이주노동자공동체 형성에서 민족 정체성과 종교 정체성의 경합 : 미얀마, 방글라데시, 필리핀 사례를 중심으로 = National identity and religious identity contested in making migrant workers communities.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This thesis is about how migrant workers communities contest their national and religious identities and how their communities are established. The world has been globalized in fields of product trades and financial movements among countries, and now it is more globalized by active migrations of workers throughout the world, leading to making the globe into one market. Compared with the past, migrants more easily and freely travel, contact, and communicate with the worldwide people beyond the boundaries of nations, race, class, religion, and culture. But this phenomenon brings about some problems of identity that results from the difference. Migrants feel some difference from the main society in which they immigrate, so they have close relationships with their same race and construct their identities by which they feel being belonged.
Since the late 1980, migrant workers have actually started to come to Korea. There were about 6,409 of migrants in 1987, and almost 50 million, including those from south-east Asia as well as about twenty developing countries, lived in Korea in 2010. They have their own social cultural backgrounds. Most of them are from Southeast Asia where religious culture dominates an everyday life, whereas the Korean society is rather secular. It has the three religions of Buddhism, Protestantism, and Roman Catholics, especially Protestantism is more prevalent. Occasionally, excessive missionary work of protestant churches cause some social problems in the migrant workers society. For example, most protestant churches has supported southeast migrant workers whose religions are Buddhism and Muslim to help them settle in korea, but it was found that their supports were a strategy to convert to Christians.
Through those experiences, migrant workers might intensify the confusion in religious identities, as they received supports need to settle in korea from christian supporting communities. Though their religions are Buddhism and Muslim and they were forced to be christians as a payment of the aids they were offered. In particular, muslim migrant workers, whose cultures are severly different from those of Korea, might experience more serious confusion of their religion identities. Futhermore, given the fact that existing studies on migrants in Korea disclosed that keeping their religion is important for their identities, we could guess that migrants might get through their religious confusion through such situation in which they were offered some assistance from religious communities that are different religions from their ones and were coerced to change their religions. That is what the thesis tries to deal with.
Migrant workers in Korea organize various communities according to their birth regions in their homelands, their relatives, religions, hobbies, and where they live in Korea. Considering the size of migrants populations in Korea, it ranks Korean Chinese, so called Josun tribe, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, and then Thailand. Korean Chinese shows the largest in populations, but it didn't have its developed community. While migrant workers from Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand are also a large part of the migrant population in Korea, their community activities are not remarkable. Contrary to this, Philippines migrant workers are very active in their community activities, particularly religious ones. It is because they had been sponsored from Korean Catholic churches from the beginning of their immigration. Irregardless of the population scale, migrant workers show a diversity in their community organizations and activities according to nations from which they are. The reason is another the thesis tries to handle with.
Based on this problem- cognitive manner, the thesis focused on the identities of migrant workers who came across Korean social culture. Now, the boundaries between countries are meaningless and the world is unified and globalized. From that fact, we acknowledge that there is a limitation in the theory which had sought to explain the 'assimilation' and 'integration' of migrants on the standpoints of migration host nations. According to assimilation and integration theory, all immigrants pursue conservation and adaptation regardless of the length of stay. However, when the temporary and short term immigrants go back to their homelands, they are concerned to be criticized for their good adaptation to the nations they immigrated. That is why they are cautious to excessively adapt to their immigrant countries and try to preserve their original identities. Therefore, they are likely to be more vulnerable to the crisis and confusion of the identities.
Migrant workers in Korea are temporary and short term , so they must return to their native nations after achieving their goals of immigration. And they would keep the relationships with their own communities and struggle to shape and maintain their national and religious identities by communicating with the society strategically. A few of migrant workers in Korea came from the Buddhism or Muslim countries. However many of assistant organizations are based on Protestant church, and the organizations are eager to do their missionary activities for them.
When migrant workers are categorized according to nation by different religion, they start to recollect their religion. So, Korea society devise the space for them to recognize those identities in establishing their communities. It displays a contested terrain of national identity and religious identity. Peculiarly, it is reasonable that reshaping and maintaining the identity can be totally different in the process of forming communities of migrant workers whose social, cultural, and religious grounds are not the same.
This thesis gave the contest of national identity and religious identity its full attentions and insighted into how three cases of migrant workers- Myanmar(Buddhism), Bangladesh(Islam), and Philippines(Catholic) -build their communities in Korean society. Also, it noticed the contest point of their national and religious identities in the procedure of establishing their communities. To that, fist of all, it insighted into each history of community creations of the migrant workers mentioned above and compared one another. Second, it inspected the point where national and religious identities contest.
Thus, the thesis doesn't see the migrant workers in Korea as the ones who should be assimilated and integrated into the society, but the ones who create and continue their communities by understanding the society and leading their own lives independently.
The following is the findings of the thesis.
The migrant workers consisting of three nations-Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Philippines- showed some differences in their organizations and activities in accordance with the conditions of the Korean society. In desperate need of aids of the society at the beginning of the immigration into Korea, the religions of supporting organizations were very important to migrant workers. Philippine migrant worker were able to establish their communities and activate actively by being provided assistances from Catholic communities which are the same with their religion. In contrast, those of Myanmar, Bangladesh received aids from Protestant communities, resulting in discovering some dissimilarity in the construction of their communities.
Most Myanmar people didn't admit the communities organized by Protestant churches, because their religion is different and they couldn't understand the missions of Protestant churches to force them to change their religion. In this reason, they chose a supporting community whose religion is the same with theirs and started to build their own communities and activated lively. As a result, they produced a diversity of communities, for instance 《Myanmar Buddhist Temple》, 《NLD(LA)》 of political community, 《Burma Action Korea》.
Contrary with Myanmar migrant workers, Bangladesh people were silent with the missions of Protestant churches and build up 《Bangladesh community》. It is because they couldn't get support from their religion, Islam communities, and the assistances offered by Protestant churches were necessary to them, and based on the aids they made their religious communities and did various activities through those. However, Philippine migrant workers gained assistances from Catholic churches from the early stage of their migration and created 《Hye-hwa community》 and carried out energetic actions. Futhermore, it was subdivided into several communities with specific functions, such like 《Casamako》, 《FEWA》 which are labor political communities. 'Philippines Market', and 'Raphael Clinic', which are set up by 《Hye-hwa community》. On sundays, about four thousands of philippines gather in Hye-hwa Dong in Seoul and do their religious activities there as well as grouping activities.
Secondly, in the three cases, all migrant workers formed their own communities based on which they adjusted to migration host society and kept their identities. But each statute of the three religious communities was not the same. In case of Myanmar and Philippines, their won religious communities donated most of what are needed, but Bangladesh ones did only its one parts, religious functions.
Whereas religious communities of Myanmar and Bangladesh don't have close relationships with their identical communities in Korea, Philippines religious ones do active operations in the tight relations with Korean and worldwide Catholic organizations.
The last, the contest point of the national and religious identities depends on the conditions of Korean society.
At the beginning of immigrating into Korea, Myanmar and Bangladesh migrant workers had opportunities to recognize the religious identity through meetings of Protestant church communities, but that process is needless to Philippines migrant workers who met with Catholic communities of Korea identical with theirs and recognized the religious identity. As a result, Myanmar was classified to 'Myanmar people' from 「Dangsan Church」 . Even though that, they restricted themselves to religious category as 'Buddhists'. Similarly, Bangladesh was listed as 'Bangladesh people' from 「Songuri Culture Center」, but they were in desperate needs of realistic help and hid their religious identity and accepted that classification. In case of Philippines, they met Catholic communities identical with theirs and were categorized into 'Catholic Christians'. In order to keep and shape a collective identity, migrant workers of each nation -Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Philippines- made practical efforts to be connected with one another through symbolic rituals and the usefulness of materials. Unsurprisingly, what they did to keep the identity showed no differences, maybe it likely results from their similar social statutes of migrant workers. Migrants usually require a variety of aids including financial supports. Among those, especially various problems in labor, wage, medical service, language, and rest center usage can't be solved by themselves, but can do by external assistances. With this reason, migrant communities mentioned in the three cases above commonly gave such aids to their members and they could be integrated. On the other hand, migrant communities maintained and built the collective identity through holding events, such like national holidays like Independence Day, national tradition events, and religious rituals. Only the places to be held were different. Those events and rituals are carried on with sponsors of korean supporting groups.
Migrant workers consolidate their identities by communicating with internal and external groups. But the contents of the communications were not the same according to each nation. In case Myanmar, the communicating operations for keeping their identity were clear. The contest of national and religious identities took place when they conflict with each other, those for supports of Protestant churches, those against those supports. Similarly, in case of Bangladesh, that contest occurred within their communities, communities accepting supports of Protestant churches and those opposing those supprots. Among Philippines migrant workers, it was appeared at religious authority- related matters inside their communities.
From studying those cases, I could find the followings. First, I could recognize that the existing viewpoint about migrants has a limit. It regarded them as subjects who should be assimilated and integrated in the society. It could be right for the long term migrants, but today, globaliztion increased temporary migrants. Much more migrant workers than in the past stay at the immigrated nations for a short term when they come there for financial purposes. Thus, migrant workers displayed totally different attitudes with the past migrants in the aspect of national and religious identity that the thesis has studied. Shortly, past migrant workers took soft attitudes for their national identity in order to be absorbed and be unified in the immigrated society. Additionally, they transformed their religion into the one of host society so that they could succeed in adjusting to that society. However, temporary migrant workers usually make the least efforts to adapt to their immigrated society and try to maintain their identities. Under this situation, they communicate with their immigrated society with their clear identity. This is a good point that makes us recognize that the existing perspectives on migrants are one-sided. We should make out that today's migrants and migrant laborers have independent and clear identities.
Second, it is needed to figure out the roles religion playes. Religion engages in a large part of the assimilation and reunion of migrants and playes important roles in keeping their national identities. In particular, religious identity is very significant. So, to get to know the roles of religion, it is essential that we should understand those roles according to types of migrants. For example, short term migrants wouldn't want their identities to be harmed when getting back to their homelands. The stronger religious identity of migrants is, the more confusion they would suffer from. In this case, those migrants would struggle to keep their identities, rather than being integrated in the migrated society. Similarly, migrant laborers in Korean society will be back to their countries in the future. Therefore, we should concern religious roles of the migrants, instead of the roles of assimilation, integration, or missions. In conclusion, we should figure out the religions of migrant workers, and then we might see how they adapt to our society and how they maintain their identities.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• 제1장 서론 = 1
• 제1절 문제의식과 연구목적 = 1
• 제2절 이주자 관련 연구 동향 = 8
• 1. 이주자와 종교 = 9
• 2. 국내 이주노동자 연구 = 14
• 제3절 개념 정의 및 분석 내용 = 16
• 1.이주노동자 = 16
• 2. 이주노동자공동체 = 17
• 3. 정체성(identity) = 18
• 1) 정의 및 특징 = 18
• 2) 정체성 형성 과정 = 23
• 4. 집합적 정체성의 구성과정 = 24
• 1) 범주규정 = 26
• 2) 집합적 동일시 = 27
• 3) 집합적 정체성 교섭 = 29
• 5. 민족 정체성과 종교 정체성의 경합 = 31
• 제2장 연구대상 및 방법 = 35
• 제1절 연구대상 = 35
• 1. 종교별 대상국가 선정 = 37
• 2. 공동체 선정 기준 = 45
• 1) 미얀마 이주노동자공동체 = 47
• 2) 방글라데시 이주노동자공동체 = 52
• 3) 필리핀 이주노동자공동체 = 57
• 제2절 연구방법과 자료수집 = 62
• 1. 연구방법 = 62
• 2. 자료수집 = 64
• 1) 연구방향을 세우기 위한 문헌조사 = 64
• 2) 참여관찰과 인터뷰를 위한 사전 작업 = 64
• 3) 참여관찰과 인터뷰 = 69
• 4) 인터뷰 대상자 = 70
• 제3장 종교적 특성 및 한국사회의 조건 = 77
• 제1절 세 사례의 종교적 특성 = 77
• 1. 미얀마의 불교민족주의 = 77
• 1) 왕조시대 : 국교로서 불교 = 78
• 2) 식민시대 : 민족항쟁과 불교 = 79
• 3) 독립국가시대 : 불교사회주의와 민주화운동 = 83
• 4) 일상의 불교문화 = 86
• 2. 방글라데시의 내부 식민주의와 이슬람 민족주의 = 88
• 1) 인도에 복속된 지역으로 이슬람권의 시작 = 89
• 2) 영국의 힌두교 우대정책으로 인도-파키스탄 분리 = 89
• 3) 탈식민시대 : 내부 식민주의와 이슬람 민족주의의 발전 = 90
• 3. 필리핀의 가톨릭 민족주의 = 92
• 1) 스페인의 지배와 함께 유입된 가톨릭 = 95
• 2) 가톨릭의 토착화와 독립운동 = 98
• 3) 종족-종교 분쟁 및 민주화운동과 가톨릭 민주주의의 성장 = 100
• 4. 민족-종교 정체성의 수렴 = 101
• 제2절 한국사회의 조건 : 종교별 이주노동자 지원 현황 = 102
• 1. 가톨릭교 = 104
• 2. 개신교 = 106
• 3. 불교와 이슬람교 = 108
• 4. 종교 기반 지원단체의 현황과 활동 = 109
• 제4장 이주노동자공동체 형성의 역사 = 112
• 제1절 미얀마 공동체 형성의 역사 = 112
• 1. 공동체 형성 초기 : 지원단체 기반의 공동체 형성 = 114
• 1) 개신교 기반 《미얀마노동협회》 = 114
• 2) 불교 기반 《미얀마공동체》 = 116
• 2. 공동체 형성 중기 : 자주적 공동체 형성기 = 119
• 1) 정치공동체 - 《NLD(LA) 한국지부》 = 119
• 2) 종교공동체 = 121
• (1) 동료의 죽음을 계기로 조직된 종교 공동체 - 《미얀마선원》 = 121
• (2) 계급 차이로 분리된 《미얀마전법사원》과 《담마두타》 = 123
• (3) 한국 불교단체와의 관계 - 개별적 지원 = 131
• 3) 노동인권공동체 - 《버마행동한국 Burma Action Korea》 = 132
• 3. 공동체 상호작용 : 독립-연합 = 136
• 제2절 방글라데시 공동체 형성의 역사 = 139
• 1. 공동체 형성 초기 : 지원단체 기반의 공동체 형성 = 141
• 개신교 기반 《방글라데시공동체》 = 141
• 2. 공동체 형성 중기 : 자주적 공동체 형성 = 144
• 1) 종교공동체 - 《포천소흘성원》 = 144
• (1) 종교 정체성 위기 탈출구 -자주적 종교모임 시작 = 144
• (2) 다국적 공동체로서의 한계 = 148
• (3) 한국 이슬람단체와의 관계 - 제한적 지원 = 150
• 2) 개신교 기반 《우리공동체》 = 152
• (1) 소규모 모임의 한계 = 152
• (2) 전략적 선택 : 개신교 기반의 지원단체 = 154
• 3. 공동체 상호작용 : 독립적 활동 = 157
• 제3절 필리핀 공동체 형성의 역사 = 159
• 1. 공동체 형성 초기 : 가톨릭단체 기반의 공동체형성 = 161
• 1) 「착한목자수녀원」과 「자양동성당」 기반 《자양동공동체》 = 161
• 2) 「혜화동성당」을 기반으로 《혜화동공동체》 = 164
• 3) 가톨릭의 세계적․통합적 지원 = 167
• 2. 공동체 형성 중기 : 자주적 공동체 형성 = 170
• 1) 노동정치공동체 - 《카사마코》 = 170
• 2) 노동공동체 :《FEWA》 = 177
• 3. 부가 단체들 = 178
• 1) 일상의 소비 공간 - 필리핀 장터 = 178
• 2) 한국 가톨릭의 힘 - 의료지원「라파엘 클리닉」 = 181
• 3) 송금은행 = 183
• 4. 공동체 상호작용 : 종교 공동체를 중심으로 통합 = 187
• 1) 사라질 위기의 ‘필리핀장터’를 구한《혜화동공동체》 = 187
• 2)《혜화동공동체》성원이고자 하는 조직들 = 189
• 제4절 소결 = 194
• 제5장 정체성 형성과정 = 199
• 제1절 범주 규정(categorization) = 200
• 1. 미얀마 : 개신교와의 조우로 드러난 종교 정체성 = 201
• 2. 방글라데시 : 개신교와의 조우로 감춘 종교 정체성 = 204
• 3. 필리핀 : 가톨릭과의 조우로 드러낸 종교 정체성 = 207
• 제2절 동일시 과정(identification) = 208
• 1. 미얀마 = 211
• 1) 물질적 과정 - 생활 센터 역할 = 211
• 2) 한국사회에서 탈구의 경험과 민족 정체성 = 213
• 3) 상징적 과정 - 민속 행사, 종교 행사 그리고 국가기념일 = 216
• 2. 방글라데시 = 222
• 1) 물질적 과정 - 상호원조와 네트워크 공동체 = 222
• 2) 상징적 과정 - 국가 기념일과 라마단 지키기 = 224
• 3. 필리핀 = 229
• 1) 상징적 과정 - 종교적 실천 행위를 중심으로 = 229
• 2) 물질적 과정 - 고충․의료상담, 문화사업을 통한 지원 = 231
• 제3절 정체성 교섭(identity negotiation) = 233
• 1. 미얀마 : 개신교의 지원으로 미얀마인들 내부에서 민족 정체성과 종교 정체성의 경합 = 234
• 2. 방글라데시 : 개신교의 지원으로 공동체 간 민족 정체성과 종교 정체성의 경합 = 236
• 3. 필리핀 : 권력관계의 우위에 놓인 가톨릭 정체성 = 238
• 제4절 소결 = 240
• 제6장 결론 = 245
• 참고문헌 = 251
• 통계 및 인터넷 자료 = 261
• Abstract = 262