In Undocumented Migration as a Theologizing Experience, Eunil David Cho examines how Korean American undocumented young adults tell religious stories to cope with the violence of uncertainty and construct new meanings for themselves. Based on in-depth interviews guided by narrative inquiry, the book follows the stories of ten Korean American DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipients who have found their lives in limbo. While many experience narrative foreclosure, believing “My story is over,” Cho highlights how telling religious stories enables them to imagine and create new stories for themselves not as shunned outsiders, but as beloved children of God.
Eunil David Cho, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Spiritual Care and Counseling and Co-director of the Center for Practical Theology at Boston University School of Theology.
Contents Acknowledgements Introduction
1 Undocumented Migration as a Theologizing Experience: How Korean American DACA Recipients Make Sense of Their Lives
2 What Is DACA and Why Does It Matter?
3 Why Do the Stories of DACA Recipients Matter? And Why Do They Matter Now?
4 Outline of Chapters
Part 1: Examining Story-Shaped Lives in Pastoral Theology
1 Documenting the Undocumented Stories: Pastoral Theology and Narrative Approaches to Qualitative Research
1 Seeking Care and Justice: The Communal-Contextual Turn in Pastoral Theology
2 Caring through Human Stories: Narrative Turn in Pastoral Theology and Care
3 Documenting the Undocumented Stories of Korean American DACA Recipients
4 Conclusion
2 We Are the Stories We Tell: Narrative Identity Formation and Development
1 The Ethical Narrative Identity Thesis
2 Psychological Perspectives on Narrative Identity
3 Reading Lives: Employing Narrative Identity in Pastoral Theology and Care
4 Religion as Personal Ideology in Self-Narratives
5 Conclusion: Why We Tell Religious Stories
Part 2: Documenting the Undocumented Stories of Korean Americans
3 Looking Back: Uplifting the Korean American Stories Seldom Heard
1 Introducing the Storytellers: Korean American DACA Recipients
2 The Background Story: Becoming Undocumented in the United States
3 Undocumented Family Stories: Navigating Immigrant Family Dynamics as Narrative Environment
4 Undocumented Stories of Pursuing Education: Navigating Public Schools as Narrative Environments
5 The Silenced Voices: Living under the Shadow of Model Minority Myth
6 Conclusion
4 Seeing the Present: The Violence of Uncertainty, Identity Foreclosure, and the Loss of Narrative Outlook on Life
1 Understanding Uncertainty in the Stories of DACA Recipients
2 The Violence of Uncertainty: When Uncertainty Becomes Everyday Reality
3 Narrative Identity Experiencing and Processing the Violence of Uncertainty Narrative Identity Foreclosure: My Story Is Over
4 The Uncertain Self Experiencing Narrative Foreclosure
5 The Loss of Narrative Outlook on Life
5 Looking Forward: Telling the Religious Stories in the Face of Uncertainty
1 Telling Religious Stories as Religious Coping and Meaning Making
2 Prayer as Telling Religious Stories with God
3 Telling Religious Stories as Pastoral Conversation with Undocumented Young Immigrants
4 Conclusion: Empowering Immigrants to Be Interpreters and Narrators of Their Stories
Bibliography Index
Scholars and doctoral students of practical and pastoral theology, theological educators, ministers, and faith-based practitioners who work at the intersection of immigration, religion, and race.