Statistics Show a Multiracial Korea, Netizens Express Concern

[hippodameia.livejournal.com]

Multiracial Korea: For every 20 newborns, 1 is mixed-race (Yonhap News article)

Korea is becoming a multiracial country.

According to a National Statistics Office publication on the 29th, in 2012 22,908 mixed-race children were born from multicultural families, 4.7% of the total 484,550 births.

In a multicultural family, one parent is native Korean and the other is either a foreigner or naturalized Korean.

Children born from two native Korean parents numbered 456,664, or 94.2% of all births. The remaining 1.1% were either abandoned or died shortly after birth, and the nationality of the parents is unknown.

The birth rate for multicultural families has been steadily increasing – 2.9% in 2008, 4.3% in 2009 and 2010, and 4.7% in 2011 and 2012.

97,701 mixed-race children were born in the five years between 2008 and 2012.

However, the multiracial trend is expected to slow down slightly.

This is because there is a downward trend for married couples consisting of one native Korean and one foreigner/naturalized Korean. In 2012, such couples comprised 8.9% (29,224) [of all marriages], down from 11.2% in 2008, 10.9% in 2009, 10.8% in 2010, and 9.3% in 2011.

A spokesperson for the National Statistics Office stated, “Tougher visa regulations for marriage immigrants has caused a decrease in the amount of multicultural couples.”

In 2012, among multicultural married couples, 71% were a native Korean man with a foreign (26.%) or naturalized Korean (2.7%) wife. Of these couples 22% were native Korean women with a foreign (70.6%) or naturalized Korean (7.2%) husband.

Within this group, the 71% of the husbands were Korean, 9.2% Chinese, 5.5% American, and 5.4% Japanese. Among the wives, 29.9% were Chinese, which was the the largest group, 23.2% Vietnamese, 22.2% Korean, and 7.8% Filipina.

“Over the past 5 years, a yearly average of 7,880 Vietnamese women married Korean men. (2011 National Statistics Office)”


Comments from Naver:

neat****:

Deport Lee Jasmine!! When citizens are struggling with their lives, how can she demand previleges for foreigners?

0328****:
Honestly, I’m a little worried.

xabo****:
Multiculturalism is important, but citizens should come first.

jhe7****:
Let’s stop going on about multiracial, multicultural blah blah that has failed.

leej****:
Ah…No…..

inee****:
It’s not really multiracial, ke ke ke. It’s just with Southeast Asians. Stop importing them. If you go to the countryside, there are a lot of people from Cambodia, Philippines and Vietnam… They only all hang around each other and I’m sick of it.

gksk****:
I hate multiculturalism… I live in Ansan and it is seriously scary.. I hear rumors of someone killing someone every day… A taxi driver said he was cut by a knife there… and I hear so much talk about illegal immigrants who came in droves…ㅠㅠ The Wongok-dong police can’t do anything about them anyway so it’s a lawless area ㅠㅠ If you touch a Chinese or Joseon-jok [ethnic Korean Chinese] the wrong way, since there are so many of them, their gang brings everyone along with them or they stab you with their knives. All over the country, everywhere, if foreign workers commit crimes, they come to Ansan to hide. I’m near the point where I absolutely do not want to live here anymore.

khy4****:
Illegal immigrant workers OUT, Lee Jasmine OUT

Lee Jasmine, a Philippine born naturalized Korean citizen, is currently a representative in the National Assembly.


nrk1****:
Even as every country now gives up on multiculturalism, our government’s policies bring us back in time… Multiracial society has more cons than pros. Everywhere I look and hear Joseon-jok causing trouble is the best example. It’s not too late. Personally, I think it’s best if we stop with the multiracial slogan.

nyd0****:
Putting restrictions on illegal immigrants is an urgent matter.

seok****:
Crimes committed by foreigners are rising and reverse discrimination against native Korean children is getting worse. Please stop with the policies that waste our tax money.

gsky****:
Foreigners are the same humans. However, I am against special treatment and policies for them just for being different.

jxlo****:
Since it was promoted by the government, the numbers of course went up. A bad person like Lee Jasmine as a lawmaker treat Korean citizens like pushovers.

yall****:
We too some 20 years down the line will all be having mixed kids just like Japan. Are you really that desperate to get mail-order brides from Southeast Asia just to get married..

goss****:
Personally I can’t understand this push for multiculturalism. Countries like Sweden, France, and the UK already have people like paki-roaches (Pakistani workers) causing riots and their countries are all messed up. Leaders in those countries said multiculturalism is a failure, so why does Korea try to implement failed policies? The Ministry of Women needs to get itself together.

shin****:
This doesn’t seem to be multiculturalism. It’s nearly all about Southeast Asia…

xtc1****:
Korea is becoming trash. Most mixed people are part Southeast Asians. They go to school, get bullied and end up committing crimes. Korea, there is just no solution.

kt5c****:
Our country just accepts that Europe’s failed multiculturalism is a good thing. There’s no consideration of the safety of its citizens. Please just make visas more complicated to get and quickly set about finding and deporting illegal immigrants.

Sources: KoreaBANG (translated article), Yonhap News (original article), Naver (alternate link to original article)



Jasmine Lee is a pretty interesting person if you look up her story (there's an interview with her here where she talks about her marriage and some of the societal dispositions that she observed with it). A couple of years ago she was embroiled in a "scandal" where she was apparently misquoted as having said she attended medical school (she actually enrolled in a pre-med-type program aiming towards a biology degree, but she never finished). She's also a member of the Saenuri Party--think Korea's conservative party.

Also, guys, if you want to know more about anything here, do a little research! Read some articles and books! It's easy to sit back and criticize things from an office chair (or whatever else you find yourself seated upon). It's also important to learn from these situations and understand why people are nervous about this trend, what upsets them.

Edit(s): because I suck at formatting.

Comments

[fantaesticbaby.livejournal.com]

I think it's interesting how in Japan, Koreans are viewed as being dangerous, but in South Korea they see South East Asians as being the problem....

Also
"Our country just accepts that Europe’s failed multiculturalism is a good thing."

how ignorant. Europe's "failed multiculturalism?!?!" lol fuck off, the increase of people from different cultures and countries in Europe has also coincided with the LOWERING of crime rates (or at least it has in the UK). Not saying they're definitely correlated but considering that this person assumes that multiculturalism = rise in crime, pretty much shows that they're an idiot, if that wasn't already obvious. Smh.

[waterpulse.livejournal.com]

Gross gross gross gross grossness all around.

Multiculturalism is important, but citizens should come first.

Because people born in your country who are of mixed descent apparently aren't considered citizens lol kbai.

[misoras.livejournal.com]

"Paki-roaches"

jfc.

[torontok.livejournal.com]

I'm Pakistani and I have the urge to punch something right now

[torontok.livejournal.com]

paki-roaches (Pakistani workers)
FUCK YOU.SERIOUSLY, FUCK YOU.
The disgusting superiority complexes of not just Koreans but several other countries (the emirates comes to mind) towards South-Asian and South-East Asian workers in disgusting. You let them into the country because you need their cheap labor but god forbid any of them marry of settle down here.
Korea is becoming trash. Most mixed people are part Southeast Asians. They go to school, get bullied and end up committing crimes. Korea, there is just no solution.
The amount of logical fallacies....

[miyozari.livejournal.com]

MTE.

[tempestdance.livejournal.com]

eh i blame jasmine lee as part of the problem why korea's xenophobia came to be. well, it's her political party in general. when you introduce multiculturalism to a country that's been isolated for five centuries, occupied by people who committed suicide rather than have children of mixed race (from the rape and the pillaging), and have grown extremely xenophobic to a point where they are proud of not being mixed, you can't just let in bunch of foreigners, give them shit ton of benefits, and offer them environments to live. the way multiculturalism really started, mail-order bride and immigration of korean chinese, didn't help either. it's fucked up, and i look down on xenophobia as well but they're really approaching this badly.

[hippodameia.livejournal.com]

Yes. Stuff like allowing children born in Korea to foreign parents to automatically gain Korean citizenship and etc. attracts anger just like it does in the U.S. I think I get the POV, just don't agree with it. I wonder what other options might be available to Korea, though, to deal with this. They're going to have to swallow that multicultural pill at some point--immigration patterns are changing and Korea might not be changing fast enough to keep up with them.

[yanozuyanoki.livejournal.com]

*sigh*

[oppameansit.livejournal.com]

as an american i find it amusing that they refer to korea/non-korean asian babies as mixed-race

but different strokes for different society's folks

[mangotae.livejournal.com]

Yeah, one netizen said that "This doesn’t seem to be multiculturalism. It’s nearly all about Southeast Asia..."
Cause I came in thinking, it was like about Black/Asian, Caucasian/Asian, European/Asian, Spanish/Asian lol, but then again I'm from America like you and that's what our multiculturalism mean lol

[uledy.livejournal.com]

It's amazing that no matter the country, language, or culture, you'll rarely be hard pressed to find reactions like this regarding immigration or multiculturalism, especially if the incoming population is comprised of racial or ethnic "others." I think multiculturalism is heathy for the growth of individuals and society as a whole. Some people are embracing it, but change can be difficult and frightening for others. Honestly, it's a typical human reaction, but it's not acceptable to allow it to fester into hate.

[asnindie.livejournal.com]

Mess. Multiculturalism is dependent on how welcoming a population is, if it starts on a bad impression then don't be surprised if problems arise. This whole notion of there no being any crime before the foreigners came is really silly.

[hitsujiga.livejournal.com]

"reverse discrimination against native Korean children" excuse me what???

"Most mixed people are part Southeast Asians. They go to school, get bullied and end up committing crimes. Korea, there is just no solution."...oh dw, there is a solution. teach ur kids to STOP BULLYING THEM.

even switzerland is trying to control immigration. i'm just shaking my head at everything at hand here...

[kjesta.livejournal.com]

"teach ur kids to STOP BULLYING THEM"

That was my first thought too. Fucking mess.

[hippodameia.livejournal.com]

No worries! Thanks for commenting!

I think the translated netizen comments represent a limited section of the Korean population--more socially conservative, nationalistic. Perhaps they haven't been abroad much (if at all). Or maybe they have and had no idea how to grapple with it.

When I studied abroad in Argentina, people yelled things at me regularly--not just catcalls, either, but more "GO HOME" type things. I had trash thrown at me, too. Every day was a test. I've never been to Korea, but I feel like you might have less of a problem there. I feel like a lot of these netizens lack the nerve to say these hurtful comments to an actual person in real life.

[citrine047.livejournal.com]

(http://imgur.com/blvzbVG)

[sra-interesante.livejournal.com]

if they feel like this about Southeast Asia I'm pretty sure i don't want to hear what they think about other ethnic groups
(like black people, arabic people or anyone out of asia)
but OP is right , we can just sit here to criticize them, we must educate ourselves
and hopefully we will never sound this ignorant

[gray-fairy.livejournal.com]

I can't at this racist attitude that lots of Koreans have towards Southeast Asian people. What a bunch of disgusting comments.
And wtf at "paki-roaches". Fucking gross.

[bunica1990.livejournal.com]

Those netizen comments are trash.

[yakuniku-8.livejournal.com]

wasn't there a law forbidding marriages between Cambodians and Koreans?

[yakuniku-8.livejournal.com]

I know the word "race" is still used in English but it was proved one century ago that there are no race among human beings. since it's the same spelling in my language I cringe just to write it. it's so bad to say it here that even racists people don't say it. politicians considered to remove it from our Constitution but others said we can't change the Constitution blabla...

Anyway, the result is the same, people blame immigrants for all the bad things happening too. but not really multiculturalism I think.

[miyozari.livejournal.com]

I know the word "race" is still used in English but it was proved one century ago that there are no race among human beings.

+1000000000
When is mankind going to stop using this term, ugh

[hipployta.livejournal.com]

OMFG...OP where is the warning on the Netizen comments....these BASTARDS!!!

Now when I visit Korea in two weeks I'm going to be side eyeing the fuck out of people even more than I already thought I would be

[hippodameia.livejournal.com]

Fixed it! I tried to do a cut within a cut but LJ ate my HTML. :(

I hope you enjoy Korea! Why are you going (if it's fine to ask)? I've never been there, but I feel like most people won't be as harsh as these netizens... these comments are kinda akin to YouTube comments. From what I've read, you might get some forward curiosity about the way you look.

[missingmisnomer.livejournal.com]

those comments are terrifying

[calzonazos.livejournal.com]

lol @ people trying to understand netizens' line of racist thoughts. Doing this only enables them to keep mistreating and exploiting other human beings.
I don't live in Korea so I shouldn't say much, but, my heart goes out to the inmigrant folks living there and suffering RIGHT NOW as a consequence of the society's racist attitudes :( most of them are enduring this in order to support themselves and their families, and it must be really, really, really hard.

[miamaimi.livejournal.com]

IA

[sadistic-dance.livejournal.com]

These tea party teas.

[hippodameia.livejournal.com]

I definitely got a tea partier vibe from these comments, too.

[suxaholic.livejournal.com]

1 It just annoys the fuck out of me when people say " well Korea was a homogeneous isolated country for a very long time"
that is just plain bullshit do your research Koreans have never been a totally homogeneous.

2 races do not exist it ha already been debunked decades ago.

[yolleh.livejournal.com]

Crimes committed by foreigners are rising...

Now I don't want to get petty (although it's hard not to) but, do we need to get into the many horrific crimes that Korean people have committed against *gasp* other Korean people?
It's just too easy to scapegoat foreigners and make these huge sweeping generalizations about them because then people can truly believe that their country is superior.

[digitalqueen.livejournal.com]

there's nothing to say about this article and comments besides, gross.

[iznanassi.livejournal.com]

"reverse discrimination" top lel

If you're not welcoming towards immigrants and do not give them opportunities to thrive in your country, then when you do inevitably get immigrants they will obviously be unsuccessful and will obviously bring down the country. It's not fucking rocket science the problem isn't them it's you.

[neoreulwonhae.livejournal.com]

THIS.