argentina still appears
speeches that demand the cultural adaptation and blame the new immigrants for not
assimilating themselves to "our culture". From my point of view, the negation of the debate
resides in that there have not been a reframing or a modification of the presuppositions of the
"common sense"10 on which the official history of the State was constructed.
The relationship between the conformation of a minority "ethnic identity” and the global
social imaginary that intends the assimilation of the cultural particularities is set nowadays
like a political and academic problem that requires investigations and debates. In the case of
the Koreans, the membership to which we called "ethnic identity", to this world constructed
as "objectively different", with its aesthetic models, writings, uses of the space, meals, scents,
colors, gestures, etc. It evidences the necessity to reflect about the “otherness”.
In the case of Buenos Aires, we can verify that the negative construction of the group
installed in the common sense of the inhabitants of the city promotes strategies of revaluation
and, in many cases, mystification of the cultural outlines of origin, with the purpose of
constructing a positive symbolic universe (in the difference). Thus, the spaces created by the
collectivity make possible the sprouting of which we have called a "Korean-Argentinean
identity ", contextual and historical, negotiated by the group in the public space, and by the
person in each one of the spaces of daily life.
These are the spaces that guarantee a possible bicultural existence of the young people. Living
between two cultures, incarnating the continuity of the traditional values and, at the same
time, the values and behaviors of the new country. Each person elaborates in his or her
8
In the case of generation 1.5, we could mark a specificity since, in spite of the national differences,
they share the problematic of the biculturalism.
9
In fact, most of young people eat Korean food when they are going to meet with Argentine friends,
with the purpose of avoiding the rejection generated by the scent
10
We take Cliffort Geertz’s definition of common sense as a relatively organized set of speculative
thoughts, subject to guidelines of judgment historically constructed. "the common sense is not what a
interior a sort of negotiation between the two cultures, according to the expectations and to
the positions socially reached.
There are some who apostatize of their ethnic identity and they “assimilate themselves" to the
hegemonic model, arriving in some cases to reject his or her own family.
There are some who reject the culture of the country that receives them and they do not make
any effort in trying to learn neither the language nor the guidelines of behavior of the new
country. In general this implies the contempt of the local culture and the non-commitment
with the new place.
But mainly, there is a infinity of intermediate positions between both extremes. Those who
maintain friends and separated spheres, that do it per times, go to Korea, they return, they
move in search of their place.
Moreover, each person can travel throughout its life by different stages. It is for that reason
that we insisted on the concept of relational identity, that exists in certain situations and not of
once for always. I feel Korean in Argentine Argentina but in Korea.
mind released of propensities perceives spontaneously; it is, rather, what gathers a mind full of
presumptions "Geertz, Cliffort, local Knowledge, Paidos, 1994 pag. 105
Testimonies
"a sister who was born here in Argentina... she is very Argentine, she always thought that she
was Argentine, and to say more, she thinks that she is Argentine... she does not admit to be
Korean, there are many children of present generations that do not admit to be Korean, I do
not know why they displeases it, they feel ashamed, I don’t know what to say."(Mary, 22 years
old, Buenos Aires, 1997)
"for instance, what I did not like was the fact that his house was not just like my house, do you
understand what I mean? In my house I had to take out my shoes and they do not, for
example, they called their father by his name, for example Pepito, and I did not, there was
always something different, in spite of that, there were no problems with my friends, and I
said perhaps, when I go to Korea this may change... but it is the same, is the repetition of
everything, I feel just a little bit different, but a little diferente"(Rosa, 24, Seoul, 1998)
"I used to go to their houses, they did not come to house, the problem is thus, for example the
Korean food is very strong for you, sometimes a person who lives in a department cooks
Korean food and gets a complaint, for example if I am going to meet with an Argentine
friend I do not eat Korean food, in that sense I am very strict, I know I am going to smell like
garlic, sometimes I am scared if the person is going to accept it, if they are going it to accept
it, and in addition if we go to the house of an Argentine friend we are going to speak with his
or her, her brothers, but if they come to house my parents will make me go through an
embarrassing situation, because they do not speak the language"(Juan, 26, Seoul, 1998)
"In Argentina I felt more Korean than Argentinean, and in Korea , at the beginning, I felt
more Argentinean than Korean, but I say come on! Should I be in the Pacific then? Because I
felt neither in one side nor in the other. Let us suppose that that percentage was half and
half, now it became greater towards the Korean side, but still I am not equal to which those
who are here. I am not equal to them."(Teresa, 24, Seoul, 1998)
"I believe that one goes along well with the people who are in your same situation. It could be
that you get along better with an Argentinean, but the Koreans generally tend to relate to the
Koreans that are here. Because they suffer just like you, they have the same face as you. When
you walk by the street and you undergo the same discrimination, when they take the subway,
always the same glances, there are days that everybody looks at you, or perhaps it is your
perception. You know that my generation is called “1.5”, in any part of the world I will get
along and mutually understand with anybody from this generation. Also in the United States
also. If a guy from the United States goes to Korea, we both are going to get along much
better. Moreover, he will get along much better with someone from the states than with me.
Things like this” (Juan, 26, Seoul, 1998)
"What happens is that also the Korean friends that I used to have, they are not that Koreans
as once they were” (Pedro, Buenos Aires, 1998)
Bibliography
Abou, Salim, 1981, L’identité culturelle, ed. Anthropos, Pluriel, Paris, France.
Althabe, Gérard. 1991, “Production de l’etranger dans les couches populaires urbaines”,
Critiques Sociales, n 2, décembre 91.
Althabe, Gérard. 1992, “Vers une ethnologie du présent”, Collection Ethnologie de la France,
Cahier 7, M.S.H.
Arfuch, Leonor, 1992, “Identidad y discurso. Espacios de lo borgráfico” en Signo & Seña 1,
Nov. Fac. de Filosofía y Letras, UBA.
Arfuch, Leonor, La entrevista, una invención dialógica, paidós, 1995.
Bajtin, Mijail. 1988, “El problema de los géneros discursivos” en Estética de la creación
verbal, SXXI, México.
Barth, Frederik. 1976, Los grupos étnicos y sus fronteras. la organización social de las
diferencias culturales. Fondo de Cultura Económica, México.
Belvedere, Carlos, 2002, De sapos y cocodrilos. La lógica elusiva de la discriminación social.
Ed. Biblos.
Benencia, Roberto “Migrantes recientes a la Argentina: efectos sociales del
multiculturalismo” Trabajo presentado en las Jornadas de FLACSO/CLACSO 1998
Bhabha, Homi K, 1998, “Culture’s in between” en Bennet David Ed. Multicultural States.
Rethinking Difference and Identity, Routledge, London.
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1982, “Langage et pouvoir symbolique”, in Ce que parler veut dire, Fayard.
París
Bourdieu, Pierre. 1987, Choses dites. Les editions de minuit. París
Clementi, Hebe, 1987, Miedo a la inmigración , Ed. Leviatan
Elias, Norbert, 1990, La Sociedad de los individuos, Barcelona, Ediciones Península.
Geertz, Clifford. 1994, Conocimiento local. Ensayo sobre la interpretación de las culturas.
Paidós, Barcelona.
Hall, Stuart, 1997, “Who needs identity?” En S. Hall y Paul du Gay Questions of cultural
identity, Sage, London.
Lee Kyo Bom, 1992, La migración coreana en Argentina (publicado en Argentina en coreano)
Mármora, Lelio Las políticas de migraciones internacionales. OIM/ALIANZA, 1998
Martin Saravia, Rodolfo. “La emigración coreana en la república Argentina” en Corea.
Antigüedad y actualidad. García Daris, L. Compiladora. EUDEBA, 1988.
Memmi, Albert, 1997, “Les fluctuations de l’identité culturelle”, en Esprit, vol.1 Janvier
Mera Carolina, 1996, “Los coreanos no existen: reflexiones sobre la construcción de
categorías sociales”, en Margulis, M./Urresti, M. compiladores, La cultura de fin de siglo.
Ensayos sobre la dimensión cultural. Ed. C.B.C.- IIGG, Bs. As., Junio 1997.
Mera Carolina, 1998 La inmigración coreana en Buenos Aires. Multiculturalismo en el
espacio urbano, EUDEBA.
Min, Pyong Gap, 1991, “Cultural and Economic Boundaries of Korean Ethnicity: a
Comparative Analysis”, in Ethnic and Racial Studies, April 91. Dept. Sociology Queens Coll,
Flushing NY.
Min, Pyong Gap, Kim Rose, 1999, Struggle for ethnic identity, Altamira press.
Novick, S., Oteiza E., Aruj R., Inmigración y discriminación. Discursos Ed. Globus1998
Ricoeur, Paul, 1991, Soi meme comme un autre, cap. IV, Seuil.