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The Korean Society for Journalism & Communication (KSJCS)
[ Article ]
Korean Journal of Journalism & Communication Studies - Vol. 67, No. 3, pp.50-79
ISSN: 2586-7369 (Online)
Print publication date 30 Jun 2023
Received 14 Apr 2023 Accepted 09 May 2023 Revised 31 May 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20879/kjjcs.2023.67.3.002

스마트폰 딸노릇하기 : 북한 초국가적 가족 실천과 이동전화

채석진***
*조선대학교 신문방송학과 조교수 sjchae@chosun.ac.kr
Smartphone Daughtering : North Korean Transnational Family Practices and Mobile Phones
Suk Jin Chae***
*Assitant Professor, Chosun University sjchae@chosun.ac.kr

초록

이 논문은 한국에 거주하는 북한 출신 이주민들이 어떻게 스마트폰을 사용하여 북한에 남아있는 가족들과 관계를 유지하고 있는지 탐사한다. 이 과정에서 북한 이주민의 스마트폰 사용을 이주로 파생되는 가족 분리와 초국가적 커뮤니케이션의 측면에서 살펴보고자 한다. 지난 수십년 동안 심화된 노동의 국제적 분업과 이주의 여성화 과정은 저개발국가에서 광범위한 가족 분리 현상으로 이어지며, 수많은 초국가적 가족을 만들어왔다. 오랜 기간 국제적인 경제제재를 받아 온 북한에서도 가족 구성원이 해외로 이주하여 보내주는 임금이 주요한 경제적 자원이 되어왔다. 한국은 북한 이주 노동자들의 주요한 도착지로, 많은 북한 이주민이 북한에 남아 있는 가족들의 생활을 지탱하는 역할을 하고 있다. 이러한 현상에 주목하여, 이 연구는 북한 출신 이주민들의 스마트폰 사용을 초국가적 가족 실천과 초국가적 커뮤니케이션의 부분으로 이해하고자 시도한다. 이를 위해 먼저 초국가적 가족 실천과 미디어 사용에 관한 인류학적 연구들의 논의를 살펴보고, 북한 여성 이주민에 관한 연구를 검토한다. 다음으로 한 북한 여성 이주민의 이야기를 통해서, 현재 스마트폰을 매개로 수행되고 있는 초국가적 가족 실천의 속성과 양식을 탐색한다. 이 과정에서 이 글은 그동안 ‘엄마노릇하기’를 중심으로 진행된 초국가적 가족 실천 연구 경향 속에서 간과되었던 ‘딸노릇하기’를 드러내고, 언어적·정서적 교환만이 아니라 경제적 교환을 주요한 초국가적 가족 실천으로 조명한다. 북한 초국가적 가족들에게 스마트폰과 같은 정보통신기술의 확장은 공식적인 통신망의 제약을 넘어선 비공식적인 연결망의 확산을 촉진하기도 하지만, 동시에 이 과정에 관한 기술적 감시의 확장으로 경험되고 있었다. 이 속에서 북한 이주 여성은 생계부양자로서의 딸노릇을 하기 위해 감행한 초국가적 이주가 가족에 대한 실질적인 돌봄을 더욱 어렵게 만드는 모순을 마주하고 있으며, 이러한 모순을 스마트폰을 매개로 딸노릇하기를 수행하며 협상하고 있었다.

Abstract

This article explores how North Korean migrants living in South Korea maintain intimate relationships with their families in North Korea via smartphones. In particular, it focuses on the acts of transnational communication between North Korean migrants and their family members left behind in North Korea. In this article, transnational communication refers to the flow of ideas, information, goods, money, and emotion. The existing research on contemporary transnational migration has shown the feminization of migration and family separation as one of the social costs of migration. Studies have shown that transnational migrants have developed some solutions for responding to the care needs of left-behind family members and the maintenance of relationships within such transnational families depends heavily on mediated distant communication. In addition, studies have revealed that despite their physical absence due to migration, the gendered family roles of women as wives, mothers, and daughters persist in those mediated family practices. Similarly, given the legal impediments to social, cultural, and economic exchanges between the two Koreas, the North Korean migrants have developed informal or illegal solutions to continue emotional and practical care for their family members in North Korea. Recent technological developments enable them to create new forms of social interaction, communication, and participation that transcend state borders, which are largely mediated by smartphones.

Drawing on a two-year ethnographic fieldwork, this study attempts to understand how North Korean immigrants use smartphones to maintain transnational family relationships. In doing so, this article understands the use of smartphones by North Korean migrants as an integral part of their transnational family practices and transnational communication. This article consists of three sections. It first reviews the existing ethnographic research on the link between transnational family practices and media use. Then it delivers the story of Mi-young, a North Korean female migrant, who has been maintaining an intimate relationship with her elderly parents and younger brother living in North Korea in a situation of extended absence. Mi-young's transnational family practices have been interwoven with her attempts to reduce the vulnerability of life. Although her decision to migrate is made mainly to reduce the economic vulnerability of her family, her physical absence significantly limits her ability to offer daily practical care for them. Mi-Young has been trying to deal with this contradiction by performing emotional and economic support from a distance with her smartphones, which I term 'smartphone daughtering' in this article. This article sheds light on the acts of transnational daughterhood, which have been overlooked in transnational family communication research with an overwhelming interest in motherhood.

Keywords:

Smartphones, Transnational Families, Transnational Communication, North Korean Migrant Women, Daughtering

키워드:

스마트폰, 초국가적 가족, 초국가적 커뮤니케이션, 북한 이주 여성, 딸노릇하기

Acknowledgments

이 논문은 한국언론학회 2023 봄철 정기학술대회에서 언론학보 우수논문상에 선정됐습니다.

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF-2019S1A5B5A01042817)(이 연구는 북한대학원대학교 심연북한연구소에 큰 학문적 빚을 지고 있다. 특히 연구의 모든 단계에서 북한 연구 전문가로서의 통찰을 너그럽게 나누어주며 물심양면으로 지원해주신 김성경 선생님께 깊이 감사드린다. 또한 완성도 있는 논문이 되도록 도와주신 세 분의 심사위원님께도 감사드린다. 무엇보다 이 연구에 참여해서 기꺼이 자신의 경험을 나누어주신 북한 이주 여성분들과 지역 여성 지원 센터 선생님들께 감사드린다. 이 논문은 한국언론학회 2023년 봄철 정기학술대회에서 발표된 바 있다).

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