The Marmot’s Hole

Newsis reports that the murder of a middle school girl during an attempted rape by an illegal alien in Yangju, while relegated to the back pages of most major papers, has become major news on the Internet. There is great concern that the horrific crime — in which the 13-year-old (12 in the West) girl was stabbed some 13 times in the throat and stomach after she resisted her attacker, a Filipino residing illegally in Korea — might provide the spark that ignites widespread anger against illegal aliens in Korea.

The paper notes that there are now 1 million foreigners living in Korea, including an estimated 220,000 illegal aliens. Korean feelings toward illegal aliens range from sympathy to hostility, but hostile sentiment has been skyrocketing following the incident in Yangju.

In particular, while local media lent much coverage to the incident, the Korean MSM (mainstream media) did not, pissing off a segment of the Korean netizen population (conservative American bloggers can probably sympathize). The offended netizens wondered why “the victims should become the criminals,” and have since been raising “sensitive” subjects like strengthened controls over illegal immigrants and fingerprinting foreigners.

One netizen at Daum said, “The Korea Human Rights Commission must no longer protect these people. Don’t you know how brutal these people are around the factory towns of Gyeonggi-do?” Another netizen at Daum said, “Why didn’t the news report this vicious crime committed by an illegal alien? (Marmot’s Note: Hey, just be happy nobody referred to the attacker as a “youth“)? We must fingerprint foreigners and kick out all the illegal aliens. Execute him.”

Are Koreans Exclusionary to Foreigners?

Newsis says that while the anger following the incident isn’t the whole story, is could be seen as speaking for general Korean sentiment as the country moves into the “1 million foreigners era.”

A professor at Pyeongtaek University explained that 1 million foreigners accounts for about 2% of the total Korean population, and if current trends hold, by 2010, 2.8% percent of the population will be foreigners, and by 2050, the foreigner population will account for 9.2% of the population. What this means is that Korea’s is well on the way to becoming an immigrant society, in which some 10% of the population is composed of immigrants (this 10% figure is not fully agreed upon in academia, however).

The increase is due to both foreigners wanting to come to Korea and Korea wanting foreigners to come. In particular, migrant laborers have continued to come to Korea since the 1990s to make up labor shortages; a 2001 United Nations report noted that for Korea to maintain its current economic level, it would need some 1.5 million foreign laborers between 2030 and 2050.

Migrant laborers, who come to do so-called “difficult, dirty and dangerous” (”3D”) jobs, are not held in high regard, however. This because they are believed to be taking jobs from locals.

Experts cautiously warn that it may be difficult for Korean to truly accept the nation becoming an immigrant society since they’ve been educated to believe Korea is a homogeneous nation; the United Nation’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, in fact, has said Korea’s focus on “pure blood” and ethnic homogeneity could be called racist when viewed according to international standards.

Foreigners Less Prone to Crime Than Locals

According to police data, the number of crimes committed by foreigners has steadily been rising. Experts say, however, that this is simply because the number of foreigners has been on the rise.

Just in 2001, there were 4,328 crimes committed by foreigners in Korea. In 2006, there were 12,657, including 72 homicides, 107 robberies, 107 rapes and 52 sexual assaults.

Experts point out, however, that it would be impossible to conclude from this that the increase in the number of illegal aliens has lead to an increase in the criminality of foreigners. A researcher at the Korean Institute of Criminology said the absolute number of crimes committed by foreigners has increased, but this is simply because the foreign population has increased, not because criminality rates in the foreign population has increased.

According to the researcher’s stats, the foreign population — including illegals — grew by 414.5% between 1992 and 2000, but foreign crime increased by only 216.8% in the same period.

In fact, in 2004, there were 677,948 foreigners in Korea, a 781.8% increase from 1992. The number of foreign crimes was 12,821, only a 541.4% increase from 1992.

Additionally, the criminal rates of foreigners coming from low-income nations and engaged in “3D” jobs is much lower. According to Justice Ministry data, Americans made up only 4.3% of resident foreigners in 2004, but they accounted for a full 10.9% of foreigner crime.

USA! USA!

According to the researcher at Korean Institute of Criminology. foreigners commit fewer crimes per capita than Koreans. In 2004, there were 1,891 criminals for every 100,000 foreigners. For Koreans, the number was 5,134 for every 100,000. The researcher said we could understand the rise in foreigner crime as a natural phenomenon that takes place anywhere where people gather to live.

Meanwhile, an official with the Migrant Worker’s Welfare Society in Korea said that while he had no intention of speaking on behalf of the accused in the Yangju killing, the tragedy shouldn’t lead to a witch hunt against foreigners. He also said that foreigners would make up 10% of the population by 2050, so the country needed to prepare.