On the 14th (local time), US broadcaster CNN highlighted the difficulties of second-generation Korean-American immigrants who are coming to Korea in search of their identity but still cannot escape from being "strangers."

Kevin Lambert, whose mother is Korean, came to Korea in 2009 with the hope that "we can find the missing pieces of the puzzle."

Recalling his childhood in North Carolina, U.S.A., he said, "I was always ostracized and always felt like I was being shunned."

As in Mr. Lambert's case, the children of Asian Americans who settled in the United States decades ago in pursuit of the "American Dream" often return to Korea.

"It may seem strange that someone who has never been to South Korea would want to go there, but the more people who speak out against racism, gun violence and Asian hate crimes that are rampant in the United States, the more inclined they are to seek a sense of belonging in their ancestral homeland," CNN explained.

As of 2020, there were about 43,000 Korean-Americans living in South Korea, more than twice as many as in 2005.

Stephen Cho Suh, a professor of Asian American studies at San Diego State University in the United States, explained, "Most of these immigrants who returned to their roots grew up at a time when strong stereotypes prevailed in the United States, when people think of 'Asia' and think of Japan and China."

The racist experience and the experience of not being recognized as a "full American" prompted them to consider going to their parents' hometown.

"If they were fully integrated into American society, I wouldn't think about that," Suh said.

However, life in Korea is also not easy.

Most second-generation immigrants who come to Korea eventually return to the United States.

Suh said he interviewed more than 70 people for his research on reverse immigration and found that all of them mentioned "race," "racism," and "ethnicity."

Daniel Oh, who immigrated to the United States with his family when he was a child, has been living in Seoul for eight years.

He said that in the United States, no matter how well he spoke English and knew the local culture, he felt like an outsider, but Korea felt like home from the first time he came.

However, even in Korea, he faces difficulties when looking for a house, setting up a bank account, etc., due to language barriers and unfamiliar procedures.

Oh said it's especially hard when she feels "double standards" as a Korean-American.

Sometimes, I am treated like a foreigner, but when I misunderstand the doctor's words at the hospital, I ask, "Aren't you Korean?" It means that you are told.

This is what their parents experienced when they first came to the United States.

There are differences.

"Racial discrimination occurs based on citizenship of a country, but in the U.S., it's racism between different races," said Ji Ji Cho, director of the Asia Center at the University of North Carolina in California.

Second-generation immigrants also find it difficult to meet the opposite sex in Korea.

Women, in particular, are often confronted with conservative notions in South Korea.

Suh explained that second-generation immigrant women are often viewed in South Korea as "too explicit, too quiet, too feminist."

It is difficult for a man to meet a woman if he does not have an enviable job.

It's easy to become an English teacher, but if you want to get another job, you'll have to deal with a number of issues, including visas.

Mr. Oh is considering returning to the U.S. because he worries that he will not be able to make a career out of it.

He also added that the more time he spent living in Seoul, the more difficult it was to fully integrate into Korea, unlike the first time.

They often don't find their identity properly.

Professor Suh explained that second-generation immigrants who come to Korea feel more of their identity as Americans when they don't fit into the definition of "Koreanness" by Koreans.

(Photo = Twitter capture, Yonhap News)