@article{ART003308302},
author={이준상 and 이은정},
title={The Governmentality of Emotion and the Ethics of Protection: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Refugee Regimes in South Korea and Germany},
journal={The Journal of Multicultural Society},
issn={2005-2553},
year={2026},
volume={19},
number={1},
pages={173-198},
doi={10.14431/jms.2026.2.19.1.173}
TY - JOUR
AU - 이준상
AU - 이은정
TI - The Governmentality of Emotion and the Ethics of Protection: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Refugee Regimes in South Korea and Germany
JO - The Journal of Multicultural Society
PY - 2026
VL - 19
IS - 1
PB - Research Institute of Asian Women
SP - 173
EP - 198
SN - 2005-2553
AB - This study comparatively analyzes the asylum systems of South Korea and Germany based on in-depth interviews with five Myanmar migrants who applied for asylum following the military coup in Myanmar in 2021. Drawing on a qualitative comparative approach, the study examines how asylum regimes operate not only as legal and administrative frameworks but also as technologies of governance through which emotion is embedded in the language of state ethics and institutional practice. Focusing on the institutionalized emotional structures surrounding eligibility for protection, the study shows that South Korea and Germany formalize the governance of emotion in distinct ways. In South Korea, the asylum system produces what can be described as “authorized precarity” through administrative ambiguity and an affective politics of relational trust. In contrast, the German welfare state institutionalizes “selective protection” by embedding meritocratic evaluations and hierarchies of moral emotion within its protection regime. Although these two systems are shaped by different social and historical conditions, they are complementary in that both mobilize emotion as a criterion for state morality and human potential. This study conceptualizes this complementary form of governance as the “governmentality of emotion” and argues for a shift from protection governed by emotion toward a politics of potentiality. It emphasizes the need to reconfigure emotion not as a mechanism of exclusion but as an ethical resource for restoring human dignity and mutual care.
KW - refugees;governmentality of emotion;ethics of protection;meritocracy;politics of potentiality
DO - 10.14431/jms.2026.2.19.1.173
ER -
이준상 and 이은정. (2026). The Governmentality of Emotion and the Ethics of Protection: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Refugee Regimes in South Korea and Germany. The Journal of Multicultural Society, 19(1), 173-198.
이준상 and 이은정. 2026, "The Governmentality of Emotion and the Ethics of Protection: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Refugee Regimes in South Korea and Germany", The Journal of Multicultural Society, vol.19, no.1 pp.173-198. Available from: doi:10.14431/jms.2026.2.19.1.173
이준상, 이은정 "The Governmentality of Emotion and the Ethics of Protection: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Refugee Regimes in South Korea and Germany" The Journal of Multicultural Society 19.1 pp.173-198 (2026) : 173.
이준상, 이은정. The Governmentality of Emotion and the Ethics of Protection: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Refugee Regimes in South Korea and Germany. 2026; 19(1), 173-198. Available from: doi:10.14431/jms.2026.2.19.1.173
이준상 and 이은정. "The Governmentality of Emotion and the Ethics of Protection: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Refugee Regimes in South Korea and Germany" The Journal of Multicultural Society 19, no.1 (2026) : 173-198.doi: 10.14431/jms.2026.2.19.1.173
이준상; 이은정. The Governmentality of Emotion and the Ethics of Protection: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Refugee Regimes in South Korea and Germany. The Journal of Multicultural Society, 19(1), 173-198. doi: 10.14431/jms.2026.2.19.1.173
이준상; 이은정. The Governmentality of Emotion and the Ethics of Protection: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Refugee Regimes in South Korea and Germany. The Journal of Multicultural Society. 2026; 19(1) 173-198. doi: 10.14431/jms.2026.2.19.1.173
이준상, 이은정. The Governmentality of Emotion and the Ethics of Protection: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Refugee Regimes in South Korea and Germany. 2026; 19(1), 173-198. Available from: doi:10.14431/jms.2026.2.19.1.173
이준상 and 이은정. "The Governmentality of Emotion and the Ethics of Protection: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Refugee Regimes in South Korea and Germany" The Journal of Multicultural Society 19, no.1 (2026) : 173-198.doi: 10.14431/jms.2026.2.19.1.173
