Abstract
Seokho Kim and So Hyun Park highlights that while Koreans acknowledge loosening immigration controls contributes to the economy by alleviating labor shortages, they still exhibit considerable concern that increased immigration may aggravate social conflicts. Many hold neutral attitudes regarding immigrants’ contribution to social development, which suggests a lingering doubt and apprehension about their overall impact on Korean society. Such a result provides insights into the need to shift away from the current paradigm considering immigrants—a sense of separation between individual migrants and migrant communities and Korean society. To address this gap, they suggest we should cogitate beyond how close migrants can come to being Koreans and part of Korean society and delve deeper into the lives and thoughts of migrants through a more intrinsic approach. In other words, the prospect of immigrant social integration is only promising when and if we change.
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Notes
- 1.
The issue of refugees in South Korean society did not receive much attention before 2018. While the number of asylum seekers had been steadily increasing for decades, very few had been granted the right to asylum. Surveys on South Koreans’ attitudes toward refugees only began to be conducted after the controversial arrival of Yemeni refugees on Jeju Island in 2018. That is why this article analyzes the change in Koreans’ attitudes toward refugees using data collected in 2018 and 2021.
- 2.
Refer to Kim. Seokho et al.. (2015). “What Made the Civic Type of National Identity More Important among Koreans? A Comparison between 2003 and 2010” Development and Society and Park. Hyomin, Kim Seokho, Lee Sangrim (2016). “Native Koreans’ Attitudes toward Immigrants in Ethnic Enclaves” Korean Party Studies.
- 3.
For each question, the social distance score was measured 1 for positive answers and 2 for negative answers, and the higher the score, the higher the sense of social distance to the target group. For a specific ethnic group, if all questions are answered negatively, the score is 1 point, and if all questions are answered positively, the overall score is 2 points. That is, the social distance score represents the average score of respondents for each group.
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Kim, S., Park, S.H. (2023). Living Together with Unease—Koreans’ Perception of and Attitudes Toward Immigrants. In: Kim, J. (eds) A Contemporary Portrait of Life in Korea. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5829-0_2
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