Citizenship of South Korea

Citizens of South Korea are eligible to acquire a standard South Korean passport. The passport can be used to verify nationality and identity, and is issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[1]

Citizenship of South Korea is granted to qualifying individuals under the South Korean Nationality Act and its fifteen amendments.[2][3][4] Citizenship status reflects the rights, duties, and identity of individuals in relation to the South Korean state.

There are elements of the jus sanguinis principle of citizenship acquisition in South Korean nationality law, as citizenship inheritance is possible for those with a blood relationship to ethnic Koreans.[2] However, the stringency of this standard has been complicated by politics, the effects of globalization, as well as historical patterns of migration.[3][5] Maintaining the balance between the supposed homogeneity of South Korean society and the discourse of progress has proven somewhat tenuous.[6] Despite this, the pliability of citizenship policies in recent years seems to indicate a larger trend that welcomes the addition of select foreigners.

The unique history of Korea, including its division and colonization, have impacted the context in which citizenship is interpreted. Because of this, the year that the South Korean state was established has figured prominently in determining the legitimacy of South Korean nationality, as there was no such thing until 1948. South Korean identity has been formed in reaction to violence and occupation, and the legislative approach to determining who is worthy of belonging has reflected this.[7] Those who are included and excluded from the benefits of citizenship reflect not just the relations between people living in South Korea, but also the South Korean state's relationship to outsiders more broadly.

  1. ^ "Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Korea". Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
  2. ^ a b Kim, Nora Hui-Jung (2013). "Flexible Yet Inflexible: Development of Dual Citizenship in South Korea". Journal of Korean Studies. 18 (1): 7–28. doi:10.1353/jks.2013.0000. ISSN 2158-1665. S2CID 143720463.
  3. ^ a b Park, Jung-Sun; Chang, Paul Y. (2005). "Contention in the Construction of a Global Korean Community: The Case of the Overseas Korean Act". Journal of Korean Studies. 10 (1): 1–27. doi:10.1353/jks.2005.0002. ISSN 2158-1665. S2CID 54683416.
  4. ^ Pohlmann, Markus (2013). Citizenship and Migration in the Era of Globalization: the Flow of Migrants and the Perception of Citizenship in Asia and Europe. Yang, Jonghoe. & Lee, Jong-Hee. Berlin: Springer. ISBN 9783642197390. OCLC 833385325.
  5. ^ Choo, Hae Yeon (2016-06-08). Decentering citizenship : gender, labor, and migrant rights in South Korea. Stanford, California. ISBN 9780804799607. OCLC 949276257.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. ^ Lee, Chulwoo (2019). "Report on citizenship law : the Republic of Korea". [Global Governance Programme], GLOBALCIT, Country Reports, 2019/03, [Global Citizenship]. hdl:1814/62184 – via Cadmus, European University Institute Research Repository.
  7. ^ Kim, Jaeeun (2016). Contested embrace : transborder membership politics in twentieth-century Korea. Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804799614. OCLC 971042582.