KJCKorea
Journal Central

This study empirically analyzes factors associated with international students’ post-graduation career plans in Korea. In particular, it examines how the perceived career utility of a Korean degree and economic factors, such as methods of financing tuition and living expenses, are related to post-graduation career choices. Using data from the 2023 Survey on Immigrants’ Living Conditions and Labour Force (N = 2,705), this study conducted a multinomial logistic regression analysis. The results show that a positive perception of the utility of a Korean degree is significantly associated with domestic retention, with a one-unit increase in perceived utility corresponding to a 32.6% decrease in the odds of returning to one’s home country rather than staying in Korea. Notably, financing living expenses through part-time work in Korea reduced the likelihood of returning home by 54.2%, suggesting that local work experience may be related to settlement intentions. Conversely, STEM majors were 3.5 times more likely to plan to migrate to a third country, indicating heterogeneity in post-graduation pathways. These findings suggest the need to move beyond simple financial subsidies and toward policies that enhance the labormarketvalue of Korean degrees and link work experience with institutional settlement support systems.

This study analyzes the segmented experiences of young adults with migration backgrounds as they enter and adapt to the labor market. It focuses in particular on intra-group heterogeneity between those born in Korea and those who immigrated during adolescence (mid-arrival), examining how their patterns of labor market integration become segmented. In-depth interviews were conducted with 12 young adults with migration backgrounds, aged 19 to 34 — six born in Korea and six midarrival.The analysis found that parental social capital, career formation through formal education, social prejudice encountered during the jobseeking process, and strategies for mobilizing employment resources shaped their labor market entry and adaptation. In particular, gaps in social capital stemming from place of birth and the timing of citizenship acquisition constrained opportunity structures within the labor market. As a result, the labor market for these youth was hierarchically ordered and segmented into upward integration, downward assimilation, and a third pathway. Building on these findings, the study discusses their policy implications.

This study analyzes the socio-spatial restructuring of newly formed international student enclaves in South Korean university towns amidst the structural crises of a shrinking school-age population and regional extinction. Based on field surveys and in-depth interviews conducted from January to October 2025 in three specific regions—the northeastern districts of Seoul (Dongdaemun-gu and Seongbuk-gu), Daeyeon-dong in Nam-gu, Busan, and Bukbu-dong in Gyeongsan, Gyeongsangbuk-do—this research examines the changes driven by the concentration of international students through the lens of transnational studentification. The transnational studentification in these three regions commonly revealed a structure of “segregated coexistence,” where economic dependence and socio-cultural exclusion operate simultaneously. Focusing on the fact that these enclaves serve as both spaces of foreign concentration and university towns with distinct placeness, this study analyzes how the national composition and socio-cultural backgrounds of international students, as well as the existing identity of the university towns, influence the formation of relationships between native Korean residents and international students.