This research contributes to the development of migration theories by examining the challenges and opportunities faced by UK-resident migrants from North Korea in maintaining transnational family ties. Particularly, it reflects critically on the role played by ‘place’ as a regulatory apparatus in shaping the migrants’ experiences of family relationships in a transnational social space. The findings are drawn from thematic analysis of data from life history interviews with 14 North Korean defectors. In the light of the prevalence of back-and-forth stepwise migration for the defectors and their families across multiple nation states, I propose the concept of ‘traversing’ to describe the strenuous transnational familial experiences and complex mobility trajectories of North Korean escapees, which goes beyond a linear journey from the sending to the host place. While existing migration research has capitalized on the host place in selectively enabling and stratifying migrants’ access to transnational family rights, I argue that, instead of assuming forced migrants have free access to their home countries, it is important to consider the interplay between multiple places in understanding the challenges for vulnerable migrants to access essential family rights and maintain transnational family relationships.

中文翻译：

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穿越：逃亡朝鲜人的家庭挑战

这项研究通过考察来自朝鲜的英国居民移民在维持跨国家庭关系方面面临的挑战和机遇，为移民理论的发展做出了贡献。特别是，它批判性地反映了“地方”作为一种监管机构在塑造移民在跨国社会空间中的家庭关系体验方面所起的作用。调查结果来自对 14 名脱北者生活史访谈数据的专题分析。鉴于脱北者及其家人在多个民族国家之间来回逐步迁移的普遍现象，我提出“穿越”的概念来描述朝鲜逃亡者的艰苦跨国家庭经历和复杂的流动轨迹，这超出了从发送到主机的线性旅程。虽然现有的移民研究利用东道国选择性地使移民获得跨国家庭权利并对其进行分层，但我认为，与其假设被迫移民可以自由进入本国，重要的是要考虑多个地方之间的相互作用了解弱势移民在获得基本家庭权利和维持跨国家庭关系方面面临的挑战。