Belonging on Condition: Ethnic Recognition and Staged Exclusion in South Korea's Treatment of Joseonjok

Abstract

South Korea officially recognizes Joseonjok, ethnic Koreans who are Chinese nationals, as overseas Korean compatriots. Yet this recognition has consistently coexisted with discrimination, exclusion, and legal inequality. This paper argues that South Korea's co-ethnic recognition framework does not merely fail to prevent exclusion; it actively produces it, using the language of ethnic solidarity to manage incorporation rather than deliver genuine belonging. Drawing on sociological theory, policy analysis, and interview data, the paper traces a staged process of exclusion across five domains: ethnic appearance, which grants initial but unstable access; language, which marks the decisive moment of reclassification; structural conditions, which prevent meaningful integration even when proximity exists; public discourse, which pre-loads suspicion before direct contact occurs; and institutional hierarchies, which formalize unequal belonging through visa policy. Together, these domains reveal that conditional belonging is not a failure of the system; it is the system.