WHA Annual Meeting: Korea 2026

This article challenges the dominant narrative that contemporary transnational Korean communities emerge primarily from recent globalization processes. Instead, it demonstrates how Korean social space production in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) is driven by historical diasporic networks and strategic community agency rather than globalizing flows. Drawing on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork (2022-2023), including surveys of 341 Korean residents and in-depth interviews across key settlement areas (District 7's Phu My Hung, District 2's Thao Dien, Tan Binh District), this study employs Henri Lefebvre's theory of social space production and Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of cultural and social capital to analyze how Korean migrants construct distinctive urban enclaves.
The research reveals three critical findings. First, Korean spatial concentration follows a concentric zone pattern organized around ethno-cultural institutions (Korean schools, Protestant churches, restaurants) rather than economic centers, demonstrating deliberate community-building strategies. Second, these enclaves operate through dense transnational networks linking HCMC to the Korean diaspora globally—particularly through religious organizations (4 major Protestant denominations serving 2,000+ congregants) and Korea-Vietnam associations—rather than through abstract globalizing processes. Third, cultural reproduction mechanisms (foodways, language maintenance, festival practices) create what locals call "Korea Towns," representing spaces where historical migration legacies and contemporary transnational connections produce social formations that predate and transcend globalization frameworks. This analysis contributes to world history scholarship by demonstrating how Asian diasporic communities create cross-border connections outside globalization's institutional structures. The case illuminates alternative models of interconnection that persist in an era of nationalist resurgence and anti-globalist politics, offering historical precedents for understanding global entanglement beyond economic integration.