Research

Since when did I become overwhelmed by knowledge, blinding me to the essence of life? I nearly lost it altogether. The moment when history and theories—what they call knowledge—are reduced to just a few lines, the stories of the people who lived through those times begin to fade away. Research is an act of writing that affirms my existence, a way to show that behind it all are people’s stories—that there is life.

The sudden appearance of Yemeni asylum seekers on Jeju Island, at my home. My personal experiences with multiple migrations initially motivated me to engage with them, and my current positionality as a migrant continues to communicate with the fieldwork, influencing both my experiences and reflections. Long-term ethnographies focus on Yemenis who mostly received the humanitarian sojourner status in South Korea and beyond, as they are not fixed, continuously creating transnational border crossings that intersect Asias and Europes. The anthropological inquiry unravels how the Yemenis’ sub-refugee legal status of the South Korea’s and global refugee regimes shapes their mobile, flexible, and exploitable lives.

Research Focus

• Mobilities and Inequalities

• Refugee and Migration

• Humanitarianism

• Sociality and Citizenship

Research Area

Transnational areas spanning East Asia, the Middle East, and Europe