Presentation Schedule
“Child First, Foreigner Second”?: Managing the Membership Dilemma of “Unregistered Migrant Children” in South Korea (104311)
Session Chair: Wen-Pin Lin
Monday, 11 May 2026 18:15
Session: Session 5
Room: Room G403 (4F)
Presentation Type: Oral Presentation
This paper inquires how the Korean citizenship regime approaches the deportability and regularization of "undocumented" children – commonly referred to as "unregistered migrant children (midulok iju-adong)" in Korea. Through critical discourse analysis, it examines relevant documentation from civic organizations and policy documents of state agencies. In so doing, it anticipates an enhanced understanding of the precarious membership stance of "undocumented" children, a vulnerable population group prevalent in contemporary democratic societies beyond classic immigration regimes (e.g., America, Canada, and Australia). To that end, this paper has three components. First, it outlines the necessary contextual backdrops: the fundamental ethnocentrism of Korean citizenship, the key characteristics of Korea’s migration regime, and demographic expansion of migrants with their children born and raised in Korea. Second, it demonstrates that, despite deportability, these children are de facto exempted from deportation by "internal regulations" of the Ministry of Justice for being "child first, foreigner second." Third, it provides an in-depth analysis of the conditions for the regularization of the children (an ad hoc regularization first enacted in 2021, amended in 2022, intended to expire in 2025, and recently extended to 2028). The paper subsequently discusses how the Korean citizenship regime addresses and manages the membership dilemma of the subject children without compromising its ethnocentric cornerstone while retaining its liberal democratic ethos. Following, it concludes with citizenship implications for "undocumented" children derived from the Korean case.
Authors:
Yuri Keum, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Yuri Keum is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel.
See this presentation on the full schedule – Monday Schedule
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