Koreans worry about possible immigrant riots

[confusedsafferinkorea]

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2012/01/117_102925.html

Anyone thinking of starting a riot?   

[bobrocket]

Haha, that paper is such twaddle 😄

[Rutten]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brj2UkUPjCI

I don't know a country where it's people aren't worried about immigrants taking local jobs. But riots? That was written in purely for the headline...

[madison79]

Doesn't this fall under the blanket opinion.  "Foreigners are bad, mkkay!"  What country doesn't have people who worry about this?  Those people are bad because they were born in a different part of the world and don't look exactly like me. 
Can we stop posting this stuff? 

[confusedsafferinkorea]

Doesn't this fall under the blanket opinion.  "Foreigners are bad, mkkay!"  What country doesn't have people who worry about this?  Those people are bad because they were born in a different part of the world and don't look exactly like me. 
Can we stop posting this stuff?

If a local rag can publish a story like this, why can't we comment? Just asking.

In fact when they stop publish stories like this, then we can cease to comment.

[dbtm]

It's not NETs they are worried about it's the growing population of south Asian farm/industrial workers.

[confusedsafferinkorea]

It's not NETs they are worried about it's the growing population of south Asian farm/industrial workers.

It is growing because traditionally Koreans won't do those kind of jobs, the 3D. As Korea expands economically, so the demand for those kind of workers grows too. However, I don't realistically think they are going to embark on mass riots.

[Mountain Crocodile]

There is very little oversight in regards to journalistic quality or integrity in this country.  The local papers are prime examples of articles that are either sponsored by a company to articles that are designed to instill fear or paranoia.  I tend to read about 5-6 newpapers a day.  I can honestly tell you that if you want to find out what is really happening in Korea, stop reading the local dailies and read the foreign reports.  There is a huge difference in the quality of reporting.  Newspapers I read daily.

CNN
BBC world news
Wall Street Journal
New York Times
National Post
Time Magazine
Wired (cuz I like technical stuff instead of reading meaningless ranking statistics about Korea's future)

The local papers are just that, garbage.  With very little real journalism or any meaningful quality of writing that you would consider worth anything.  If you are going to read papers, read from a proper news source and become better informed in the world. 

MC

[dbtm]

There is very little oversight in regards to journalistic quality or integrity in this country.  The local papers are prime examples of articles that are either sponsored by a company to articles that are designed to instill fear or paranoia.  I tend to read about 5-6 newpapers a day.  I can honestly tell you that if you want to find out what is really happening in Korea, stop reading the local dailies and read the foreign reports.  There is a huge difference in the quality of reporting.  Newspapers I read daily.

CNN
BBC world news
Wall Street Journal
New York Times
National Post
Time Magazine
Wired (cuz I like technical stuff instead of reading meaningless ranking statistics about Korea's future)

The local papers are just that, garbage.  With very little real journalism or any meaningful quality of writing that you would consider worth anything.  If you are going to read papers, read from a proper news source and become better informed in the world. 

MC

I like that you appear to have diverse media consumption (although I would recommend Gizmodo over Wired and I'm curious what what kind of things are in Time that interest you. If it's photos of current events, I recommend The Big Picture blog). But why subject yourself to the Official Mouthpiece of the Harper Government the National Post?

The Korea Times often shows up as an "Attack Site" in Google Chrome. That says it all, doesn't it?

[sejongthefabulous]

If you read the article it said concerns for increasing amounts of immigrants will create problems for employments, housing and social welfare.
It said Koreans can't get along with immigrants because of the differences in language, culture and skin color.
I agree these are all problematic. My guess is skin color was actually suppose to mean 'different appearance'. It's kinda funny cause the majority of the immigrants here are either half Korean or Korean-Chinese and look the same anyway.
Anyway there have been no riots yet. I see problems in the future with their children if they stay cause most of them aren't even getting educations and grow up as outcasts....the perfect candidates for riots.

[Peekay1982]

It said Koreans can't get along with immigrants because of the differences in language, culture and skin color.
I agree these are all problematic. My guess is skin color was actually suppose to mean 'different appearance'. It's kinda funny cause the majority of the immigrants here are either half Korean or Korean-Chinese and look the same anyway.

this wrong^^

China face very big, very dark, very ugly. not good ㅎㅎ

Korea man's face is so handsome, girl is so pretty & cuteiful.

i'm always know difference of China face and Korea face ㅋㅋ

[woman-king]

If you read the article it said concerns for increasing amounts of immigrants will create problems for employments, housing and social welfare.
It said Koreans can't get along with immigrants because of the differences in language, culture and skin color.
I agree these are all problematic. My guess is skin color was actually suppose to mean 'different appearance'. It's kinda funny cause the majority of the immigrants here are either half Korean or Korean-Chinese and look the same anyway.
Anyway there have been no riots yet. I see problems in the future with socir children if they stay cause most of them aren't even getting educations and grow up as outcasts....the perfect candidates for riots.

Yeah, I mean in a way I can see where Koreans are coming from.  Take a look at Europe--there HAVE been riots and unrest due to massive amounts of poorly-assimilated immigrants and yeah, that applies to second and even third-generation ones.  Koreans might as well be honest about the fact that they're too socially insular to successfully assimilate big numbers of southeast Asian workers or, you know, English teachers into their society.  Not every country can pull off multiculturalism, and the smaller and more collectivist of a culture you are the harder it seems, in my opinion.  That's a sort of sacrilegious thing to say in the West, where any hint that multiculturalism is anything other than super awesome isn't PC, but it's my impression after living in Korea for awhile.  I definitely think immigrants and temporary workers deserve protection and fair treatment, of course, and yes this article is sensationalist and it's kind of funny that (supposedly) 64% of Koreans are really that afraid of anyone who's different from them.   

[Yu_Bumsuk]

The real problem is that in twenty years there will be upwards to a million half-Koreans, who speak Korean and understand Korean culture perfectly. If they are treated like second-class citizens and ghettoised there will be problems indeed.

[Peekay1982]

The real problem is that in twenty years there will be upwards to a million half-Koreans, who speak Korean and understand Korean culture perfectly. If they are treated like second-class citizens and ghettoised there will be problems indeed.

Isn't there some sort of ethnic/cultural tipping point proportion above which people (generally) start to feel uncomfortable and hostile? As in, when there's one different looking family in your neighbourhood most people don't have a problem. But once 40% of families in your neighbourhood don't look "like" you and your family people start to feel under threat. (I'm just talking in general terms here. Personally I feel comfortable living in an area with any kind of racial makeup and I'm sure many of us on waygook.org, having travelled a lot, feel the same. Obviously as a westerner living in Korea you don't have much choice about living in an area where you're an ethnic minority.)

On the flipside once an ethnic group reaches a certain size they start to demand rights and equal treatment. NETs (say) are a tiny proportion of the Korean population so we more or less shut up and do as we're told/put up with legal impositions to get visas/avoid trouble/don't organise, etc. As Yum Bumsuk says, half-Koreans are going to form an increasingly large part of the population moving forward so it'll be interesting seeing if there's tension as they demand more enfranchisement.

[dbtm]

The real problem is that in twenty years there will be upwards to a million half-Koreans, who speak Korean and understand Korean culture perfectly. If they are treated like second-class citizens and ghettoised there will be problems indeed.

Yah the worst case scenario in Korea would be like the 2005 riots of the 2nd and 3rd generation African immigrants in France. People who's parents payed for French citizenship with their blood yet remained discriminated against and treated as second class.

[peasgoodnonsuch]

I don't think it's a problem to acknowledge that Koreans have issues and concerns over a growing foreign population, even if some of those "concerns" are ignorance and prejudice. What I do think is a problem is that the implied solution from that article is to reduce the number of foreigners NOT change Koreans' attitudes....

They need to realize that the foreign population is becoming a necessary part of the economy and that it's here to stay. If they're worried about not getting along because of ethnic differences then they should have more programs to promote cultural tolerance in Koreans and cultural assimilation in foreigners. I know, "assimilation" is almost a dirty word if you're from the States at least. However, it's a very important part of moving to a new country and can be done with moderation and voluntarily. Both sides need to bend to each other if they're going to work things out-especially in a country like Korea.

[Peekay1982]

Yeah, I mean in a way I can see where Koreans are coming from.  Take a look at Europe--there HAVE been riots and unrest due to massive amounts of poorly-assimilated immigrants and yeah, that applies to second and even third-generation ones.  Koreans might as well be honest about the fact that they're too socially insular to successfully assimilate big numbers of southeast Asian workers or, you know, English teachers into their society.  Not every country can pull off multiculturalism, and the smaller and more collectivist of a culture you are the harder it seems, in my opinion.  That's a sort of sacrilegious thing to say in the West, where any hint that multiculturalism is anything other than super awesome isn't PC, but it's my impression after living in Korea for awhile.  I definitely think immigrants and temporary workers deserve protection and fair treatment, of course, and yes this article is sensationalist and it's kind of funny that (supposedly) 64% of Koreans are really that afraid of anyone who's different from them.   

It's certainly interesting. What does multiculturalism mean, anyway? I think it should mean people of all different ethnic, national and cultural backgrounds living closely together and enjoying each other's diversity. But it seems like a lot of people don't want to associate with people of different cultural/ethnic/racial backgrounds. Take a look at the average US city - completely segregated by race. Or some of the larger towns in the north of the UK - completely divided between white British and British muslim populations. I'm not interested in race or nationality as a signifier of who I want to associate with... but a lot of people are. And it seems that the end result is fractured societies (to an extent). (I honestly don't think there's anything lamer than assuming someone I've never met is "the same" as me because they have the same skin colour or passport. But again, lots of people all over the world disagree with me.)

On the other hand, what's the alternative? Unless Koreans start a) having babies and b) working in factories en masse they're going to have to allow mass immigration. The alternative is to do a Japan, keep foreigners out, and enter a seemingly endless managed decline.

[Bulgogi]

The real problem is that in twenty years there will be upwards to a million half-Koreans, who speak Korean and understand Korean culture perfectly. If they are treated like second-class citizens and ghettoised there will be problems indeed.

Isn't there some sort of ethnic/cultural tipping point proportion above which people (generally) start to feel uncomfortable and hostile? As in, when there's one different looking family in your neighbourhood most people don't have a problem. But once 40% of families in your neighbourhood don't look "like" you and your family people start to feel under threat. (I'm just talking in general terms here. Personally I feel comfortable living in an area with any kind of racial makeup and I'm sure many of us on waygook.org, having travelled a lot, feel the same. Obviously as a westerner living in Korea you don't have much choice about living in an area where you're an ethnic minority.)

On the flipside once an ethnic group reaches a certain size they start to demand rights and equal treatment. NETs (say) are a tiny proportion of the Korean population so we more or less shut up and do as we're told/put up with legal impositions to get visas/avoid trouble/don't organise, etc. As Yum Bumsuk says, half-Koreans are going to form an increasingly large part of the population moving forward so it'll be interesting seeing if there's tension as they demand more enfranchisement.

Yah, if you're from the states...you would've probably heard of "white flight"...that's when white families fled their homes in the cities to live out in the suburbs to avoid living with a diverse neighborhood.

[Peekay1982]

Yah, if you're from the states...you would've probably heard of "white flight"...that's when white families fled their homes in the cities to live out in the suburbs to avoid living with a diverse neighborhood.

I remember reading about blockbusting in northern US cities in the '10s, '20s and '30s. Black families started to migrate north from the southern US as they were finding it hard to survive under the sharecropping system (and the more punitive legal framework). Unscrupulous letting agents in the northern cities (who were sometimes black themselves) would move a black, southern family into a white block of apartments. Lots of the black families had never lived with indoor plumbing so they might do things like throw raw sewage out of the window; and in fact the estate agents would look for the least refined, most "countryfied" black families they could find. They'd massively overcrowd the accommodation, too. The agent would then send people round to the white families living in the block and say "have you seen that black family which has moved in? The neighbourhood is on its way down. You better sell to me now before your home is worthless". The white families sold up at bargain-basement prices. The estate agent would then sell the homes to more black families coming up from the south, and more white families would want to sell up. (The estate agent usually sold to the newcomers at vastly inflated prices, offering financing - they'd get a few months of mortgage payments out of the new owners before being able to evict them and sell the property once again.)

In The Grapes of Wrath you can see the conflict between newcomers and long-term residents of an area when there's competition for jobs - and that's between white, Christian, native English speaking groups! (Okies and Californians.) Add in racial and linguistic differences...

[DWAEDGIMORIGUKBAP]

Isn't there some sort of ethnic/cultural tipping point proportion above which people (generally) start to feel uncomfortable and hostile? As in, when there's one different looking family in your neighbourhood most people don't have a problem. But once 40% of families in your neighbourhood don't look "like" you and your family people start to feel under threat

I feel like this in England.  It wouldn't bother me so much if they identified as English and wanted to interact, but they seem (muslims) to hate our couhntry, culture and do not want their kids interacting with others, so it feels to me like a bunch of aliens are taking over our cities and country.