Overseas Korean adoptees in perspective of transnational diaspora: what makes them return to homeland and birth parents?

This study aims to speculate on the experiences and identities of the overseas Korean adoptees from the perspective of transnational diaspora. It is assumed that adoptees are transnational actors with multiple identities beyond the boundaries of their nation or state although they are simply overseas Koreans from the perspective of blood lines.

Most adoptees have had a diasporic identity while recognizing that their appearance is different from others in the host country and have been raised having in fundamental question: ”Who am I?” At the same time, they have had opportunity to visit their homeland to find their roots and identities thanks to the expansion of the transnational social environment, and have eventually come to realize the difference in language and culture between their native and host country.

It is surprising that the Korean government, which has devoted itself to the discharge of adoptees for more than a half  century, began to arrange home visiting programs and pay much attention to root-finding and home visitation projects.

The study targeted the process of their development from being simply overseas adoptees to becoming part of the overseas Korean diaspora, focusing on home visits and their search for their birth-parents between 2005 and 2010. For case, interviews and motherland visit programs were arranged and observed, and adoption agencies were visited. A total of 30 OKA were involved most of which visited Korean from the United States, Switzerland, Sweden, England, Denmark and the Netherlands and some whom we met in their resident countries participated in the interview.

Diaspora, as overseas adoptees, show a sense of crisis and resistance about their identity when their own language and cultural values are ignored in the place where they have settled. However, when they feel they are respected and their culture and social positions are guaranteed, they will respond positively. Thus, diaspora’s attitude to life has an important meaning individually and socially.

This study argued that, for mutual exchange between homeland and overseas adoptee communities, both should have an open mind and a dignified attitude to accept and recognize the cultures of other society where they are living now. 

Contents

Ⅰ. Introduction: Why the Discourse On Adoptee Is Emerging?

Ⅱ.TheoreticalReview on Korean Adoptees The History of and Categories

Korean Adoptees and Transnational Diaspora Analytical Framework of this study Ⅲ.Research Design11

1. Hypothesis of this study 2.Methodological design

Ⅳ. Overseas Korean Adoptees in the Perspective of Diaspora

1. Are they Compatriot or Diaspora 2.Experiences of Exclusion and Identity Politics
2. The Relationship between Homeland and Korean Adoptees

Ⅴ.Conclusions

Ⅰ. Introduction: Why the Discourse On Adoptee Is Emerging?

Korea was one orphan exporting nations which produced a lot of overseas adoptees. Half a century has passed since Korean society and the government transferred orphans abroad because they couldn't afford to take care of them properly. Most adoptees, who came about due to war or industrialization, were abandoned by their parents and their homeland. They are imagined as a sandwich generation stuck between their homeland and the place they now live. However, the roles and activities of Overseas adoptees' roles and activities have been highlighted, in this age of globalization and tranationalism ear, and they are regarded as an important transnational actors through a new understanding of their presence. Especially, as the multi-cultural discourse and the political environment in their homeland and their host country has been reinforced, they have been able to rediscover or develop their identities. This contributes to an increase in diaspora-consciousness and an ultranational nature.

As most adoptees were brought up in the warm care of adoptive parents in the middle and upper classes of mainstream society, a situation which could not have been imagined in their homeland, they may not have any  financial difficulties in their host country. Therefore, the existence of their homeland or birth-parents is not a big concern to overseas Korean adoptees who have adapted well to their new environment.

However, independent of their successful adoptive lives, adoptees find their previous identities and gain an  interest in their homeland and birth-parents while they encounter multi-cultural discourse and politics in their  lives.

As is frequently heard from the media, more overseas Korean adoptees (we’ll say them OKA in this study) have said to their mother-nation which abandoned them, "Please do not feel sorry.", and "We miss you mom and dad." This is where we need to make fundamental changes in our perspective of them and in our political discourse.

This study found that overseas Korean adoptees have an interest in their homeland and there is a diasporic nature in their basic consciousness through the experiences of their intake and follow-up and their practices of visiting their mother-land and in root-finding expeditions. In addition, adoptees' psychological response mechanisms about the dual attitudes shown by their native country toward them were repetitively encountered.

This study aims to speculate on the experiences and identities of the OKA from the perspective of Korean diaspora. It is assumed that adoptees are transnational actors with multiple identities beyond the boundaries of  their nation or state although they are simply overseas Koreans from the perspective of blood lines.

As we most adoptees have had a diasporic identity while recognizing that their appearance is different from others in their host country and have been raised having the fundamental question: "Who am I?" At the same time, they have had opportunity to visit their native country to find their roots and identities thanks to the expansion of the transnational social environment, and have eventually come to realize the difference in language and culture between their native and host country.

Therefore, they find themselves confused as they can not be completely assimilated into their host country because of their appearance and culture while having an identity as an overseas Korean.

In consideration of research on the experience to support the OKAover a few decades, what is important to them is not a support policy based on the paternalism of the government or the society of their native country or a policy to use overseas Koreans based on jus sanguinis.

The most urgent thing for them is being recognized as transnational citizens with an independent culture and a consciousness in the transnational area, not simply limited to just being a resident of either their native or host country.

It means that adoptees are citizens of their host country and have multiple identities as transnational diaspora with blood and emotional bonds to their native land. In most case, theyhave nostalgia and miss their homeland along with the individual trauma that they had to leave their motherland not through their own intent. To cite what adoptees have said, “We want to be accepted as normal citizens by our resident country and recognized as Korean by our native country.”

It is surprising that the Korean government, which has devoted itself to the discharge of adoptees for more than a half century, began to arrange home visiting programs and pay much attention to root-finding and home visitation projects. In fact, adoptees were adopted by advanced countries independently of their own intent and were brought up there as citizens in their resident countries. After they grew up they requested reconciliation with their parents and motherland and have reorganized their own roots and identities.

However, this study suggests that the reason The Overseas Korean Foundation and The Ministry of Public Health and Welfare began to pay active attention to overseas Koreans isclosely related to the belief they will be useful for the development of Korea. What perspective will adoptees have on the antinomic attitude of their native country? What is the nature of the diasporic consciousness and the identity implied by such a perspective? What directions should the native country take?

This study was designed to answer these questions and aims to identify the diasporic characteristics of OKA living in transnational boundaries, how they desire to be recognized, and the political directions their  native country should take.

This study was designed based on my experiences dealing with the overall process of OKA through connections with overseas adoption agencies and overseas adoptees since 1972. The study targeted the process of their development from being simply overseas adoptees to becoming part of the overseas Korean diaspora, focusing on home visits and their search for their birth-parents between 2005 and 2010.

For this study, current conditions and activities were analyzed using bibliographical data which included statistical data and reports from overseas adoption agencies, data from government organs, collections of political data, the press, and Internet releases. Results obtained through critical review of previous studies were also used.

For a case study, interviews and motherland visit programs were arranged and observed, and  adoption  agencies were visited (GOAL, IKAA, and The Swiss Adoptees Association for Truth and Reconciliation). A total of 30 OKA were involved most of which visited Korea from the U.S., Switzerland, Sweden, England, Denmark, and the Netherlands and some whom I met in their resident countries participated in the interview. Ten adoptees were derived from war and 20 from industrialization which are the representative models for a historical  prototype.

The study divided the orphans into two groups: War orphans who were born before the 1950s and 1960s and orphans derived from industrialization who were born after 1961 but before 1985 as they have been influential as local residents and to their native country as overseas diaspora. Interviews were in French for two  adopted Koreans raised in Switzerland and English was used for the other 28.

Ⅱ. Theoretical Review on overseas Korean Adoptees

History and Categories

The history of international adoption in Korea began with eight war orphans being sent to the U.S.. The largest number of adopted Koreans is distributed in the U.S. and the number of overseas adoptees sent to 16 foreign countries between 1958 and 2008 was 161,558. About 200,000 if those informally adopted during the war and  sent overseas are included. As it is difficult to include overseas adoptees in the category of international emigrants, careful review is required.

Peter Stalker, who closely studies international migration, classified the reasons for immigration and the types of people involved into five categories as follows: settlers, contract workers, professionals, undocumented  workers, and refugees and asylum seekers. International immigration can be classified according to reasons, durations, directions of movement, voluntary or forced decisions, economic activity, ranges of manifestation, and legal validity. Also the nature of overseas adoption in Korea can be identified according to voluntary or forced decisions.

When the nature of international immigration is classified into voluntary and forced immigration according to exile, repatriation, refugees, or government policy, overseas Korean adoption has to be reclassified as semi-forced immigration in that the adoptees were sent independently of their own intent through pressure from Korean society, pruning, and economic reasons. Such involuntary and semi-forced immigration is an important factor in the adoptees rebirth as beings with a diasporic consciousness and the experiences of being raised to be adults in their resident countries.

The adopted Koreans this study focuses on can be classified into war orphans due to The Korean War in the early 1950s and those that derived from industrialization since the 1970s.

Korean War orphans are unusual as there were no children who were picked up on streets in World War I. The countries helping South Korea in the Korean War numbered 16 and two countries helped North Korea. Although it is certain this was an international war it did not progress beyond the Korean peninsula, which makes it unique.

For the children who became war orphans, during this time period and irregardless of their desire, they were adopted by families in foreign countries such as the USA and in Europe. At first the adoptions were carried out unofficially because if they were official then it would have seemed that Korean people were throwing away their children. From 1950 to 1964, there was a total of 5,348 orphans sent to America.

Then orphans appeared as the number of single mothers increased due to aftereffects of industrialization.  It  was impossible for unmarried women to raise children in the old customs of Korean society. Finally, as Korea could not afford to care for the increasing number of orphans, they could not help but to resort to opening up overseas adoption. In 1976, as special orphan adoption acts were replaced by adoption law, legal grounds for non-orphaned children to be adopted overseas were developed.

In 1995, changes in political regulations were executed in the absence of a welfare policy for children in need of care. This led to a great increase in international adoptions.

2. Korean Adoptees as a Transnational Diaspora

The classical definition of diaspora is related with the Jews and early Christians. The concept of diaspora in the history of ancient Jews and Greek history was translated into 'national dispersion' or 'national separation'. The classical diaspora emphasized one-sided dispersion through tragic experiences, native mythology, a return consciousness, and a collective devotion while the transnational diaspora is a political, economic, social, and cultural phenomenon centering on recent diaspora which are formed through free movement, labor forces, capital, and social relationships beyond boundaries under the transnational environment in which the population moved voluntarily because of development of transportational and communicative means. The increasing transnational diaspora phenomenon needs to be understood in the frame of causationism. However, the world has been witnessing a rapid increase in multi-directional movements beyond international boundaries since the mid-1960s.

Studies on diaspora by Safran(1991), Wahlbeck(2002), Sheffer(2006), and Cohen(2008) mainly deal with ethnic identity as national members along with maintenance of consistent relations between the diaspora and their homeland.

Diaspora in a modern sense is used to explain immigration, cultural gaps, and identity politics. In other words, it broadly indicates a people with the same nationality and belief system who are living in different countries. The idea of diaspora, in a contemporary sense, focuses on the movement of people who reside outside their national boundary.

As studies on diaspora were active in the 1990s, the meaning of diaspora has been expanded to indicate communities of different types which have had experiences in exile as well as the experience of the Jews. Now, it is comprehensively used to cover international immigration, people in exile, refugees, immigrant-labors, ethnic communities, cultural gaps and identity. It is also used to extensively mean dispersed races, their residence and communities, and the process of separation.

As the globalization process to unite the world into one raised specialization and the increase of identity, which leads us to return to our local and historic culture. Such a return is a historical irony which is occurring in de-  territorialization and outside national boundaries. One of the important concepts which explains such phenomenon is diaspora.

The diaspora identity is an identity in the space of an imaginary geography which is separated from place and time, not a return to a past time or place. There are controversies on whether the identity of a people or the race of a nation is personal or collective, or if it is given or made, but the suggestion that it is divided and newly constituted in social relationships is gaining persuasive.

Identity, which is formed in the process to confirm who we are, is composed of our position in social relationships and a series of definitions on the roles connected with our position. Having an identity means recognizing a series of definitions as our own and identifying with them.

The diaspora have dual national identity in a certain sense, but in another sense, as they can not completely belong to any one side, they are without any racial state identity. It is the disapora group that is the most important factor in ultranational or global discourse which discusses breaks and separations in national states since the late 20th century.

At this time, when exchanges are accelerated in areas with population, capital, culture, information, and ideology due to the development of traffic and media, a racial state in a typical sense is losing sight of its dominance. Diaspora discourse focuses on the flux of human groups and the identification of new identity while transnational discourse focuses on identification of a new cultural identity.

This study, which defines OKA as diaspora, suggests that adopted Koreans retain both their past experiences and memories and their present transnational experiences and memories simultaneously. Their special  position  and status are called a place of diaspora, from which they can recognize their new identities and political consciousness through interaction with families, society and government administrators.

3. Analytical Framework of this Study

Understanding overseas adoptees from the perspective of diaspora has the advantage that their various experiences can be compared and analysed within a consistent analytical framework, not simply considering them as individual cases.

This study aims to identity how a transnational diaspora consciousness is formed and changed through interaction and what differences there are between such a diaspora consciousness and the idea of a classical diaspora consciousness focusing on the relationship between homeland, families in resident countries, society, government and adopted Koreans.

As seen in the figure, adopted Korean diaspora will have more varied experiences living in the boundary between their native land and resident country as the transnational environment is reinforced. This means a transformation from the classical diaspora which was formed through past historical experiences of a peoples compelled into exile from their native land to an adopted country and into being transnational diaspora which forms interactive relationships between their native land and resident country and their identity.

To analyse the two hypotheses presented earlier, the study is to focus on interaction among families, social organizations, the government, and Korean adoptees. In particular, it analysed growth in the families  of  the resident country, recognition of their adoptive parents, the psychological experiences of the positions, roles, differentiation, and exclusion, the policies of the resident country, and the attitudes of adopted Koreans to them. In addition, this study is to analyse adopted Koreans' recognition, attitudes, and their expectations for their birth parents, connections with social organizations(specifically, adoption agencies) in their homeland and their attitude toward them, and the Korean government's recognition of the adoptee policy and their attitude toward it. 

Ⅲ. Research Design

1. Hypotheses of this study

This study framed the following two research hypotheses to enhance the point of the entire study:

<Hypothesis 1>The increased transnational experiences of overseas Korean adoptees will increase their transnational diaspora.

In general, as trans-national and multi-cultural phenomenon intensify, transnational experiences of those living on the boundary between their native and resident country will increase. So, as they want their identities to be recognized newly and have more desire to be recognized socially and culturally, they have more interest in belonging to their native land. Such a sense of belonging and attention are a phenomenon of a transnational consciousness which occurs over the transnational boundary rather than simply being a vague feeling and as transnational social areas increase, they have new recognition and roles as diaspora actors.

People have said that the existence of diaspora which were born from a history of tears and has been ignored is a core of international competitive power in this global society. They are attracting attention because it is believed that they have multi-cultural ability and knowledge which will contribute to pioneering overseas markets with various cultures and characteristics. Diaspora who leave their mother land voluntarily or involuntarily and are scattered worldwide have advantageous conditions in mixing with multi-cultural and multi-linguistic globalism. In addition, their direct or indirect connective networks due to the development of communication technology are  expanding their power over extensive areas on and offline(Im, Chae-wan 2008, 470).

Studies on diaspora by Safran(1991), Wahlbeck(2002), Sheffer(2006), and Cohen(2008) focus on the  diaspora's maintenance of a consistent relationship with their homeland and an ethnic identity as members of the nation among the concepts of diaspora. They approach the issue of diaspora in the category of politics and explain it in aspect of a triangular relationship between the ethnic diasapora community, the homeland, and the host nation.Existence of a homeland is politically and economically important in approaching the issue of diaspora. A great number of peoples have left their homeland and are living diasporic lives in another country.

In addition, as they were adopted by developed countries regardless of their intent and brought up there, they experienced psychological exclusion and discrimination as essential properties of their culture. So their sense of belonging to their real parents and homeland and interest in them increases as they develop more interest in their identities.

Culture is the most powerful generator of identity, and the main difference between modern countries. It also appears as a mechanism for classification. It is a criteria used to designate others. In such a sense, the process of forming a modern cultural identity is closely related with the development of a specific historical process in regulations for collective others. So primarily, others to us, in a modern state and society, are non-people. Foreigners, or those overseas, are representative others in a modern state and society.

Koreans realize this through living abroad. In communication with a native of another country a Korean has to be a Korean as they are presented as Korean. They keep being judged as one who is part of the whole and continue to be reproduced as one who is part of a homogeneous union. Differences, even if not there, have to be created. If the huge differences are somewhat removed then smaller more subtle differences are emphasized. How strong this mechanism is can be estimated through the efforts taken by people to remove themselves from it.

<Hypothesis 2> As Korean adoptees have more diaspora experiences in a transnational environment, they will have more interest in multiple identities and recognition politics rather than a sense of belonging to a single country.

Immigrants who have contact with various cultures and races make the boundary of their fixed identities variable or reiterate and de-territorize their thinking and behavior. The number of people who live transnational lives, that is, those who use two languages, have homes in two countries, and keep regular contacts over national boundaries, gradually tends to increase.

As international movement increases according to globalization and transnational immigrants have more opportunity to connect with mainstream culture, the psychology of being different and differentiation is gradually reproduced. As diaspora experiences and memories are stronger, the intention to be different and to differentiate will become stronger and problems in recognition politics will appear as an important topic.

According to N.Luhmann, a culture indicating self-statement/self-expression of society is a unique phenomenon of modern society, culture as a collective method to observe and remember the past of a social system(Lotman) is attained through differentiating and comparing the most important social roles and meanings.  In other words, the ideology of modern culture understands humans as a result of specific learning and therefore, recognition of different life styles, that is, the diversity of humanity and human existence types became possible. Such a view of the universe is closely related with modern sensitivity to cultural differences. In this sense, culture in modern society is a specific form which produces identity and difference - in which society can limit us from infinite possibility.

According to Zigmunt Bauman, recognizing differences between groups as cultural differences and the differences as being derived from the process of cultural learning is a specific method to recognize differences and diversity.

In this sense, as overseas Korean adoptees, who were individually adopted, make connections with their native country and have more opportunity to share their collective memories and experiences, they will come to find themselves differentiated from the majority and the minority cultures in their host country and the politics of recognition will appear.

2. Methodological design

This study selected 30 OKA made up of 10 war orphans, 10 industrial orphans who found their real  parents and 10 who have not found their real parents. The war orphans selected were born before the 1950s and the 1960s and were adopted because of poverty. The industrial orphans selected were born after 1965 and before 1985 and have had time to influence their host country and native country.

They were adopted by families in the United States, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and England through adoption agencies while they were being raised in (ChoonghyunBabies’Home: we’ll say this CBH in this study), a social welfare foundation. They have come to visit their homeland to find their roots since 1988 and this study sampled 30 adoptees of those who visited Korea to find their roots or learn about culture between 2005 and 2010. The 30 subjects were interviewed and observed and research was done using a questionnaire.

Table 1. General Characteristics of the Sampled War Orphans 

The war orphans adopted by families in America are highly educated and their occupations are also settled. They were adopted without regard to their will after the Korean war, and were raised in good living conditions. They are highly influential in the society of their host country and frequently visit their homeland.

Table 2. General Characteristics of 20 Sample Industrial Orphans 

The 20 industrial orphans have varied host countries and were highly educated, and are settled in their jobs. They often visit their homeland to search of their roots, but 10 could not find them because of rejections in their native country. They understand that a single mother could not raise children in the past and appreciate that they were able to be raised and educated well as they were sent overseas.

Ⅳ. Overseas Korean Adoptees in the Perspective of Diaspora

1. Are they Compatriot or Diaspora?

Although the question, "How the existence of overseas Koreans is defined in their organized relationship with their native country?" is very important. The government and academic circles have been concerned little by it.

In general, when the devotion, loyalty, and identity of overseas Koreans are oriented towards their native country, they are considered Koreans and as beneficiaries for the application and support policies by their native country based on jus sanguinis. When they are considered as transnational citizens  with  a de-territorialized identity between their native country and host country, the native government will develop an exchange and cooperation policy for their mutual interest by recognizing them as partners for exchange and cooperation over a transnational society.

When overseas Koreans desire to settle in and adopt to their host country, their native government supports their successful adaptation to the host country as overseas Koreans. In considering the characteristics of overseas Koreans in a time of trans-nationalism, it will be better to consider them as transnational diaspora rather than as classical diaspora.

The huge wave of immigration, stimulated by the development of transportation and communication and increased the generosity of pluralism and multiculturalism, contributed to the overall expansion of racial and national diaspora. Building and maintaining a diaspora community does not rely on simply a calculation of economic, social, and political interest. If immigrants decide to give up their racial and national identities, they  will still be treated either individually or collectively by their host countries. However, according to the experience of the disapora community, evidence shows that in respect to the nature and identity of the diaspora, in its  expansion, organization, and maintenance, elemental, psychological, and symbolic factors are relied on. Hence, based on individual and collective decisions, emigrants become main political actors.

When the diaspora can decide and maintain their own identity and culture, and are free to express themselves and join in social political parties in their regions as well as disapora unions without excessive pressure from their host country, they can maintain and develop regular relations with their motherland. In this aspect a multi-cultural policy, according to the advent of a multi-cultural society, requires political consideration through which the diaspora can maintain their identity and culture and be associated with their host country.

To introduce motives, discourses and issues surrounding overseas Korean adoptees, the adoptees in Korea established a Global Overseas Adoptees' Link in spite of lack of governmental support, and arranged their  meetings to find their identities as Koreans.

Korean volunteers in host countries began to help OKA who wanted to visit their homeland. Since then, voluntary groups and organizations have been developed to help those who want to look for their real parents and gain an understanding of Korean culture and society, so that they can adopt to Korean society and live there. In particular, when those who were adopted overseas in the 1960s and 1970s, when the number of overseas adoptees rapidly increased, were in their 20s and 30s they actively organized root-finding projects.

The number of overseas adoptees who visited adoption agencies in Korea for five recent years, is presented in the following table:

<Table 1>The number of overseas Korean adoptees who visited four adoption agenciesin Korea 

About 100,000 adoptees, who had to leave their homeland in the 1970s and 1980s, have grown up to be diaspora and the number of the adoptees who visit Korea is increasing every year. They do not want one-sided support from the native country. This means they want to have a relationships with their native country as partners based on how they can develop through exchanges. They have a transnational identity as diaspora, not as Koreans or regular citizen of their host countries.

To sum up the interviews with OKA who visited Korea:

They found themselves standing in the position of diaspora on the boundary between their native and host country. As illustrated in the interview with one adoptee,“To ask whether overseas Koreans are Koreans or foreigners, both are correct. It is complex and ambiguous, but it is a reality. So, we adoptees thought that we could grow to be a strong bridge connecting Korea to our host countries.” This is evidence that the diaspora recognize the meaning of their new existence and their roles. In this context, it seems that their suggestion for, “ building up  a new relationship between adult adoptees and their native country is our joint task.” is meaningful.

2. Experiences of Exclusion and Identity Politics

Most overseas Koreans seem to feel isolated and excluded because of their outward appearance and, as they  get older, they want to strongly confirm their identity and Korea as the native country where they were born. Overseas adoptees who visited Korea have confidence in their sense of self and reconsider their life, self, and life goals and try to be better role models for other adoptees.

Although they have different reasons to find their roots, the desire is very common. They want to find their real parents because they desire to have stronger identities. Everything the adoptees had was cut from the past and they feel empty and isolated. The adoptees who do not have blood ties may encounter obstacles  in maintaining ties with their children. As the adoptee's family is organized under the environment it is in, and is accompanied by social expectation, the adoptees' children may be separated from their family ties. This is inefficient.

Therefore, they are motivated to find their real parents, and to acquire information on their family history, the background they were given up, and family health history.

During the interviews with them, we can find that after meeting their biological parents, they are able to have a better understanding of their past and regain confidence in their appearances and roots. Even in unfortunate cases where adoptees are unable to find their biological parents, they are able to find some peace of mind in Korea while being surrounded by Koreans who look similar to them and hence feel closer to Korea.

Moreover, after spending some time in Korea and experiencing the culture and life, they are able to realize that they themselves are in fact Korean and start to feel a type of Korean pride from within themselves. They also gain a better understanding of the Korean culture and history and also have the chances to meet others like themselves. Through this they are able to gain a type of emotional support they were unable to get from their adoptative parents and friends who were not adoptees themselves.

The followings are cases of the intensive interviews with OKA done so far:

Case 1.A pastor who was born in 1950 and adopted by an American family as a war orphan.

He lost his parents and siblings during the war. He visited Korea about ten times a year. He carries out his ministerial duty in Philadelphia. Remembering the past when he was always hungry with the aftereffect of war, he is thankful for the present development of Korea. He helps Korea very actively in translating English into Korea. He raised his child as a journalist, and is proficient in English and Korean. He is thankful for being a chosen one for adoption and desires to share his love with society.

Industrial orphans visit their native country to find their real parents. Case 2 and 3 introduce those who found their real parents and Case 4 and 5 involve those who did not find their real parents:

Case 2 (Two children adopted into the same family)

A female adoptee(sister) who was adopted by a family in the Netherlands (1971). Education: BA degree, Job: Underwater tunnel development/ Also a male adoptee who was adopted by the same family in the Netherlands (1973) Education: BA Degree, Job: Swiss Bank Computer Programmer(brother)

They are brother and sister. The sister visited Korea for research on an underwater tunnel between Korea and Japan and tried to find her real parents through the KBS TV program, " Missing The One" . She finally found her and her brother's birth parents and they visited the graves of their parents together. They swore they would never separate again. The adoptees felt empty and isolated when their adoptive parents and family told them about their past because they had nothing to tell them about their past. However, they have stories to tell to their children now..<omitted>.” They found seven siblings while visiting Korea on business although their parents have already passed away. However, they sent a letter of thanks to us as they feel their lives are enriched and are not lonely any more.

Case 3

A male Korean adoptee who was born of a single mother and became a pianist. He believed that he was the natural child of his present parents. The father was Korean and mother was an American. But he found out that he was adopted. When he was young, his adopted grandfather discovered his talent for music so he started taking private lessons. Soon, he began to be taught by professional pianists. When he nagged his parents to have a little brother, they let him know he was adopted, but they still consider him as their real son and have lived together happily.

He said that his desire to meet his real parents started when he met some Korean musicians in New York. After 2 years, he contacted me and visited Korea in a mentor of program which gives hope and dream to children who love music. Then I helped him to meet his mother. His birth mother already had two children through another marriage, so he couldn't meet her openly.

He consoled his mother who cried while apologizing for him, saying “how could you care children at your young age? “ and said to her that he was well raised as well as he was because his mother sent him abroad at that time.

He played the piano enthusiastically for the children he met and said that he is happy to know that mother is alive in the same sky as him. I helped them exchange birthday gifts. His mother did not let her husband know the fact, but someday, she will let him know.

Case 4

A Switzerland adoptee who is now a company worker. She visited Korea three times and desired to have a traditional weeding ceremony with her Italian husband(a banker). So we helped them to have a traditional Korean weeding ceremony on October 2009 with the help from some village people. They wanted to give their children the opportunity to experience Korean culture. She tried to find her real parents and a man who thought to be the real father appeared, but it was discovered that he was not as a result of a DNA test. She said she considers CBH as her parents' house.“ I have a puzzle in my life. I lost the pieces of the puzzle. So I have been looking for them for than 40 years. The pieces are very important to me.” She said that her parents are happy and  healthy someplace and should not be sorry for giving her away. Her son aged eight wrote, “all the people in the world deserve to have friendship, love and respect. Luca.”

Case 5:An American Adoptee (His family name is Yu and he is a banker)

This person came to my agency with his American wife saying that Korean Independence Day(August 15) is his birthday. He decided to adopt a Korean baby through 00 Children's Service inc. and he wanted to visit the place where he was born in Korea. As there was no record on his adoption in any adoption agency in Seoul, he gave up finding out his past and decided to raise a Korean baby. We held a surprise birthday party for him and he asked if he could have a picture taken of himself and his wife on the step he had always remembered. When we showed him his old document and explained his record, he was moved to tears. If he would have come here earlier, he could have found his parents. He is raising his Korean son and has opened a web-site titled www. koreanblessing.blogsopt.com.

As seen in the cases mentioned above,OKAhave both historical experiences and memories of the past as well as transnational experiences and memories of the present as beings between their native country and their host country. Their special positions can be called‘a place of Diaspora.’ In such diasporic place, they recognize their own new identity through interaction between family, society and government agents in both countries and gain a political consciousness based on their identity.

The number of overseas Koreans who were adopted abroad after the Korean War as of 2005 has reached about 160,000. Many grown-up adoptees are returning to Korea to find their roots. They visit home to search for their roots temporarily or to stay longer because of marriage with Koreans or job.

Korean Oversea Adoptees(KOA), an adoption agency in Seoul, found families of 180 adoptees that were searching for their parents, but 100 of them were rejected by their parents.

About 80% of all adoptees desire information on their parents, birth and the background of their adoption, but no cooperation was found from public institutes except in cases of public officers' individual interests and cooperation. With no support for Korean adoptees who visit Korea, they leave Korea with a sense of betrayal because of the disinterest and lack of cooperation of the government. However, it was discovered  that  the adoptees who found their parents or were able to confirm their identities had less resentment against their native country and parents.

The diasporic nature of OKA is confirmed through the following which is different from previous studies:

Case 1

According to one overseas Korean adoptee, he was adopted by a family in Switzerland in 1972 when he was five. His life there was not easy. As his adoptive parents had financial  difficulty,  he had a difficult adolescence and no opportunity to study at college. He had to endure discrimination as he was not European. “He had to prepare better resume to get a job. As no photo is attached to resumes in Switzerland, he was able to get job interviews, but interviewers rejected him when they saw him.” To adopt to Swiss society, he completed military service there and earned money so he could be admitted to the University of Zurich. <omitted> He decided to return to Korea in the summer of 2003. He stayed in Korea for two months on vacation and decided to live here. He visited Korea twice in 1990 and 199, and found his real mother in 1994. After that he often visited Korea for holidays and decided to stay in Korea. The adoptive parents held him, but he did not change his decision. He  could not throw away the nationality of the host country because of the love the adoptive parents gave him, but he said, “I did not give up my Korean nationality. I was sent away. I am happy to regain it.”

At any rate, the existence (Anwesenheit) and visibility(Sichtbarkeit) of cultural others are basic and inevitable.

As much as we could not but consider each other as others, we know each other and are close. These collective others have actual meaning as those who belong to a different culture from our common life. That is, when nationality or racial blood is confirmed, almost everything about a person can be defined.

Here, what is told through 'being Korean, Korean culture, and Korean descent' is beyond a statement of collective properties at just an abstract level. Regardless of our will or independent decision, it says who I am, as an individual entity, and what my properties are. How I should be treated, what my personality is, what food and music I will like, and how I should be treated in business are clearly presented through my pre-recognition in the culture of the state or society I belong to.

In accordance with the limitation of the discussion to have a‘multi-cultural society' by Chon Sun-young, pre- recognition has been clearly confirmed through experiences of differentiation and exclusion of host countries.

Case 2

"I want be a white person." A Korean adoptee's identity confusion while being raised.

It was shown that most Korean adoptees, who make up the largest part of overseas adoptees in America, had identity confusion during their growth. Along with the results that adoptees are confused in their identities while growing up, The New York Times published an article addressing the trouble and sorrow of Korean adoptees. Ms. Jo(aged 35) who is working as a high school teachers in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was adopted by a white family when she was three in 1977. She confessed, “I could not tell my adoptive parents my worry about my racial identity because then I would have seemed ungrateful. ”

When the Evan Donaldson Adoption Research Center in New York investigated 179 Korean adoptees, 78% answered that they thought they were white or wanted to be white. 60% responded that they have come to realize their racial identity since middle school. 61% responded that they had decided to try to find their real parents and gain a curiosity about Korean culture after they grew up. Most adoptees experiences racial discrimination when they were young and also had similar experiences being excluded by Asians. She said that when she(Ms. Jo) visited her maternal grandmother in Korea, the grandmother blamed her saying:‘why did you not learn Korean?’There are lots of cases where adoptees have been hurt by Korean's attitudes toward them.

3. The Relationship between Homeland Korean Adoptees

Most host countries of overseas adoptees have successfully set up multicultural discourse. The mechanism of social and psychological exclusion in the host country has not been mitigated. On the surface, it seems that the  term multicultural indicates understanding, generosity, reconciliation, and harmony, but internally and in reality - regardless of its good intention - it works to reconfirm or reinforce cultural uniqueness and identity in a modern state-society.

As the concept of culture and cultural identity inherits the concept of culture which implies the concept of society and the possibility of collective comparison in a modern state-society, what discourse on multi-cultural society produces - sympathetically - is a continuous idea of others, difference, and internal integrity, not identity and inclusion. If discourse on cultural identity can be defined as a discourse device through which various differences are reproduced in one's integrity or identity, discourse on multiculturalism carries the task exactly. As multiculturalism emphasizes the importance of culture with the approach that native cultures of emigrants are not obliterated (Kymlicka,2005), the following cases confirm it.

Case 1. A camp for overseas Korean adoptees and their real parents is opened in the host countries during summer and winter vacations with help from Korean immigrants. An adoptee who was born of a single mother aged 16 and adopted by a family in the U.S. said that her adoptive parents had her learn Korean since she was young. Her adoptive mother was a German intellectual and works as a school librarian. These days, adoptive parents try to teach Korean language and culture. As a result, as more than 20 dance companies and  Korean culture academies have been opened and adoptees have become teachers there, adoptive parents put a lot of trust  in these agencies. As adoptive parents feel guilty because they removed children from their original culture, they send them to a Korean culture camp and help them to find their identities. Sometimes, adoptive parents do not know what to do. She suggested that grown-up adoptees should mentor younger adoptees. She learned about knot art and Korean traditional paper art. She could find her identity through culture. Her life style desired Korean culture and Korean adoptees are helping each other. However, she said that it is not desirable to publish a research or report based only on the opinion of adoptive parents without the adoptees' opinions also being shown.

Case 2. Some adoptees groups in the French-speaking areas of Switzerland gather at the Korean Embassy in Bern, Swiss on August 15 which is Independence Day in Korea. They have a good time eating Korean food with other Koreans living in Switzerland in the yard of the embassy. The adoptees in Switzerland form a collective identity in one place from early in the morning to late in the afternoon. Then they have also organized an overseas adoptee link with Seoul.

As seen in the cases above, this study suggests that overseas Korean adoptees tend to form collective identities and join in correspondence beyond the level of identity search or nostalgia as the transnational nature and multicultural discourse increases in the host country.

Ⅴ. Conclusion

We have approached overseas Korean adoptees from the perspective of transnational diaspora.

This study defined overseas Korean adoptees as transnational diaspora and examined the characteristics of transnational experiences and identity building in order to identify the existing viewpoint of using overseas Koreans in their native country or the limitation of the perspective of jus sanguinis.

This researchers examined what attitude and recognition overseas Korean adoptees have, who live in the age  of globalism and trans-nationalism, on the trends of trans-nationalism and a multi-cultural society.

Diaspora, as overseas adoptees, show a sense of crisis and resistance about their identity when their own  language and cultural values are ignored in the place where they have settled. However, when they feel they are respected and their culture and social positions are guaranteed, they will respond positively. Thus, diaspora's attitude to life has an important meaning individually and socially.

For mutual exchange between past and present society, diaspora should have an open mind and a dignified attitude to accept and recognize the cultures of the society where they are living now. Also they should be able to maintain their status close to their native culture and open themselves to the culture of their host country. All people should live in harmony with each other, whatever group they are in while while having their own sense of existence, for the formation of a peaceful civil society as well as individual maturity.

From the perspective of the native country, overseas Korean adoptees are human resources who are spread all over the world. About 200,000 adoptees, their families, and human relationships they have are a resource which can lead in globalism. This can not be artificially built up. They can serve as the main actors who can manage and coordinate relations between their native country and their host country  in  international  relationships. Furthermore, it is certain that they will appear as leaders of the age of globalism advancing multi-culturalism and trans-nationality.

However, the Korean government, social groups, and academic circles should reconsider the historical specialitythe and ontological position of Korean adoptees prior to having new expectation and roles for them.

Although Korea may present any political alternative without sympathetic understanding from overseas  Korean adoptees under the assumption that it honestly recognizes and is retrospective of the history of adoption which has been covered up, they will not be welcome a narrow one-sided native country-centered project.

When efforts to discover and recognize their characteristics as transnational diaspora take precedence in a trans-national and multi-cultural age, their relationship with their native country will be newly organized. It is  more important to recognize their multiple identities and discover their new transnational roles, which can contribute to the development of both countries, rather than expect a sense of belonging, devotion  to native country, and loyalty from them.

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