‘My life would have been happier in Germany’: Korean guestworker nurses’ journeys to Germany and to the US

This article highlights the little-known experiences and memories of Korean ‘guestworker’ nurses who ‘twice migrated’; first moving to Germany and then migrating to the US in the 1960s and 1970s. Based on extended, repeat interviews with four former nurses, their stories underscore how little is known about this wave of Korean migrant women, specifically, and why they decided to migrate, where, and how. The findings highlight how these women were agents of their own mobility, seeing the opportunity to migrate to Germany as the means by which to acquire independence and autonomy as young women. Further, their stories showed how twice migration to the US was not always experienced as a positive and more advantageous destination, particularly for the women. Instead, it was presented as a choice that many were forced to make, often because it was seen to benefit their spouses or children.