In this study, I have focused on the process for an eventual reunification of North and South Korea. In this process, Korean political, economic, cultural and religious issues are necessarily present. My study focuses on cultural and religious factors. I adopt the German reunification as a case study. The German reunification process provides Koreans with lessons about the negative changes in the status of German women since the German reunification caused extreme instances of the loss of status and economic opportunity for women. German reunification shows that the unequal situation and systems in society were not only due to political positions. Strong religious factors deeply influenced the German mentality. A similar religion-factor is at work in North Korean society which is influenced by Confucianism and in South Korean society which is influenced by Confucianism and conservative Christianity. I argue that religion is one of the major factors in the political culture of Korea, and religion can either assist a fair and equal process for both women and men or it can in a biased way maintain a male-oriented form of reunification. Consequently, the cultural and religious factors in this process of reunification must include an equalization of women and men. This can only take place if Korean women are major participants in the entire reunification process. There is a serious need for a reunification theology which incorporate gender into Korean theology, thus providing a 'feminist reunification theology.' A 'feminist reunification theology' presents basic theological principles that will help build an egalitarian community. There are three important ways to include women's concern for true reunification: 1) The creation of an egalitarian community in work, family and society; 2) The restoration of humanity by healing love and forgiveness through the power of Cross; and 3) The need for religion to be reformed in which a women can be a co-leader in family, church and nation.

Cette thèse porte sur la constructions des carrières migratoires de femmes issues de la Corée du Nord, de la Corée du Sud et du Japon. L’enjeu est de comprendre la construction objective et subjective de ces parcours à partir d’héritages historiques et culturels des sociétés d'origine, de politiques migratoires, de bifurcations biographiques, d’expériences sociales et de travail au sein d’« espaces totalitaires ». Dans la première partie, la thèse se penche sur les migrations internationales de femmes ainsi que sur la démarche méthodologique mise en place pour collecter des données comparatives auprès de femmes en souffrance au cœur de terrains « minés » et pour les analyser. La deuxième partie s’efforce de reconstituer les carrières objectives des migrantes en se concentrant sur les contextes de départ, la construction des projets migratoires et les contextes d’arrivée. Les migrantes se heurteront à la réitération des grammaires du mépris et de l’injustice – au sens de L. Roulleau-Berger – , aux violences et aux dominations influencées par les imaginaires coloniaux ou nationaux de la population hôte. Les corps « faibles » de ces femmes, au regard des imaginaires individuels et collectifs des sociétés d’accueil, deviennent des corps sensuels, sexuels, résistants etc. et devront se construire socialement au sein « d’espaces totalitaires » érigés au regard de ces imaginaires. La troisième partie analyse la construction des carrières subjectives des femmes issue de la péninsule coréenne et du Japon. Entre les obligations hypertrophiées de s’adapter imposées aux migrantes par le biais de techniques de mortifications – au sens de Goffman – les rôles infligés et les stratégies d’adaptation, elles tentent de survivre à leurs imaginaires migratoires déçus en déployant des tactiques qui se définissent par le refus de toute participation personnelle, l’assimilation du rôle imposé par la société d’accueil ou l’émancipation. / This thesis focuses on the construction of migratory careers of women from North Korea, South Korea and Japan. The challenge is to understand the objective and subjective structure of these routes from historical and cultural heritage of the societies of origin, from migration policies, from biographical bifurcations and from social and work experiences in “totalitarian spaces”. In the first part, the thesis focuses on international migration of women as well as the methodology established to collect comparative data from suffering women in "mined" fieldwork and to analyze them. The second part tries to reconstruct the objective careers of migrants focusing on starting contexts, on the construction of migration projects and on the arrival contexts. The migrants will face the reiteration of grammar of contempt and injustice - in the sense of L. Roulleau-Berger – and the violence and dominations influenced by colonial or national imaginary of the host population. The “weak” bodies of these women, under individual and collective imaginary of host societies, become sensual bodies, sexual bodies, resistant bodies etc. and will build socially in "totalitarian spaces" erected in view of these imaginary. The third section analyzes the construction of the subjective Career of Women of the Korean Peninsula and Japan. Between the bloated obligations to adapt (imposed on migrants through process of mortifications - in the sense of Goffman –), the imposed roles and the adaptive strategies, they try to survive their disappointed migration imaginary by deploying tactics that define by the refusal of any personal participation, assimilation of the role imposed by the host society or emancipation.