At the Mobility Humanities Colloquium, Professor Jaok Kwon (University of Heidelberg, Germany) presented “Migration Policy in Germany and the Changing Sociodemographics of Korean Immigrants.”
Professor Kwon examined Germany’s refugee situation and immigration policy and the transformation of mobility in immigrant communities through the 2020 Skilled Immigration Policy. Professor Kwon introduced the changes of the immigrant community in Germany in the context of the labour market and welfare system context and described the characteristics of the Korean immigrant community in Germany, which has been transformed from nurses and miners into a group with diverse skills, education, and occupations.
Professor Kwon, who works at the Centre for Asian Studies of the University of Heidelberg, received a doctorate from Hitotsubashi University in Japan by “Rural Development and Gender in South Korea: The Interface between the State, Women’s Movements and Rural Women in the 1960s-70s.” Professor Kwon’s research interests are in the mobility of labour and gender. Professor Kwon is a contributing author to The Cambridge Handbook of Labor and Democracy, published by the University of Cambridge, and has contributed to journals such as “Global Korea: The Transnational Mobility of People, Goods, and Ideas” and “Skilled Migrants from East Asia in Germany: Trends, Pattern, and Implications.”
