https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6309-3636
![Sample our Geography journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5937/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Geography.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the citizenship of both nationals and non-nationals. We define citizenship as a contested membership among all populations within the territory of a state, encompassing the status, rights, and performativity of the people. We look at changes in the citizenship of non-nationals, particularly the most vulnerable: undocumented migrants. Despite long-standing discrimination against undocumented migrants, the COVID-19 pandemic compelled the South Korean government to reconsider its policies on their citizenship rights. The government provided free tests and treatments, and free vaccinations to the undocumented migrants who had long been ignored in South Korea. It also suspended immigration crackdowns and deportations. While these COVID-19 preventive measures were intended to address community safety, they also affected the multifaceted nature of citizenship by making everybody within the territory both the subject and object of quarantine. Do these measures indicate an expansion of South Korean citizenship to include undocumented migrants? We discuss what implications the South Korean government’s pandemic-response policies may have for citizenship. With the increasing elasticity of citizenship boundaries in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, we claim that territorial aspects have been given greater emphasis in the politics of South Korean citizenship.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. We use ‘illegal foreigners’ only when referencing official terminology used by the South Korean government.
2. While the English version of the Constitution uses the term ‘citizen,’ the original Korean text uses ‘national’ (gukmin). Here, in order to highlight the fact that the category of nationals includes only those with Korean nationality, we use ‘nationals’ instead of ‘citizens.’
3. Exceptions are permitted for spouses of Korean nationals, those who recovered their nationality after the age of 65, those who were born with dual nationality (born from Korean parents but in a country of jus soli principle such as the United States), or those who make special contributions to the country (Article 10(2)).
4. See Korea Confederation of Trade Unions (Citation2020).
5. See The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (Citation2020).
6. See Migration and Human Rights Institute (Citation2020).
7. See Supporters for Migrant Workers’ Movement (Citation2020).
8. For example, see Seoul Metropolitan Government (Citation2021).
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Chulhyo Kim
Chulhyo Kim is Assistant Professor at Department of Sociology, Gyeongsang National University. His research interests include social transformations, social movements and international migration, racial discrimination, forced migration, and non-citizen’s rights. He recently co-authored ‘Migration and social transformation through the lens of locality: a multi-sited study of experiences of neighbourhood transformation’ (2022).
Hee Jung Choi
Hee Jung Choi is a PhD in Cultural Anthropology and a Research Professor at Jeonbuk National University’s Social Science Research Institute. Her research interests include citizenship, migration, study abroad, and conscription. She recently published ‘From Enviable Other to One of Us?: Class, Militarized Masculinity and Citizenship among Korean Study Abroad Men’(2022).
Dong-Hoon Seol
Dong-Hoon Seol is Professor of Sociology at Department of Sociology, Jeonbuk National University. He serves as the President-elect of the Korean Sociological Association and the President of the Korean Association for Survey Research. His research interests include citizenship, labour migration, multicultural society, and social survey.