Migrant Conversions

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"Peruvian migrant workers began migrating to South Korea in large numbers in the early 1990s, eventually becoming one of the largest groups of non-Asians in the country. Migrant Conversions shows how Peruvians have come to see Korea as their divine destiny. Faced with looming departures, Peruvians develop cosmopolitan plans that transform them from economic migrants into pastors, lovers, and leaders. Set against the backdrop of the 2008 world economic crisis, Vogel explores the intersections of three types of conversions--money, religious beliefs, and cosmopolitan plans--to argue that conversions are how migrants negotiate the meaning of their lives in a constantly changing Korean context. At the convergence of cosmopolitan projects spearheaded by the state, Protestant churches, and other migrants, Peruvians change the value and meaning of their migration. Yet, in attempting to make themselves at home in the world, they also create potential losses. As Peruvians help carve out social spaces, they create complex and uneven connections between Peru and Korea that challenge a global hierarchy of nations and migrants"-- Provided by publisher