Identities and Senses of Belonging of Koreans from and in Catalonia and Spain: Rethinking Methodological Nationalism.

The population of Korean origin in Spain (including permanent residents, descendants of Koreans, temporary workers, exchange students and other cases) is an understudied community compared to other communities of Asian origin such as the Chinese. Yet, it stands out as a relevant empirical case for the study of nationalism and ethnicity because of the complex notions of Koreanness that the Korean people handle after the consequences of Japanese colonization (mainly, the division into two different states, and a worldwide diaspora of 7 million people, with specific minorities such as the Chaoxianzu, the Zainichi and the Koryo-saram) and the multiple national identities present in Spain, all while Korean culture becomes increasingly popular around them. More specifically, I focus on those living in the political and administrative division of Catalonia (mostly in the city of Barcelona) and accounting for half of the community, who face the challenge of keeping their ties to Korea and to Koreanness while navigating between two other (often contrasting) identities within the broader concept of Europe: a Spanish one aligned with the nation-state (for which they are expected to know the Spanish language) and a Catalan one associated with what is locally known as a “historical nationality” (for which they might be expected to use the Catalan language). Through a combination of ethnographic fieldwork in Barcelona, in-depth qualitative interviews and personal network analysis with members of the Korean community in Spain, I explore their past and current expectations as Asian immigrants or descendants of immigrants in Europe, their experiences of racism and discrimination in Spain, their identities as members of the Korean diaspora and their senses of belonging to the host society. As a particularly relevant outcome of this analysis, I discuss the implications that this combination of multiple identities might have for methodological nationalism, and transnationalism.