ABSTRACT
This chapter compares how first- and second-generation Korean immigrant women define the “American Dream,” and how this shapes their perspectives on professional goals and family life. This chapter reviews the historical construction of this ideology, and how it has been interpreted differently by different racial groups. Existing scholarship suggests that first-generation Korean Americans are mobilized by the aspiration for upward class mobility and economic stability despite personal sacrifices. This study explores the ways in which the “sacrifice narratives” within the immigrant family affect second-generation women's interpretation of the American Dream, success, and happiness. Based on interviews with seven women living in northern New Jersey, this study finds that second-generation Korean-American women demonstrated a deep understanding of the historical and social contexts of their parents’ American Dream. At the same time, second-generation women in this study claimed that their version of the American Dream goes beyond a reductionist notion of material success, common among first-generation Korean immigrants. Both groups acknowledged that second-generation Korean women who grew up in relative economic stability and received an American education would be able to imagine diverse paths for an enriching life in U.S. society.
