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Global Citizens in the Making: Child-Centred Multimedia Ethnographic Research on South Korean Student Migrants in Singapore

Ethnography

Published online on

Abstract

This study of South Korean pre-college students in Singapore has two goals: (1) to propose multimedia ethnography as a method for examining children’s views on migration; and (2) to use this method to explore intersections between globality and locality in children’s migration experiences. Multimedia ethnography allows the ethnographer to analyse how children reflect on and shape their experiences and imaginations through examining various modes of communicative practices – such as drawings, diaries, and peer talk. My multimedia data reveals that the discourses of ‘being global’ that are dominant in Korean society significantly influence the migrant children’s imaginings of their future selves. Yet at the same time, experiences of localness play a central role in the children’s construction of ‘the world’ and globality. As such, multimedia ethnography brings to light how the migrant children’s unarticulated everyday experiences constitute the process of ‘going global’.