The Maeil Gyeongje reports that Korea is on the express train to a multi-ethnic society, with the number of foreigners in the country expected to top 1 million this year and reach a whopping 9.1 million by 2050:
Korea’s streets are filling up with foreigners. According to the authorities, there were some 891,000 foreigners residing in Korea as of November of last year, accounting for 1.84 percent of Korea’s population. The is an 18-fold jump from 1990, when there were only 49,500 foreigners accounting for no more than 0.1 percent of the population. By 2050, the number of foreigners is calculated to reach 9.10 million. Korea has already become a “multi-ethnic society.”
As of late 2005, there were foreigners from 190 nations in Korea, meaning Korea was home to pretty much the entire human spectrum. Moreover, in 2005, one of every seven marriages was an “international marriage,” and one in three nongchon chonggak (rural bachelors, usually a bit older) married a foreign women.
Authorities expect the “foreigner rush” to accelerate. The Justice Ministry believes the number of foreigners in Korea will increase by 10 percent annually; this year, the number should break the 1 million mark.
Asians, and Chinese in particular, make up the bulk of Korea’s foreign population.
As of 2005, there were some 282,000 Chinese in Korea, including ethnic Koreans from China. Americans came in second at 103,000, followed by Japanese (39,410), Vietnamese (38,902), Filipinos (38,057) and Thais (34,188).
Chinese and Chinese-Korean immigration has greatly increased since the establishment of diplomatic ties between Korea and the PRC.
Recently, however, there has been a dramatic spike in the number of Vietnamese. In 1990, there was only one—that’s right, one—Vietnamese national residing in Korea. In 2000, there were 19,000. By the end of 2005, there were 39,410.
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“Korea’s streets are filling up with foreigners.” LOL, I’ve seen more “foreigners” on the streets of a small rural Japanese town than I have in downtown Seoul.
Hooray for Vietnamese immigration, maybe we’ll finally see some real pho in Korea.
I took a two hour walk last Sunday through northeast Seoul and then rode the #5 line to Ganghwa-mun and I didn’t see one recognizably foreign face until Ganghwa-mun.
Even my small prairie hometown (200,000) had more foreigners back when I was a kid in the 70s than Korea has now. I remember there being Natives (obviously not foreigners but they looked different), Chinese, Vietnamese, the occasional Black, Indians, Koreans, etc. I guess part of the difference is that many of the immigrants in Korea would be hard to notice, especially the Korean-Chinese.
What a joke!
How the gyopos contribute to creating a “multi-ethnic society” I don’t know. Perhaps one can break it down for me.
As there are 193 countries in the world which three’s nationals are missing from the list of those prowling Korea’s streets? My guesses are Saint Kitts and Nevis, Malta and Tuvalu. I’m assuming that a ski instructor from Andorra is doing the après-ski hook up with an agassi at Yongpyong right now.
No problem. This Corean vigilante is doing the Lord’s work to make sure not a single drop of ink falls in the Han river.
I’ve been curious for a long time as to how many Canadians are in this country. Anyone know?
167, last time I did a head count at Rocky Mountain Tavern.
Mark, Best laugh I’ve had all day. Well done.
Sorry kids, but less than 2% of the population being foreign does not make a “multi-ethnic” society.
When I see some Southeast Asians or Chinese get excited when they hear these kind of news, I see how subhumans they are. In my opinion it’s not a good thing, I mean there’s something wrong that makes things change so rapidly what most Koreans are against.
Katz:
After trolling at Occidentalism, are you now bent on trolling here ?
?
I understand there are many Vietnamese brides, but how did Korea suddenly end up with so many Thais, Phillipinos and Chinese? Would they be mostly workers sponsored by the government for small manufacturing companies? My understanding is that’s the only legal option for them apart from the marriage.
Many of the Chinese nationals are ethnic Korean. They come here as guest workers or as brides of Korean men.
I’ve heard that the number of ethnic Koreans from China who come as brides is quickly falling. Basically, they came as the brides of Korean farmers, decided the farming life was not for them, divorced and headed to the cities. Every so often I’ll be in a restaurant in Seoul and the nice woman serving food will speak Korean with a noticable accent.
Years ago, my Korean language teacher explained that the Korean women who grow up in China are used to a more equal distribution of household chores between the husband and wife, which, according to her, is the Chinese style of things. When these women arrive in Korea, they’re shocked to find that their husbands have no interest in helping out with the cooking and cleaning.
The influx of women from other countries can also be explained by all the years that Korean families were able to choose the sex of their children. With fewer women around and few of them wanting to live on farms, bringing women from overseas was the only option.
The number of non-Koreans in Korea is still small, but because some of them are coming as brides (and husbands) it’ll only take a generation or two for their numbers to climb.
I found it interesting that your post didn’t address the issue of citizenship, in the “United States” sense of the word.
Question for anyone who might know some statistics, or just anecdotal examples:
Will the ROK naturalize new citizens of non-Korean ethnic ancestry? If so, how many (if any?) non-Koreans become naturalized ROK citizens?
Do any of you resident in ROK know any exmaples of US citizens who have settled in ROK long term (perhaps after having married a Korean) and have subsequently citizens of the ROK?
The true test will be when they start handing PR to non-ethnic Koreans like western multicultural societies do. Until then it’s all window dressing.
There’s a few of them. Perhaps the most the well known is Gary Rector, a Peace Corps guy who stuck around and became citizen. One of the first was Min Pyong Gal, formerly Ferris Miller, who founded the Chollipo Arboretum. There used to be a couple of cottages that could be rented, but it looks like that’s gone.
Paul H wrote:
“Will the ROK naturalize new citizens of non-Korean ethnic ancestry? If so, how many (if any?) non-Koreans become naturalized ROK citizens?”
By “new citizens” do you mean those who have immigrated here? As I understand, there is a six-month window of opportunity for foreign spouses to acquire Korean citizenship; after that, they must meet the tougher requirements imposed on the general foreign population.
Yes, I had a brain cramp, meant to say “immigrants”. I was thinking mainly of resident non-Korean ancestry aliens, ones who came to ROK to work for a period and then (for whatever reason) may have decided at some point that they wanted to become citizens.
Interesting post…what I’m wondering about is how they got the projected figure of 9.1 million foreign residents by 2050.
Ok, I can’t do the math right now, but I’m willing to bet that this means there are more foreigners per capita living in Korea than Japan. If this were, so I’d have to wonder what the reasons for that would be. Is it easier to find work, obtain a visa, etc? Does Korea have a better reputation than Japan? I’m not sure what the cause would be.
One in seven marriages are with a foreigner? Wow…I’d heard 1 in 10 for Tokyo and thought that was high (of course, everyone thinks of ‘international marriages’ in Japan as foreign guy-Japanese woman, but in reality, Japanese guy-foreign woman account for a much higher percentage of the marriages - and they’re likely to stay in Japan longer.
Flawed. Where are all of the Cambodian and Pakistani factory workers in this rundown? Junk media once again.
and after today’s tv program with the foreign women married to korean men it should only increase. on their list of reason why they liked koreans, “they don’t smell bad”, came in third or fourth.
Ken wrote:
Ok, I can’t do the math right now, but I’m willing to bet that this means there are more foreigners per capita living in Korea than Japan. If this were, so I’d have to wonder what the reasons for that would be. Is it easier to find work, obtain a visa, etc? Does Korea have a better reputation than Japan? I’m not sure what the cause would be.
According to this source (http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/06/01/d606011003109.htm), foreign nationals comprise 1.3 percent of Japan’s population. Japan has fewer foreign nationals per capita, but it probably has a larger population of naturalized Japanese of Korean, Chinese, or other descent.
I would guess the number is vastly understated. The numbers don’t count all those who don’t show up in the statistics. For example, Chinese nationals who are routinely smuggled in by boat. And we all know how serious smuggling anything (not just human) from China is - there are tons of undocumented smuggling in from China. They completely bypass immigration so how can immigration know what their statuses are? So why aren’t there so many foreign faces noticeable? That’s a stupid question. It’s because much of the increases are Asians or offsprings of Asians married to Koreans, so it’s easy to blend in with the native Koreans and so they’d be mistaken to be Koreans. One in seven marriages in Korea are multi ethnic marriages (which is an increase of one in ten marriages were international couple of years ago), that’s an astonishing number for Korea who is been traditionally homogeneous.
Railwaycharm - Flawed. Where are all of the Cambodian and Pakistani factory workers in this rundown?
They’re there, but the article doesn’t break it down by country. What I suspect is the number 190. Nationals from all but 3 countries residing here? Even if diplomats are included, and I reckon the 88 missions (including the Holy See) are, I’m calling shenanigans on 190.
The media distorts and the government refuses to show real statistics. That’s to not shock the people.
If there were smuggling people from China it would be in the news, but there are almost none. If this is true the government should block them until they sink compared to what they are doing with N. Korean refugees.
And I wonder why some Koreans I see have strange noses?
I think Koreans will have some serious problems some years down the road if they lets the foreiners from the difficult countries increase rapidly. Korea has problems with its own people from the South West.
Blue frog ne’er-do-wells, every last one of them.
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