standards for human rights directly impact domestic politics, the political practicality of offering citizenship rights to migrants is growing steadily. Advocacy groups representing the interests of undocumented people continue to push for the protection and dignity of migrants under the state. However, this sentiment is not universal as nativism is on the rise in South Korea–this has been attributed to the erosion of citizens' rights in the name of market fundamentalism. Nationality Law The Constitution of South Korea entrusts the National Assembly with the responsibility of establishing laws which govern citizenship. The Nationality Act of 1948 was the first piece of legislation enacted by the National Assembly which established the boundaries for acquisition of South Korean citizenship. Since its enactment, the Nationality Act has since been amended fifteen times. Act on Immigration and Legal Status of Overseas Koreans of 1999 In 1999, the Act on Immigration and Legal Status of Overseas Koreans officially established the relationship of overseas Koreans (chaeoe tongp’o) to the South Korean State in legal terms. This law virtually granted dual citizenship rights—to work, to stay in the country for a prolonged period, to own property—to certain groups of diasporic Koreans, such as those residing in Japan and Korean Americans. While this Act appears to indicate an openness to the inclusion of overseas Koreans generally, over fifty percent of this population was initially excluded from receiving the benefits of South Korean citizenship. This was due to criteria in the law which deemed the nationalities of many Korean Chinese and Korean Russians unverifiable. The heritage and identities of those whose ancestors migrated away from Korea prior to the establishment of the South Korean state in 1948 were regarded as particularly precarious. The provision in the original version of this law which excluded some overseas Koreans was considered controversial both in South Korea and around the world, which resulted in the Constitutional Court ordering the revision of the act in accordance with the “equality principle” of the South Korean Constitution. Of course, even as problematic verbiage in the Overseas Korean Act was discarded in 2004, there remain practical issues associated with this law that continue to limit certain overseas Koreans’ South Korean citizenship rights. Controversies Scholars have argued that citizenship is not a fixed status that can be achieved, but rather an ongoing project that changes over time. Because of this tension between notions of stability and fluidity, the