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construction of identities (Cornell 1996). Based on these findings,
researchers should consider how new Americans use the discourse in
different voluntary organizations to create moral categories for civic
life. Examining how Korean Americans in different ethnic religious
contexts socially reproduce and challenge ethnic constructs that have
consequences for civic life is a piece of much broader work that needs
to be done. Such work should study not only how non-white
immigrants adapt to prevailing narratives and practices of American
civil society. We should also be concerned with how immigrants and
their children might re-configure civil society in their own terms.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Wendy Cadge, Carolyn Chen, Philip Kim, Jerry
Park, the editor and two anonymous Ethnic and Racial Studies
reviewers for comments on earlier versions of this article. The research
‘Us’ and ‘Them’: The role of religion 147
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was supported by grants from the Society for the Scientific Study of
Religion and the Religious Research Association.
Notes
1. ‘Second generation’ generally means those who were born in the United States, but have
parents who immigrated to the United States as adults. A few of my respondents were born in
Korea but came to the United States as young children and also identified as second
generation.
2. Immigration and Naturalization Service data for Korean migration: 1971_/1980_/
271,956; 1981_/1990_/338,800, 1991_/1996_/113,667.
3. By ‘forms of capital’ I mean resources, both monetary and non-monetary, that have a
greater ‘pay-off ’ than the commodity itself. For example, social capital could be networks
with those who can provide jobs in the ethnic enclave economy or relationships with family
members who encourage pursuing additional schooling (Nee and Sanders 2001).
4. See Smith et al . (1998) for an excellent discussion of American evangelicalism. Those
who identify as evangelicals share certain core beliefs, including the Bible as trustworthy,
hope for salvation in God’s son, Jesus and a personal knowledge of God. Smith contends at
least twenty million Americans identify with the evangelical movement.
5. ‘Black American’ includes African Americans, West Indians, and Africans. I have used
the term ‘African American’ where specifically stated by a respondent.
6. I use pseudonyms for the congregations and respondents in this article.
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148 Elaine Howard Ecklund
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