This paper examines how migrants make sense of the interactive dynamics between cross-border kinship and economic exchanges by focusing on the narratives of Korean Chinese migrants (ethnically Korean migrants who are Chinese citizens) who attempted to secure invitation documents for visa issuance from their South Korean relatives. The paper highlights the effect of global economic inequalities that are materialized in cross-border family relations as well as the work of migrant women who negotiate the social meaning of visas and kinship. Zelizer’s (2011) circuits of commerce and relational work are utilized to illustrate how cross-border relational labour is used to create social meaning about economic exchanges involving visa invitation documents. Based on in-depth interviews, group interviews, ethnography and documentary analysis, this paper focuses on the stories of Korean Chinese migrant women who did and did not secure the invitation documents from their “real” and “sham” relatives and examines the role of their kinship labour in facilitating transnational membership. The paper argues that the dynamics between kinship, a visa and the resultant expectations of access to a higher income provide a context for the relational work which shapes social meanings and practices of cross-border family relations.

Sohoon Yi is Assistant Professor in Sociology at Kyungpook National University and has undertaken postdoctoral fellowships at Rice University and the University of Toronto, Mississauga. Her research interests include migrant subjectivity at the intersection of gender, immigration laws, precarious labour, and the informal market. She is currently developing a book manuscript on temporariness, borders, and ethno-kinship migration programs in South Korea. She has published articles in various academic journals including Citizenship Studies, Social Politics, and the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

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