From Undocumented Migrant Workers to Migrant Media Activists: A Case Study of MWTV Migrant Media Activists

Abstract

Exclusion of and discrimination against migrant workers in South Korea have long been popular research topics for anthropologists and other social scientists. Whereas earlier research focused on the status of migrant workers as minorities and their exclusion from mainstream Korean society, this article examines how long-term migrant workers have adapted to South Korean culture, what kinds of qualifications and opportunities they have gained in South Korea, and how their lifeworlds changed as a result. While exploring how and in what contexts the South Korean nation-state realized and executed violence on migrant workers, the analysis turns to how migrant media activists resisted this violence through protests and media productions. By illustrating the activities of migrant media activists and their production of media contents, the article argues that the lives of migrant workers have been equally shaped by the biopolitics against migrant workers in Korean society and the identity politics of migrants struggles to be recognized as social beings.