Kim, R. Y. 2004. “Second-Generation Korean American Evangelicals: Ethnic, Multiethnic, or White Campus Ministries?” Sociology of Religion 65(1):19-34.
The recent growth in Asian American enrollment in colleges has been accompanied by a surge in the number of Asian American campus evangelicals. Yet, when presented with the choice, why do second-generation Korean American college students (SGKAs) choose to participate in ethnic campus ministries over more inclusive congregations? To answer this question, Kim engaged in participant observation at five ministries at a large university, and later conducted over 100 interviews with student members and staff involved with these ministries. Based on her data, Kim argues that three factors are responsible for the drawing of separate ethnic group boundaries: first, the students’ “desire for community” interacts “with changes in ethnic density and diversity”; the students simply have “more opportunity to participate in separate ethnic religious organizations in an ethnically dense and diverse structural setting.” Second, there is a strong “propensity to interact with those who are most familiar and similar. Third, “the desire for power and majority status” interacts “with the marginalization of individuals categorized as belonging to a particular ethnic or racial group.” In other words, SGKAs, who find “that they are continuously marginalized as an ethnic/racial minority and lack relative power,” thus seek “benefits and privileges that the white majority enjoys.”
