Residency without citizenship: Korean immigration and settlement in Australia

Abstract

This article focuses on the changing quality of citizenship in Australia, which is the idealized end-point of the process of immigration, by drawing on the experience of Korean immigrants. In the formal (political) dimension of citizenship, the article shows that Koreans fare comparatively poorly. They are less likely to be citizens than most other groups of immigrants, due to factors such as the lateness of Korean immigration. The article also analyzes the social dimension of citizenship among Koreans in Australia, and their disappointing socioeconomic outcomes. Korean immigrants, I argue, enjoy residency without citizenship, and their experience illustrates how the promise of Australian citizenship has eroded. This is a significant finding, given the prominent role that immigration has played in shaping all aspects of contemporary Australia.

On ‘being Australian’: Korean migrants in ‘post-multicultural’ Australia.

“…Hundt focused on political and social experiences of Australian citizenship for Koreans, one of Australia's fastest growing immigrant communities. In analysing census data from 2016, he determined that Koreans have lengthy residencies without taking up citizenship and linked it to relative newness having mostly arrived within the 21 st Century, late compared to other Asian migrant waves in the 1970s (Hundt 2019). This and other aspects of his analysis of the census data, such as relatively low-income range and professional employment, are consistent with the cohort of participants in the study reported here.…”

Reflecting on a second-migration experience: Issues and implications for social work practice

“…Some of them are holding ‘triple identity’ as Korean-New Zealand-Australians, and using it respectively or together depending on the situation. In addition, the resident status of migrants varies from ‘naturalised citizens’, and ‘tenant-occupier citizens’ who are lacking a sense of citizenship, to ‘indefinitely temporary’ migrants (see Hundt, 2019). This variation of residency/citizenship status seems to contribute to the weakening of identity solidity and acculturation endeavours among Korean-New Zealand migrants in Australia.…”