Becoming South Korean mothers: when defection meets motherhood

Currently, some thirty thousand North Korean defectors reside in South Korea. More than seventy percent of them are women and many of these are mothers. Some birthed children in North Korea. Some birthed children in China as impoverished and undocumented migrants before escaping to South Korea, while others became mothers after their arrival in South Korea. This research focuses on all these mothers and their struggles to reconfigure their mothering practices in South Korean society.

This dissertation examines how these mothers understand and react to South Korean society and its judgements of their mothering. Based on ethnographic research, this study delves into the everyday experiences of North Korean defector mothers and the various factors that affect their mothering practices. Unlike the existing corpus of studies on North Korean defectors, this dissertation aims to bring together two bodies of scholarship that are rarely connected: refugees/defectors and motherhood. By focusing on North Korean defector mothers’ own voices as “women” and “mothers,” – not just as “defectors” – this dissertation highlights that their defection status continues even after resettlement and while dealing with the process of becoming “South Koreans” and “transnational mothers” with children left behind in North Korea and/or China.

This process is ongoing, as North Korean defector mothers (re)produce or (re)interpret what it means to be a “good” mother in South Korea, while at the same time negotiating with South Korean perceptions of motherhood. North Korean mothers recognize that their defection and mothering practices are mutually influential in their everyday lives, from the very beginning of their decision to flee and long after their settlement in South Korea.