The Transnational Experiences of a Korean Military Bride (KMB) and the Use of Her Capitals in American Ghetto

This paper examines the lived experiences of Korean women (KMBs) who married American servicemen in Korea and moved to the state of Kansas in the United States. The study attempt to offer a new way of understanding KMBs as agents who have accumulated and utilize various forms of capital in their day-to-day experiences with people of different races in the United States. Looking into a Korean-owned beauty supply store in Kansas City as a social venue, the paper finds that KMBs have utilized certain strategies including the social and cultural capitals to improve their life-chances and overcome the social and cultural tensions that their transnational situation creates. In addition, it shows how the women’s skills of flexibility, improvisation, and negotiation enable them to adjust readily to new situations. The efforts to look at Korean communities in Kansas are intended to overcome the limits of the existing studies that have situated these Korean women at the margins of the Korean communities and American society.