Transnationalism with Multi-Leveled Actors: A Systematic Review of Studies on Overseas Koreans’ Voting
| Author | Sou Hyun Jang |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14789299211052901 |
| Published date | 01 February 2023 |
| Date | 01 February 2023 |
| Subject Matter | State of the Art — Review Articles |
https://doi.org/10.1177/14789299211052901
Political Studies Review
2023, Vol. 21(1) 127 –143
© The Author(s) 2021
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DOI: 10.1177/14789299211052901
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Transnationalism with Multi-
Leveled Actors: A Systematic
Review of Studies on Overseas
Koreans’ Voting
Sou Hyun Jang
Abstract
COVID-19 has affected several aspects of people’s lives, including overseas voting by Koreans
overseas. Compared to the high national voter turnout for Korea’s 21st legislative elections
(62.6%), the voter turnout among overseas Koreans was only 23.8%, the lowest since the
inception of overseas voting in 2012. However, no study has systematically reviewed prior studies
on overseas voting through the framework of political transnationalism with multilevel actors.
By reviewing articles published between 2012 and 2020 that explore overseas Koreans’ voting in
their home country’s election, this study aims to categorize studies at different levels and suggest
policy implications and future directions for research that could contribute toward filling the gaps
in the existing literature. The methods of overseas voting need to be diversified to adequately
prepare for any exogenous shocks, such as COVID-19, during the upcoming election periods.
Keywords
overseas voting, overseas Koreans, political transnationalism, voting in home country elections,
COVID-19
Accepted: 16 September 2021
Introduction
The spread of COVID-19 has affected several aspects of people’s lives worldwide. As of
16 April 2020—the day of the Korean legislative elections—there have been 10,613 con-
firmed COVID-19 cases and 229 deaths in Korea (Ministry of Health and Welfare, 2020).
However, the pandemic did not hinder Koreans from exercising their right to vote. The
national voter turnout for Korea’s 2020 legislative elections was 62.6%, much higher than
the 2016 elections (58.0%; National Election Commission, 2020a). In contrast, the voter
Department of Sociology, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea
Corresponding author:
Sou Hyun Jang, Department of Sociology, Sungkyunkwan University, 25-2 Sungkyunkwan-ro, Jongno-gu,
Seoul, South Korea.
Email: souhyunjang@skku.edu
1052901PSW0010.1177/14789299211052901Political Studies ReviewJang
research-article2021
State of the Art – Review Article
128 Political Studies Review 21(1)
turnout among overseas Koreans was the lowest (23.8%) during the 2020 legislative elec-
tions compared to the 2012 (45.7%) and 2016 (41.4%) legislative elections, and the 2012
(71.1%) and 2017 (75.3%) presidential elections (National Election Commission, 2020b).
This is mainly because overseas voting was suspended in 55 countries and the overseas
voting period was shortened for 36 overseas voting offices in 2020.
As of 2019, there are more than 7 million overseas Koreans in 180 countries world-
wide (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2019). They constitute approximately one-seventh of
the total number of Koreans (Park, 2016a). The number of overseas Koreans has gradu-
ally increased from 6,822,606 in 2009 to 7,184,872 in 2015 and 7,493,587 in 2018. The
US has the most overseas Koreans, followed by China, Japan, Canada, Uzbekistan,
Vietnam, and Russia, in descending order (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2019). Scholars
have examined various perspectives and issues related to overseas Koreans, but have
mostly focused on the laws and policies that apply to them (Jeon, 2008; Lee, 2015) and
on their bilingual education (Jung, 2010; Park, 2005, 2007). Despite a plethora of studies
on overseas Koreans, research on their political engagement with their home country has
been inadequate (Lim and Kim, 2015).
Recently, significant research has revealed overseas Koreans’ engagement in transna-
tionalism. Transnationalism is defined as “the process by which immigrants forge and
sustain multi-stranded social relations that link together their societies of origin and set-
tlement” (Basch et al., 2005: 27). Among the different fields of immigrant transnational-
ism, overseas Koreans’ cultural (Baek et al., 2011; Jang, 2016; Min, 2007) and medical
transnationalism (Jang, 2018; Jang et al., 2019; Ko et al., 2016) have received the most
attention from scholars. However, compared to other fields of transnationalism, there
have been a few studies on overseas Koreans’ political transnationalism, including voting
in Korean elections (overseas voting), a right that has been available since 2012.
To fill this gap in existing literature, this study fulfills two aims by reviewing previous
studies on voting among overseas Koreans. First, it summarizes and categorizes the stud-
ies on overseas voting by actors at multiple levels of transnationalism. Second, this study
recommends policy implications and directions for future research that will contribute
toward filling the remaining gaps in existing literature. Most studies on overseas Koreans’
voting are written in Korean and published by Korean publishers. Therefore, being one of
the first to systematically review overseas Koreans’ voting in their home country’s elec-
tion, this study will provide a theoretical basis to future studies that aim to compare the
laws, policies, and issues related to overseas voting across different nations.
Literature Review
Overseas Voting
Overseas voting was available for Koreans from 1967 to 1971, mainly for Korean sol-
diers who were dispatched to Vietnam and for Koreans in Germany (Park and Shong,
2012). Approximately 40,000 overseas Koreans voted during this period (Park, 2012).
Overseas voting was then discontinued for approximately 40 years until the amendment
of the Public Official Election Act in 2012 (Korea Legislation Research Institute, 2020).
This act legalized overseas Koreans to vote in the presidential and legislative elections.
Since then, the important contribution of overseas Koreans’ voting has been emphasized
because of the hundreds of thousands of votes that they collectively cast, which can be
decisive in elections (Park, 2012).
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