Samaritans from the Far East: Korean nurses in Germany

Prof Yonson Ahn (Goethe University of Frankfurt)

Abstract

In line with the increasing significance of the role of transnational migration in healthcare provision – especially in the West – slightly over 11,000 nurses and nurse assistants from South Korea moved as “guest workers” ( Gastarbeiter ) to the former West Germany mainly between the 1960s and the 1970s. This talk, based on the nurses’ experiences at work, explores the role of emotions in the professional practice of nursing care during the interactions between the migrant nurses and the German local patients. Particular attention is paid to gendered and racialized aspects of the emotional labor carried out by the Korean migrant healthcare workers based on their experiences at work.

Speaker Biography

Yonson Ahn is Professor, Chair of Korean Studies and Deputy Executive Director of the Interdisciplinary Centre of East Asian Studies (IZO) at the Goethe University of Frankfurt, Germany. Gender and migration, with a focus on transnational nurse migration is her major research interest, along with the Korean diaspora and sexual violence associated with armed conflict. Her work has been published in a range of journals including Korean Studies and European Journal of Women's Studies . Her recent monograph is entitled Whose Comfort: Body, Sexuality and Identities of Korean ‘Comfort Women’ and Japanese Soldiers during WWII , London & Singapore: World Scientific Publishing, 2020. In addition, she has edited a volume entitled Transnational Mobility in and out of Korea , Lanham: Lexington Books, 2020.

Registration

This event is free and open to public. If you would like to attend the event please register. Please register via Zoom .

Organiser: SOAS Centre of Korean Studies

Contact email: centres@soas.ac.uk