Fringe capital and perceived values of Korean Educational Mobilities (KEM) in Asia: the case of Korean degree-seeking students in the Philippines

ABSTRACT

Education abroad by Koreans, while linked to various factors, has been primarily examined as an English-centric strategy for social reproduction such that Korean educational mobilities in specific Asia-situated settings are perceived as a well-planned quest for affordable and accessible English, especially by students from non-elite, less-resourced backgrounds. Through a focus on Korean degree-seeking students in the Philippines, this paper aims to complicate this view by asking, beyond the value of low-cost English, what other values do Korean students perceive to gain from their studies in the Philippines? I address this question by introducing the concept of fringe as an analytic through which examination of capital may be decentred, shifting away from the deterministic value of English and broadening notions of value from ‘non-traditional study abroad’. Through the concept of fringe, this paper illustrates the complex generation of multiple values while outside the knowledge centres and even during the pursuit of normative Capital. As such, this paper offers a new lens to rethink the values of and possibilities of Inter-Asia mobilities as well as to reimagine Asia as more than a ‘placeholder, semi-destination’ for the non-elites through the underexplored experiences of Philippines-based Korean international students.

KEYWORDS:

• Korean educational mobilities
• Inter-Asia mobilities
• fringe capital
• English
• Philippines
• Korean degree-seeking students

Acknowledgements

The author thanks all the Korean students who participated in this research and the Ateneo Korean Studies Program for hosting her during her field work. The author would also like to thank the following for their time and insightful comments on the draft versions of the paper: Dr. Margaret Kitchen, Dr. Changzoo Song, Dr. Dohye Kim and Dr. Maileenita Penalba. The author is equally grateful to the Issue editors, Dr. Younghan Cho, Dr. Jiyeon Kang, Dr. Le Ha Phan, as well as to the two anonymous reviewers, for their thorough reading of the paper, kind support and extremely valuable feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 This paper is derived from a wider study on Korean educational mobilities involving higher education Korean students in Asia and the South Pacific, with the Philippines as one of the case-countries.

Additional information

Funding

Data used in this paper was collected through field work supported by the 2018 University of Auckland Faculty of Arts Doctoral Research Grant.

Notes on contributors

Sarah Jane D. Lipura

Sarah Jane D. Lipura is a PhD candidate in Asian Studies at the University of Auckland. Her research lies at the intersections of international student mobilities, migration and Korean Studies and her work in these areas has been published in Globalisation, Societies and Education, Journal of International Students and Research in Comparative and International Education. Sarah previously taught Korean as a Foreign Language (KFL) at Ateneo de Manila University, where she remains affiliated while being transnationally engaged with research and community initiatives spanning Filipino and Korean migrant spaces across Aotearoa New Zealand and the Philippines.