Immigrants' negotiation of the homeland and the hostland: Transnational transformation of perception and usage of Korean hagwons.

This article examines the transnational transformation of Korean hagwons—private supplementary educational institutions native to Korea—and their adaptation within Korean immigrant communities in the United States. Drawing on 102 in-depth interviews with Korean nonmigrant and (im)migrant students and parents in Seoul and Greater Boston, the study finds that while hagwons serve as primary educational institutions in Korea’s hypercompetitive schooling system, Korean immigrants in the U.S. repurpose them as supplementary and coethnic institutions that help navigate mainstream American schools and other non-Korean afterschool programs. This research highlights how immigrant-led ethnic institutions are shaped by a negotiation of homeland and hostland norms, illustrating an integrated process of transnational engagement and assimilation rather than two separate phenomena. The findings contribute to understanding immigrant experiences by situating ethnic institutions as both transnationally transmitted and locally transformed entities.