"We Shouldn't Be Forgotten": Korean Military Brides and Koreans in Kansas

Abstract

This dissertation goes beyond the West/East Coast paradigm of Korean immigration to the United States by focusing on the Korean diaspora in Kansas. The dissertation argues that the Korean diaspora in Kansas is unique in a number of respects. Most importantly, Korean women have dominated the makeup of the migrants by gender and continue to play the major role in this expanding diaspora. Not only highly gendered, the Korean diaspora in Kansas is also relatively young and scattered across the state. The dissertation illuminates the dynamics within the Korean diaspora where race, class, gender, and certain Korean attitudes and behaviors have created new Korean/American identities, which are never complete but still in production over time. It explains how and why Koreans ended up in Kansas. It also demonstrates what is unique about the acculturation and community formation of Koreans in Kansas with the involvement of internationally married Korean women and chain migration of their family members to rural parts of Kansas and, later, to larger cities such as Kansas City and Wichita.