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South Korea is slowly but steadily becoming a country of immigrants. In 1998, there were barely 300,000 foreign residents in South Korea. As of 2018, there were more than 2.3 million. The immigrant population has yet to reach 5% of the total population, but it is predicted to rise significantly in the years to come. Despite the increase in newcomers, it is not well understood who native South Koreans prefer as immigrants and why. Are immigrant attitudes motivated by co-ethnic solidarity, or are they primarily based on economic and sociotropic concerns? To isolate attitudes on these crucial questions, this research uses a conjoint experiment that simultaneously tests the influence of seven immigrant attributes in generating support for admission. Our results show that broad sociotropic concerns largely drive attitudes towards immigrants in South Korea, but an immigrant’s origin also matters. Prospective newcomers from culturally similar and higher-status countries who can speak Korean and have clear plans to work are most preferred. The research findings will be relevant to the comparative study of immigration attitudes, as well as to researchers interested in the specifics of the South Korean case.

The current wave of technological transformation is altering dynamics between the global and local scales. This transformation affects the dynamic linkages between multinational enterprises (MNEs) and the host economies in which they invest. This article examines how MNEs in leading technology sectors are re-evaluating their relationship to Toronto’s innovation economy. It employs elements of three conceptual approaches on global production networks, global innovation networks, and the locational strategies of MNEs. Firms engage with the host region in new ways by tapping into knowledge sources to diversify the locational base of their R&D activities, as well as with local entrepreneurial ecosystems in emerging technologies and industry niches.