Negotiating un/familiar embodiments: investigating the corporeal dimensions of South Korean international student mobilities in Auckland, New Zealand

This paper discusses the friction involved in the transnational lives of South Korean international students living and studying in Auckland, New Zealand. In particular, it focuses on the ways in which these individuals negotiate familiar and unfamiliar embodiments as a part of their everyday lives in Auckland. Through three ethnographic case studies – the role of interpersonal networks in the negotiation of urban space, the online/off‐line use of internet cafes, and the story of a group of volunteer students – this paper reflects on the different processes of embodiment in ways that offer useful insights into practices and experiences of transnationalism. This includes understanding the small details of the everyday lives of international students in Auckland and the reciprocal relationship they have with other bodies and the urban spaces they come to inhabit. Moreover, the paper illustrates the manner that scholarly understandings of transnationalism can be expanded through a focus on the embodied dimensions of everyday life. It suggests that much of what is considered transnationalism is in fact part of the ordinary everyday practices that individuals such as international students use to negotiate and make familiar the different material and immaterial spaces they encounter in migration.