Discriminación étnico-racial: Discursos públicos y experiencias cotidianas: Un estudio centrado en la colectividad coreana by Corina Courtis (review)

Corina Courtis’s book Discriminación étnico-racial: Discursos públicos y experiencias cotidianas: un estudio centrado en la colectividad coreana (Racial-ethnic discrimination: Public discourses and everyday experiences: A study centered on the Korean collective)¹ provides a timely contribution to the literature on Korea– Latin American relations by offering a contemporary study on Korean immigration to Argentina. The book focuses on public/political discourses on immigration and on individual processes of identification and construction of subjectivities. This discussion comes at a time of growing Korean influence in the region when the need for understanding processes of immigration is all the more pressing.

The Inter-American Development Bank recently affirmed that South Korea has become an important market for Latin American commodities and diversified exports as well as a source for direct foreign investment—primarily manufac-turing.² As Koreans follow these economic opportunities to Latin America, they contribute to a new wave of immigrants or expatriates and generate discussions on the development of public policies against racial and ethnic discrimination and toward a broader understanding of citizenship. These interactions between South Korea and Latin American countries have occurred while both regions are in the process of establishing democratic structures after years of authoritarian regimes. Thus, Korean immigration to Latin America, and, more specifically, to Argentina, should be understood not only in terms of economic benefits or labor relations but also in terms of the evolving conception of democratic citizenship. Courtis offers important contributions to this discussion.

An introductory chapter by Roberto Saba garners intersecting concerns with democracy building in Argentina from his reading of Courtis. First, he calls for a more inclusive, deliberative democracy, which goes beyond the classic democratic theory of tolerance and nondiscrimination. Liberal ideas of tolerance and respect for others can translate into a conception of democracy that is little more than an “aggregate of ghettos” in which knowledge of the other does not result in any obligation to give attention to or interact with the other (pp. ii–iii). Courtis’s study gains importance in the way it promotes democracy as a “dialogue among equals” by attempting to understand the other’s “ways of speaking” (p. iv).

Second, Saba argues that attempts by the state or by social convention to treat people equally and without prejudice are not enough in securing true equality. Rather, the test of nonsubjugation should be another axis of analysis which complements that of nondiscrimination (p. iv). In addition, Courtis’s sociological analysis demonstrates the social practices that can result in self-exclusion and alienation even within nondiscriminatory political policies. Saba holds that Courtis challenges Argentine society to think of a “political policy that will combat new forms of racism through the recognition of immigrants as equal and legitimate interlocutors within deliberative democracy, as subjects of rights and not merely objects to be protected, cared for, or respectfully ignored” (p. x).³ This introduction provides a brief glimpse into the political discussion within Argentina and sets the tone for the study on Korean immigrants. It locates the discussion within a country reconstituting democratic processes after military regimes and severe economic crises and that has yet to fully acknowledge its diverse population. This book thus brings to the fore issues of equality, tolerance, and citizenship.

Courtis’s methodology consists of the collection, transcription, and analysis of discourses both public/political and individual. She looks at discourses on immigrants in everyday speech, within the local media, and from three Argentine state agencies designed to work against discrimination and in favor of cultural diversity and integration. She also analyzes the results of her individual interviews with twenty Korean immigrants as well as provides an extended bibliographic narrative. In addition, she supplies historical information regarding immigration...