Searching for Ontological Security via Homeland Media Use: The Case of Korean Temporary Visa-Status Migrants in the United States

Abstract

Temporary visa-status migrants initially might be perceived as emancipated mobilities who are privileged enough to enter and exit the United States without taking any major risks. This article examines the struggles involved in the experiences of the Korean temporary visa-status migrants living in the United States, and especially the role of media in their transnational everyday lives. Using a quasi-ethnographic approach by conducting qualitative interviews with 40 Korean visa-status migrants, this article argues that the homeland media, both television and Internet, sustain “ontological security” throughout the radical transitions, feeling of “existential outsideness,” and transnational insecurities and precariousness. The study offers a helpful insight in both understanding the contemporary dispersed audiences and contextualizing different migrant positions within the easily lumped category of mobile elites or cosmopolitans.

Doing Digital Migration Studies:

“…A tension also characterizes the attitude of many professionals employed at the University of Groningen: their desire for a state of transience and temporariness in the city goes hand in hand with aspirations for a more permanent and open-ended stay, which is also encouraged by employment contracts that are viewed to be more advantageous than those in other Dutch and European cities. Transient and mobile migration has been foregrounded in recent literature (among others see Gomes, 2017;Gomes et al, 2017;Lee, 2020;Polson, 2016; and is often contrasted with permanent migration. Yet, the life of highly skilled professionals included in this research is characterized by desires for both permanency and mobility, with one existing in close connection with the other.…”

“…Along the same lines, emphasized the transnational and cosmopolitan life of modern migrants in the digital age. More recently, a growing body of literature is examining the life of mobile and transient migrants (Gomes, 2017;Lee, 2020), and the concept of "digital place-making" (Halegoua, 2020;Halegoua & Polson, 2021;Hjorth, 2012;Wilken & Goggin, 2012;Fast et al, 2018), viewed as the "use of digital media to create a sense of place for oneself and/or others" (Halegoua & Polson, 2021, p. 574) within the context of mobility and migration. Other research has specifically examined social media usage and the making of place among mobile middleclass professionals (Polson, 2015;Kraemer, 2014;.…”