Eleventh Global Studies Conference

Abstract

Since North Korean refugee crisis drew worldwide attention, scholars have examined this issue for the past two decades. The scholarship has been mainly centered around three approaches: firstly, the approach based on human rights and international law for the refugees; secondly, the one based on their physical and psychological suffering and its impacts; and finally, their resettlement in and adaptation to South Korea. Despite the gradual increase of scholarship on North Korean refugees, scholars have rarely examined the migration process and the brokers’ role in it. As it is illegal not just to North Korea but also to China for ordinary North Korean defectors to cross the border, their lives after crossing have to heavily rely on someone else’s assistance to escape from the Chinese police. In particular, when they try to come to South Korea, the network with and the organizational assistance by South Koreans are necessary. Therefore, it is inevitable for brokers to be involved in the migration process of North Korean refugees. This situation has led to the activity of South Korean brokers with a Protestant background in China-North Korea border. Given this background, it is significant to explore what kind of role the brokers play and how their role affects the North Korean refugees’ integration into Korea. In this exploration, drawing from the interview, this paper highlights the uniqueness of brokers’ motivation. Different from the mainstream brokers in the migration industry who seek economic interests, most brokers in this case work by humanitarian and/or evangelical motivation. The study of these brokers, who have non-economic motivation, would firstly deepen our understanding of the orientation of North Korean refugees’ adaptation to the capitalistic South Korea. Secondly, it would challenge our conventional image of migration broker so that we can attend to their role in the adaptation and citizenship formation.