1. Faculty of Environment
  2. School of Geography
  3. People
  4. Profile
Hoayong Lee

Hoayong Lee

  • Email: gyhl@leeds.ac.uk
  • Thesis title: The Positionality and Belonging of Migrant Youth: A Case of Korean Chinese Migrant Youth aged 15 to 19
  • Supervisor: Professor Louise Waite, Dr Deirdre Conlon

Profile

Project overview

Today, about 3.3% of the world's population has undergone international migration (IOM, 2017). Moreover, the size and composition of the flow has changed in recent years, with women and children comprising a large proportion. Discussion on the feminization of migration has been widely conducted, but there is a lack of research on the international migration of migrant offspring and their positionality and belonging. I focus on the migration of Korean Chinese (Joseonjok) migrant offspring in South Korea. Since the late 1980's, a large proportion of them has moved as labour migrants from China to South Korea where it is considered as their ethnic home country. Most of offspring who immigrant in this fashion change their postionality, identity, and citizenship depending on their situation in Korean society by using their in-betweenness. They are an ideal group for analysing various positionality, identity, and citizenship characteristics according to the spatiality of their destination and diverse discourse on their migration. 

This study's objectives are as follows: 1) To explore migrant youth’s experiences as left-behind offspring in their origins and the effects of their migration for their positionality and belonging, 2) to investigate the individual, sociocultural and legal factors influencing the negotiation of migrant youth’s positionality and belonging in their destination, and 3) to analyse the influence of migrant youth’s flexible positionality and belonging as well as initial migration for their prospective life course plans, including any migration.

Education

2015, M.A. Geography, Department of Social Studies Education, Ewha Womans University, South Korea 
Dissertation: A Study on the Nature of the Ethnic Enclave and Ghetto of the Chinese Cluster in Daerim 2-dong, Seoul 

2013, B.A. Geography Education; Common Social Studies Education, Department of Social Studies Education, Ewha Womans University, South Korea

Working Experience

2016~2018, Researcher, Seoul Foundation of Women and Family, Seoul, South Korea

Papers

Lee, H. and Lee, Y., 2018, Reconstruction of Bordering and Ordering in Chinese Cluster, Daerim 2-dong, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, The Journal of Localitology, 20, 7~41.

Lee, Y., Li, Y. and Lee, H., 2014, Residential Characteristics of Korean-Chinese and Han-Chinese and Their Making-Place in Seoul, Korea, Journal of the Korean Urban Geographical Society, 17(2), 15~31.

Lee, H., Lee, Y., Shin, J., and Lee, H., 2014, Transnational Migration and the Locality Change of Origin - The case of Feng Lin Cun, Wang Qing Xian -, Journal of the Korean Urban Geographical Society, 17(1), 29~42.

Lee, Y., Li, Y., and Lee, H., Korean Chinese Networks of Trans-migration and Socio-spatial Change in Yanbian, China, Journal of the Korean Urban Geographical Society, 16(3), 55~70.

Research interests

Korean Chinese (Joseonjok), Migrant youth, Positionality, Identity, Citizenship, In-betweenness, South Korea

Research Affiliations

Social Justice, Cities and Citizenship