South Korean "New Wild Geese" Mothers Studying in the U.S.:Balancing between Studenthood and Motherhood

Abstract

Over the last few years, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of female Korean students in U.S. colleges who are married, have children, and whose husbands are in Korea. This unique phenomenon has few parallels represented by Korean men or other ethnic women in the U.S., and little is known about these Korean women's overseas lives as mothers and students. This qualitative study based on participant observation and interviews with four such women explores the causes of the emergence and increase of so-called Korean "new wild geese" mother students, and their achievements, challenges, and coping strategies while studying abroad. The emergence of these women speaks to the issues of gender, family, and education in the neoliberalizing South Korea where middle-class families cannot any longer afford full-time mothers accompanying their children's early study abroad. While enjoying relative independence in the absence of their husbands and free from their obligations as daughters-in-law, these women who make double investments in their own education as well as in their children's scholastics for the sake of their family's upward class mobility, also struggle between motherhood and studenthood.