Searching for Ontological Security via Homeland Media Use: The Case of Korean Temporary Visa-Status Migrants in the United States

Temporary visa-status migrants initially might be perceived as emancipated mobilities who are privileged enough to enter and exit the United States without taking any major risks. This article examines the struggles involved in the experiences of the Korean temporary visa-status migrants living in the United States, and especially the role of media in their transnational everyday lives. Using a quasi-ethnographic approach by conducting qualitative interviews with 40 Korean visa-status migrants, this article argues that the homeland media, both television and Internet, sustain “ontological security” throughout the radical transitions, feeling of “existential outsideness,” and transnational insecurities and precariousness. The study offers a helpful insight in both understanding the contemporary dispersed audiences and contextualizing different migrant positions within the easily lumped category of mobile elites or cosmopolitans.