Cite as: Tassara, Danielle. 2019. Research Program Description. University of California. November. http://centerforethnography.org/users/danielle-yorleny-tassara
Danielle Tassara is a second-year PhD student in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine. Her research focus is on migration, movement, and mobility, specifically in South Korea, and the ways in which certain movements become (in)visible, (in)validated, and (il)legal. She has carried out two main research projects in the past that build off each other. Her first research project for her B.A. Honors Thesis involved working with so-called "marriage migrants" (Filipina and Vietnamese women who had married Korean men and migrated to South Korea), where she examined the construction of motherhood as well as the ways in which these families carried out identity formation practices not only for their children but for themselve and their families as a whole. During this project, she honed in on what means to construct or promote ideas of Korean ethnic identity and how it intersects with gender politics. This focus on how South Korean identity and the role of gender is defined and presented developed into her Fulbright research project concerning North Korean female refugees and how they become entangled in the same identity-formation processes. Building upon her previous research with marriage migrants, she explored the consequences of contemporary and historical conventions on ethnic classification and group identification within Korean nationalism, and how they get applied more broadly to migrants in Korea. Her research has also expanded to include the importance of the law and legal interactions as migrants and refugees have to deal with notions of citizenship and legality that have significant influences on their ways of life. Currently, she is examining how the asylum-status process for refugees in South Korea and how refugees seeking to stay permanently are represented in various ways through media culture, as well as representational strategies employed by refugee advocacy groups and anti-refugee protestors. She will pay particular attention to the ways in which migration influences and is influenced by the way laws are implemented on the ground, the impact of visual depictions of who is “deserving” within the law and who is not, and the ways in which global and local processes shape and transform each other.
My research program is invested in examining “regimes of (in)visibility” and the ways in which various types of dynamic movements and global migrations are characterized and represented as well as dampened and interrupted. I'm interested in looking media culture, as well as representational strategies employed by refugee advocacy groups and anti-refugee protestors, impact refugees and their ongoing quest for legal status. I'm interested in understanding what constitutes a “fake refugee” and how concepts of deservingness shape and mold the ways in which immigration law on the ground is implemented and carried out.
I will seek to uncover questions concerning visual representations of refugees and migrants and the ways in which it shapes the dynamic workings of movement and the law as it influences and gets influenced by refugees, advocacy organizations, and anti-refugee protestors.
On the left are anti-refugee protestors in South Korea carrying bright red signs that say “Fake Refugee, Out,” and on the right side, are South Korean counter protestors who are pushing for the “welcome” of refugees in South Korea.
A petition started on June 15, 2018 that was part of the wave of anti-refugee protests occuring on Jeju Island and the mainland. It reached 700,000 signatures and has been highlighted by international and national news organization along with anti-refugee protestors and human rights organizations.
Announcing an anti-refugee protest in front of Gwangwhamun on Saturday, June 30th
After clicking on the blue banner on the Refugee Human Right Center’s blog, I was led to another blog site that showed messages from an anti-refugee protest group with one of the images stating “The real human rights group press conference." The image here seems to be saying that the South Korean government is indiscriminately giving everyone who asks for it refugee status, including terrorists and immigrants.
While I was checking the South Korea’s Refugee Human Rights Center’s blog site, I found this large banner at the very top of the blog page. It’s an advertisement (probably an expensive one since Naver cafe blogs are used frequently by South Koreans) that slams “fake refugees, illegal aliens, calling for their deportation” and promotes a “South Koreans first” policy.
International news coverage showing an anti-refugee protestor in a small, Hyundai truck with a large yellow banner that says “South Koreans First!” Advertisements by truck are not unusual, including for political campaigns and events.
Original caption: An anti-immigrant protester in Jeju. The banner reads, “Our own people first!” Jun Michael Park for The New York Times
South Korea Candlelight Protests
Paul Y. Chang's article provides an overview of candlelight protests in South Korea, tracing back to authoritarian legacies and the process of "democraticization" in South Korea up to today. He demonstrates the significance of candlelight protests and ties...Read more