Communication Infrastructure, Migrant Community Engagement, and Integrative Adaptation of Korean Chinese Migrants in Seoul

This study aims to shed light on how civically oriented community communication and active engagement in local migrant communities—defined in this study as geographical communities built on online and offline social networks and dynamic, multimodal interactions among migrants—affect effective adaptation of migrants. This inquiry is theoretically guided by communication infrastructure theory (CIT). This study is based on face-to-face interviews with 506 Korean Chinese migrants who live in Seoul. We conducted structural equation model to test a hypothetical model. The model testing result imply that active engagement in a local migrant community for collective problem-solving based on civically oriented community storytelling would facilitate, not mitigate, integrative adaptation among the Korean Chinese in Seoul.