The Continental and the Sakhalin Koreans: Differences and Similarities

Abstract

This article is a debut comparative study of similarities and differences between the two sub-ethnic diasporas of Koreans residing in the continental part of Russia, Central Asia, and the Sakhalin Island. Based on a wide range of historiographical material, it analyzes the reasons and prerequisites for the formation of asymmetry in the indices of demographic, ethnic, and sociocultural processes among the materikovskie (continental) and the Sakhalin Koreans. The article examines key issues pertaining to the national identity change, loyalty to the historical and actual motherlands, acquisition of new citi zenship in the former USSR and contemporary CIS countries. The materikovskie and the Sakhalin Koreans, while of common ethnogenetic origin, used to have more sociocultural differences than similarities at the initial stage of their parallel lives in the Soviet reality. At present, their mentalities have become closer; nevertheless, the division into “us” and “others” still persists. The article argues that the dichotomy “us”/“them” constitutes the existential essence in the sub-diasporic identity.