Disempowered but not disengaged

Abstract Political extremism and polarisation are self-evidently detrimental to democracy in a general sense, but little is known about the effects of these forces at the micro level, such as their potential to reduce how engaged new and would-be citizens are in politics. We address this knowledge gap by focusing on the experience of Korean migrants in Australia, a notionally multicultural and inclusive democracy where nearly one-third of the population is overseas-born, at a time of heightened political polarisation and social discord. In the first half of the 2020s, we argue, migrants themselves became inadvertently embroiled in a host of contentious issues in Australia, such as responses to the Covid-19 pandemic, trust in electoral processes and public institutions, mis-/dis-information, and social cohesion. To explore the degree to which Korean Australians engaged in politics in these conditions of polarisation, this article analyses original data collected from a study of political engagement among Koreans in Australia, as well as reports in the local Korean-language media. The article finds that rather than Korean Australians being disengaged from politics, they are disempowered : they lack the capacity to engage with it as extensively as they would prefer.