Any One Parent Will Do: Negotiations of Fatherhood among South Korean "Wild Geese" Fathers in Singapore

This article explores the interplay between transnational migration and notions of fatherhood by examining South Korean "wild geese" (kirŏgi) fathers in Singapore, who, unlike typical wild geese fathers who remain in South Korea to support their wives and children abroad, are directly involved in their children's educational migration to Singapore as primary caregivers. Most particularly, I identify two primary strategies by which these exceptional fathers enact a new image of fatherhood:(1) redefining caregiving as a more situational and gender-neutral activity and (2) retaining their close associations with conventional masculine domains while differentiating their care work from their wives' micromanagement of the children. These two strategies point to a stalled revolution in which the fathers' changing roles have not sufficiently challenged the dominant gender ideology. At the level of practice, however, these migrant fathers exemplify another form of family flexibility, one in which the conventional gendered household arrangement can be modified and even trespassed upon. Yet at the same time, at the level of ideology, these fathers need to secure their masculinity, something that remains limited by the dominant gender ideology of father as breadwinner. Hence, this ethnography of Korean migrant fathers illustrates the ongoing processes by which these men negotiate and justify their unconventional gender roles and practices in an attempt to reconcile the gap between their changing fathering practices and the conventional gender ideology.