Multiculturalism in Korea

[ashiva.livejournal.com]

The word "foreigner" is slowly, ever so slowly, losing its meaning in Korea.

In the old days, when Korea was a developing country, foreigners were limited to language teachers, missionaries, diplomats, and business people, a few foreign students, and U.S. military personnel.

Most were from North America, Europe and Japan. Korea had no diplomatic relations with China and the former Soviet bloc until the late 1980s and early 1990s, and a plentiful supply of domestic labor meant that there was no need for foreign workers. Foreigners stood out and were viewed as guests who came to Korea for a specific purpose. As guests, they were expected to leave, partly because Koreans thought life in their home countries was far better than in Korea.

Thing began to change in the 1990s with the opening of relations with China and the former Soviet bloc. Almost instantly, there was a diversification in the origin of foreigners in Korea. Strong economic growth in the 1990s made Korea more attractive as a place to study and work. As Korean companies grew and entered new markets overseas, awareness of Korea grew. The most dramatic change in the 1990s was an increase in the number of foreigners from Asia (not including Japan) and of ethnic Koreans from China.

The 1997 Asian financial crisis stunted Korea's growth briefly, but it quickly regained its vigor, and entered a new period of development in the 2000s. Reforms in the wake of the crisis opened Korea up to foreign investment, which spurred efforts to embrace globalization. Major institutions wanted to look global and many hired foreigners for professional positions for the first time. English education boomed, particularly for children, causing the number of English teachers to rise to levels unimaginable a decade before.

The push to develop new industries and markets after the economic crisis helped create a "hallyu" (Korean wave) boom as Korea developed a system for promoting its cultural products in overseas markets. The hallyu boom has stimulated an increase in the number of foreign students coming to learn Korean, both for short-term language study and as degree-program students.

The 2000s saw another major change: the rise in the number of women, mostly from Asia, who come to Korea as brides, mostly for men in living in rural areas. Today, almost 11 percent of marriages in 2009 were international marriages; the percentage is larger in rural areas. Suddenly not all foreigners were foreigners; these women are called "marriage immigrants."

As the number of foreigners reached a critical mass in the late 2000s, multiculturalism became the buzz word of the day. Educators rushed to join the bandwagon, and the media ran numerous articles on foreigners in Korean society.

At the same time, the looming population crisis ― South Korea's birthrate is one of the lowest in the world ― has raised increasing concerns that Korea's potential for growth may dry up. Efforts to increase the birthrate will not show results for a generation, and Korea will need to welcome foreigners to maintain its economic vitality as the labor force begins to shrink.

All of which leads to a logical problem: How can foreigners become Korean? If asked, passengers in a full subway car would probably answer overwhelmingly that foreigners cannot become Korean. A survey of foreigners in Itaewon would probably yield the same results. Which leads to another question: If foreigners cannot become Korean, then how can Korea become multicultural?

To help answer the question, the Constitution of the Republic of Korea is a good place to start. The official English translation of the preamble available on the National Assembly website does not convey the full meaning of the Korean original because "minjok dangyeol" (solidarity of the Korean people) and "dongpoae" (love for Korean brethren) are not fully translated.

A quick reading of the Korean original leaves the impression that ethnicity is a defining characteristic of the Republic of Korea. If so, then non-ethnic Korean citizens of the Republic of Korea, be they immigrants or Korea-born persons of mixed heritage, occupy a grey area. They are citizens with equal rights and protection, but they are not really "Korean."

As long as Korea places importance on ethnicity, non-ethnic Korean citizens can never be full members of society. In this context, efforts to create a multicultural society will achieve little, leaving the question of how to include increasing numbers of non-Korean citizens fully in society.

Korea has reached a breaking point: It can remain a quaint 20th-century ethnicity-based state, or it can redefine itself as a 21st-century multicultural society based on common values. Shifting from ethnicity to common values strengthens Korea because it makes "Koreanness" accessible and, therefore, more attractive to people living in Korea, both by birth and choice.

The writer is a professor of the Department of Korean Language Education at Seoul National University. He can be reached at fouser@snu.ac.kr.

Source: Robert J. Fouser @ The Korea Times

Comments

[iznanassi.livejournal.com]

I'm still sure if I walk into korea, Imma get stoned.

[tribuo-venerati.livejournal.com]

lol, I hate it when people say stuff like that

[tribuo-venerati.livejournal.com]

Korea's going through a slow, but painful cultural transition process right now. I hope it continues to progress, despite the nationalist/conservative government.

[katyip.livejournal.com]

mm, mte. The gay movement in Korea is progressing too - admittedly, slowly - but at least it's still progressing. fingers crossed.

[maple88.livejournal.com]

Wow~ that was a pretty interesting read~
Although it didn't provide much new information, it made a big issue that could go on forever into a small, concise article that actually makes sense to both Koreans and us.

[annhh.livejournal.com]

yeah

[sparklop.livejournal.com]

I remember reading somewhere that the reason why so many marriage are international now is cause the men want a nice submissive woman that they can't find in korea anymore?

[kawaiiairbender.livejournal.com]

that's true. I don't really blame the woman in SK for not wanting to marry some Korean men, how many marriages are presented... it's just not appealing. :/

[byronsbitch.livejournal.com]

I think the issue of who can call themselves 'korean' is interesting. The same applies for most cultures that have been around for a long time. It's not as easy to be accepted as one of them unless you are actually of that heritage.

It's different here in Australia for example as it's a "new country". I wasn't born in Australia but I consider myself an Australian and people here accept me as so.

[pornoroughtype.livejournal.com]

A+ icon.

[k0dama.livejournal.com]

Even though I was born and raised in Korea, have a Korean passport, and speak Korean fluently, I am still considered a foreigner too, simply because I have lived in the US for a number of years and am studying Japanese a little too fervently for nationalistic comfort.


To which my justification is: oh watever! haters gonna hate.

[killclosedrown.livejournal.com]

This just seems so completely strange to me. Like my American pov is that if you were born in America...you're an American! It doesn't matter if you've lived in a bunch of different countries and speak 192831 different languages, you're still an American!

[silver-might.livejournal.com]

acceptance is always a tough process. But I'm sure they'll work through it.

[cloaked.livejournal.com]

theyre so weird... there's foreigners everywhere (in seoul) and definitely have an effect on society by being there but koreans make believe they don't. in a class over there we discussed this and asked some of the korean students to talk about what things they have observed change because of foreign presence and they were like .... oh we have alot of coffee shops!!! or well there's forks and knives at some restaurants for them.... COME ON NOW LETS DIG A LITTLE DEEPER HERE.

[prlsb4swiine.livejournal.com]

The coffee shop thing is strange to me, like we don't have THAT many coffee shops around here.

[earenya-beryl.livejournal.com]

do you think "korean" could ever be thought of as a nationality separate from an ethnicity?

I think that is the right question to think about.

[steeele.livejournal.com]

ngl, visiting Korea (or any Asian country) long-term is intimidating, especially as a Mexican-American, i.e. non-Asian.

[byronsbitch.livejournal.com]

I've spent quite a bit of time in Thailand and I had absolutely no negative experiences relating to that issue and I'm white. But Thailand definitely has a lot of foreigners cause of the tourism, they're used to it.

[cherise.livejournal.com]

I just feel like cheering, this is a good thing. so much of "korean national identity" is based upon things like looks, where you were born, where you were raised, how well you can speak korean, and along the way most people get shuffled out. so if korea is seeing this as something to be worked on, I don't think they can fail :)

[neoreulwonhae.livejournal.com]

It's funny how they're so accepting of foreign/Western ideas and culture (Kpop is just Western music sung in Korean, honestly) except they seem to reject the actual people whose culture they've adopted. And by 'funny' I mean confusing. And slightly frustrating.

It's almost like, "Oh hey, we like your music, so we're gonna go with that, but we want nothing to do with anything else about you." Can they pick and choose those things?

And the more they become multicultural, the more the world will notice them, which will bring more interest, and more foreigners. So, uhm. They kinda need to get over it.

I'm not trying to sound bitchy about it, and I'm sure there's a lot of history and cultural identification that Koreans don't want to give up. I guess I just have a different view of it as an American, where if you're born in America, you're an American, no matter what your ethnicity is. Even people who immigrate here and gain citizenship, they are Americans. But we're a young country and everyone here, who's not Native American, was at some point an immigrant. Whereas Koreans in Korea have been there for thousands of years.

I think a lot of it is fear. They're probably scared that if there's a lot of foreigners coming in that they'll lose their culture and their identity. But they're not losing anything. I can say for myself, as a person who plans to eventually live in Korea, that they're not losing their culture when foreigners come in. They're gaining an admirer of their culture, and a friend. It's not like it's my agenda to come into Korea and strip people of their identity. I want to learn about their culture, not destroy it.

Okay, and the Western "beauty" thing. Everyone thinks pale white skin is so attractive (I have pale white skin and I think it's gross), and everyone's getting eye surgery and dyeing their hair and all these other things...it's like they want to look foreign themselves. They want to be different from the regular Korean, or at least look different. Where do they draw the line there? I guess if you're ethnically Korean it doesn't matter how foreign you try to make yourself look, because you're still Korean. But what about a foreign person coming to Korea and trying to look and act Korean? Hmm?

Long comment is long. Feel free to flame me if I've said anything that doesn't make sense, because I don't really understand this. But I want to understand, so someone enlighten me. :p

[angabel.livejournal.com]

"They're probably scared that if there's a lot of foreigners coming in that they'll lose their culture and their identity. But they're not losing anything. I can say for myself, as a person who plans to eventually live in Korea, that they're not losing their culture when foreigners come in. They're gaining an admirer of their culture, and a friend. It's not like it's my agenda to come into Korea and strip people of their identity. I want to learn about their culture, not destroy it. "

This is you. I am the same way. But trust me, many people are not this way. Google the Ugly American stereotype and take a look on tumblr under some tags like "ghana" or "india" and you'll see that there are a lot of ugly, privileged Americans who, while thinking that they have good intentions, are only going to cause havoc on whatever culture they impose themselves on.

Foreigners can really destroy the culture and economy of towns. Granted, I'm not talking about Seoul, but with tourism comes inflated prices, which ultimately hurt the local people and can drive them into poverty when before they were doing okay. It increases the need for them to manufacture goods to sell to the foreigners, which can sometimes take away time that could be spent with their family. Beggars will cut off their own limbs because they know that foreigners can't resist giving money to someone with only one leg, and elaborate schemes are often set up in order to rob tourists of well-intentioned money, as well as rob the very beggars that they're trying to help.

I'm not sure if any of this really directly applies to Korea as my experience is within India and Nepal, but there are probably similar risks with foreigners coming into a place. It's something that you and I will never be able to completely understand, but once you start trying to understand it, you will find yourself getting really disgusted every time another one of your ignorant facebook friends schedules their Christmas vacation in Haiti.

/steps off soapbox

[gunsandsmoke.livejournal.com]

multiculturalism is hard enough in america. i live in CALIFORNIA, even, but i still grew up with assholes as classmates for most of my life (mostly cos i lived in a very WASP-y community lol)

it's crazy how much korea has progressed in the last 10 years when i think about it, compare how it was when i saw it in 2001 compared to 2010. it helps being literally the most wired country on earth! besides the freak starcraft deaths/murders!

[gabucha26.livejournal.com]

I have to agree with this. Personally I've encourated my own share of passive racism here in the U.S. Like when I tell people I'm from South America I've noticed they are much more welcoming because my skin is lighter and I don't have the "spanish" look. Or they take a liking to the italian part in me and consider me "italian". Is like no dude stop it.

But frankly that was only a handful of people, everyone else is very respectful of my culture and want to know more about it.

[emologues.livejournal.com]

idk i'm black and when i went to korea i had no negative experiences...i was nervous about the older generation but i met some of the kindest people there. this guy i met was iranian and had been studying there for a year and is going to be there for another 3, i believe, and he said that he hadn't encountered any problems.

it really depends on the people you encounter, i guess

[jaded-skys.livejournal.com]

It's like anywhere else. I've seen more racisim back home in Canada than I have living here in Korea.

Hell, if anything more people are excited to see you because you're interested in Korea and you're not of Korean decent.

[gabucha26.livejournal.com]

Although I would agree that homogenous cultures tend to be a bit hesitant about welcoming foreigners, I think the Korea of today is much more open minded so I don't think you would get a negative response. Maybe a few stares and comments, but then again you will always find that in every culture. Heck I even see it here in the U.S.

[831panda831.livejournal.com]

I have lots of korean friends and the ones who lived in america for a long time are super open minded and wouldn't say anything offending , but the ones who have only been here for a while will occasionally say a racist thing or two ,and I'm black. I actually call them out when they do it too , by simply saying "Hey, thats racist." I also don't think they do it on purpose sometimes. It's just integrated with their system I guess. Although its not my problem but some of the korean girls who are my friend really annoy me sometimes because they are always putting on sunscreen because they don't want to get "dark" they say.
On the other hand some of them are always pestering me to go get a tan with them. So idk , I think koreans in korea are a mixture of accepting people and conservatives who would rather have you gtfo.

[831panda831.livejournal.com]

What i mean about its not my problem is like , yeah you wanna be white its cool , but idk , its kind of makes me roll my eyes when they are always putting on sunscreen and hiding from the sun when we go out.

[miki-831.livejournal.com]

They should just stop being so stingy and start accepting more people

[jaded-skys.livejournal.com]

As long as Korea places importance on ethnicity, non-ethnic Korean citizens can never be full members of society. In this context, efforts to create a multicultural society will achieve little, leaving the question of how to include increasing numbers of non-Korean citizens fully in society.

What I don't think a lot of people realise is that this shit goes down in a lot of countries. There will always be people who will be racist, who will not want outsiders coming in, who don't like this and that. That will be a constant. This doesn't mean that the whole of these countries are plotting ways to get rid of foreigners or that they're giving you a smile while cursing you on the inside.

Koreans tend to not understand the ideas of being from a country that isn't also your ethnicity. It's really difficult for the children I teach that while I'm Canadian, I'm not ethnically Canadian, and that's mostly because they haven't had their country open to foreigners for very long, hardly at all when you look at their long history as well as the slight wariness due to the multiple times they've been annexed and invaded.

Korea's going through a time of growth, and that always brings growing pains. You can't expect someone to just immediately accept a different way of life in a snap. They've got to test out what works and what meshes well with their culture before they can change.

Also, anyone who says "I'm never going to Korea because of (whatever negative thing they read)" is completely ridiculous. If that was true, I'd never go to the U.S. because everyone has a gun and will shoot you, I'd never go to France because every piece of beef is infected with mad cow, and any other bad thing you've heard/stereotype you'd like to place in there.

[relmneiko.livejournal.com]

As far as I'm concerned the only people who have the right to call themselves ethnically Canadian are First Nations/Inuit/etc. But I get the feeling most people (even in Canada) don't think that way.

[twinkystar16.livejournal.com]

ah the pic of bianca and hongki..i love their little bickering whenever Hongki guested in that show..

[intrakaos.livejournal.com]

i was wondering where that pic was from.
do you know where i can find a vid of this? *_*

[831panda831.livejournal.com]

I'm still having trouble about which one I should go to for a year :/

I have so many friends in Korea but Japan is the shit.

/sigh

[coffeebang.livejournal.com]

This is exactly what we are talking about in my class rn. The whole idea of ethnic nationalism and the fact that Korea places so much emphasis on heritage will make it hard for others to 'become' Korean.

[coffeebang.livejournal.com]

Then again, America is the same way except we don't really focus on ethnicity, we just focus on how many generations you've lived in America.

[despair26.livejournal.com]

I think if you want to move to another country and assimilate into their culture, go for it! You obviously love the culture of that country and should be accepted by its people. I think it's always going to be hard with the really homogeneous Asians like Korea and Japan though. Even China...

[relmneiko.livejournal.com]

I kinda don't think it's possible for non-Asian foreigners to ever be considered Korean. Asians, maybe, eventually, if they're like second generation/half and have Korean names or whatever. I don't think a comparison to America is fair, either, because America is a country made of immigrants, and any time some racist asshole says otherwise they're just a hypocrite.

Yeah, I just don't think it's possible.

[kimishim.livejournal.com]

I've always wondered about the scenario of a non-Asian infant being adopted by Korean parents in Korea, and then being raised completely in Korea by Korean parents, only speaking Korean, etc. How would Koreans act to this person even knowing that they are basically Korean? They wouldn't be ethnically Korean, but that person would only be able to describe themselves as Korean because of his/her nationality.

[angel-ehron.livejournal.com]

mte

[tokyo-seoul27.livejournal.com]

So what about children that were adopted from SK by foreigners, say an American coupke? What rights are they given if they want to live and work in Korea? Are they not "Korean" enough because they didn't get the opportunity to stay in their country of birth due to circumstances?

[chunsakuma.livejournal.com]

Whilst I'm an American and obv can't speak for someone from Korea, a good friend of mine is ethnically Korean but adopted by a white Southern American couple, and I think she'd have a difficult time there. Besides her appearance, there's hardly anything about her that isn't Westernised, and anyone who talks to her for five minutes would say that she's an American. So, in the short-term, like as a tourist, she'd prob be treated really well, but in the long-term, I definitely think that they'd think she's not "Korean" enough.