The Emerging Second Generation in Asia (Ethnic and Racial Studies)

Presenting six case studies from Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong, this volume marks one of the first forums dedicated to the emerging second generation in Asia. It aims to enhance the literature on the second generation, which has predominantly focused on North America and Western Europe.

Rather than adhering to the assimilation paradigm, this book highlights the complex, non-linear pathways of incorporation and ambivalent identity politics faced by second-generation youth in Asia. It examines how children of international marriage complicate the ethnoscape of their respective societies. By emphasizing the geopolitical contexts and state policies shaping immigrant parents’ migration and settlement, chapters explore how these macrostructural factors influence second-generation children's senses of belonging and membership. Furthermore, chapters analyze the distinct manifestations of transnationalism in Asian contexts, blurring the traditional distinction between “sending” and “receiving” countries in the life trajectories of the second generation.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Ethnic and Racial Studies.

Pei-Chia Lan is Distinguished Professor of Sociology at National Taiwan University. Her major publications include Global Cinderellas: Migrant Domestics and Newly Rich Employers in Taiwan (2006) and Raising Global Families: Parenting, Immigration, and Class in Taiwan and the US (2018).

Minjeong Kim is professor of Sociology at San Diego State University and is the author of Elusive Belonging: Marriage Immigrants and “Multiculturalism” in Rural South Korea (2018) and co-editor of Redefining Multicultural Families in South Korea: Reflections and Future Directions (2022).