Mothers and nation in the global era: The role of evangelical Protestant mothers in the discursive construction of multicultural Korea

Abstract

Despite scholarly work examining mothers’ roles in nation-building, few studies have investigated how religion plays a role in the process. Comparing two groups of evangelical Protestant mothers, namely, transnational and domestic mothers, this study argues that religion powerfully shapes mothers’ understanding of multiculturalism but only alongside their cosmopolitan experiences. Drawing on in-depth interviews with evangelical mothers originating from Seoul, South Korea, the article examines how mothers perceive multicultural families and children, in comparison with Korean citizens, and investigates the strategies they use in making discursive boundaries to include immigrants. The findings show that transnational mothers have a more inclusive perception of multicultural families and children than domestic mothers, through their use of the interconnected languages of religion and cosmopolitanism. The article claims that an intersectional lens helps us understand mothers’ unique ways of imagining a multicultural Korea, emphasizing their complex positions in families, churches, and global communities. The study contributes to bringing a religious and cosmopolitan focus into the literature on mothers and nation, negating the monolithic media portrayal of religious women as a homogeneous group preserving a total identity in conservative views.