This book explores the impact of inconsistent rules of ethnic inclusion and exclusion on the economic and social lives of Korean Americans and Korean Chinese living in Seoul. Lee highlights the “logics of transnationalism” that shape the relationships between these return migrants and their employers, co-workers, friends, family, and the South Korean state.  

Introduction 1
1. The Premigration Condition 14
2. Return Migrants in the South Korean
Immigration System and Labor Market 39
3. Of “Kings” and “Lepers”: The Gendered
Logics of Koreanness in the Social
Lives of Korean Americans 67
4. “Aren’t We All the People of Joseon?”:
Claiming Ethnic Inclusion through
History and Culture 97
5. The Logics of Cosmopolitan Koreanness
and Global Citizenship 114
Conclusion: Finding Family among Foreigners 134
Acknowledgments 143
Appendix A: Research Methods 147
Appendix B: Characteristics of Respondents 149
Notes 155
References 167
Index 175

HELENE K. LEE is an assistant professor of sociology at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.