The Marmot’s Hole

This is the kind of sentiment Newsis warned us about last week. In the stridently right-wing Free Zone News, reporter Jeon Gyeong-woong — whose email appropriately enough is enoch@freezonenews.com — gives readers the “Rivers of Blood” treatment in a piece lambasting left-wingers, including the previous administration, for turning a blind eye to the problem of illegal immigration to Korea.

Jeon’s rant starts off, of course, with the murder of the middle school girl in Yangju by an illegal alien:

On March 7, a middle school girl was murdered by an illegal alien in Yangju, Gyeonggi-do. Like in the case of every violent crime committed till now by foreigners, the major dailies and broadcasters are ignoring the story. Netizen rage about this is slowly growing, and the rage is transforming into hatred toward left-wing authorities.

Paradise for Illegal Aliens

Calling Korea a “paradise for illegal immigrants,” Jeon notes that Korean society has changed a lot over the last decade, and one of those changes is the greater number of foreigners living in Korea. Immigration authorities estimate there are 1 million foreigners living in Korea, and of those, about 230,000 are believed to be illegal.

Activists protesting illegal immigration blame left-wing government policy. In particular, the Justice Ministry — citing “Korea’s image abroad” and “improving the living conditions of foreigners” — did away with mandatory fingerprinting of foreigners in June 2003. Since then, foreign crime has climbed 20% per annum, but the arrest rate has decreased.

My favorite part:

In the last five years, the areas around industrial zones near major cities and some parts of Seoul have transformed into foreigner residential districts. In some parts of Gyeonggi-do, public security has worsened to the point of driving down land prices, and in southern industrial zones, you can’t go out at night. And in parts of Seoul, even if foreigners run riot, police dispatched to the scene have to run away.

Good heavens!

Much, much more below.

Jeon also accuses the Roh administration, human rights groups and Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) of helping illegal aliens to form a trade union, which later participated in illegal demonstrations against the Korea-US FTA without being punished. He said illegal aliens, calling themselves “migrant workers,” have even formed a TV station — Migrant Workers TV — which receives government subsidies.

Meanwhile, in Itaewon, Guro-gu and parts of Gyeonggi-do, foreigners have formed violent gangs who earn their livings by extorting their compatriots, smuggling drugs, counterfeiting documents and performing illegal foreign currency transactions. Some illegal migrants even seduce Korean women in order to obtain Korean citizenship. They seduce young Korean women by lying about their nationalities and education, and even use sexual violence.

Some illegal aliens use Koreans as drug mules.

According to Jeon, illegal migrants have no fear of committing crimes because religious and civic groups will speak for them. For instance, in 2005, police arrested the chairman of the migrant workers’ union. In response, the KCTU forcefully occupied the office of the head of the Korea Human Rights Commission to conduct a long-term hunger strike. The migrant union head, meanwhile, got his lip scratched while he was resisting arrest, and sued the state for 10 million won. After one year, he was freed.

Jeon also said illegal aliens needn’t fear even if they are deported, since regions and nations like (Southeast) Asia, Africa and China don’t have proper family registry laws. Illegals can simply change their name or passports and reenter Korea.

At the same time, the power of immigration authorities to crack down on illegal aliens is being eroded by civic groups advocating “human rights.” For instance, the Korea Human Rights Commission advised that immigration officials not carry any other equipment other than handcuffs, even when arresting illegal aliens armed with blunt weapons. Because of this, it’s said that of the only 200 Immigration Bureau officers charged with rounding up illegal aliens, 10% are in the hospital at any given time.

Immigration authorities constantly ask for more enforcement personnel, but in vain, and the media refuses to listen to their plight. On the contrary, a reporter with a particular media company wrote a malicious story about an immigration officer who had arrested an illegal migrant who was resisting arrest. Because of the piece, the officer had a tough time for a while, and nobody would listen to his side of the story.

Foreign Laborers Collude to Steal Korean Jobs

Jeon notes that most Koreans living in the hearts of major cities aren’t affected by the illegal immigration problem. But if you look, you’ll see how serious it is. In fact, the illegal immigration issue spans from threatening the livelihoods of society’s underdogs to becoming a threat to national security.

The 3,000 members of the Citizens Alliance for Measures Against Foreign Laborers have ceaselessly documented incidents involving illegal aliens. In particular, they note that most foreign laborers in Korea are unskilled workers from underdeveloped countries who are directly hurting Korea’s social underdogs. Foreign laborers first head to Korean construction sites and small-scale manufacturers for employment, where they are said to work harder and for less money than Koreans. After time, if they get recognition from the business owner, they introduce their friends for employment.

Even after this, they appear to work hard. What business owner would refuse foreign workers who work hard, listen, and receive less salary? Eventually, the business owner switches over entirely to foreign workers.

Once they’ve gotten all their friends hired, however, the foreign workers make a 180-degree turn. Comparing their salaries with those of other companies, they begin work slowdowns. If the boss doesn’t give into their demands, they take off as a group in the middle of the night. Ultimately, the business owner is forced to give them the same wages they were paying their Korean workers.

According to Jeon, countless Korean workers and businessmen have been hurt by this tactic, but there is nowhere they can turn for redress. They can tell the Labor Ministry if an industrial trainee runs off, but illegal aliens use human rights centers and religious groups to threaten business owners with prosecution. Business owners are fined 10 million won if they are caught hiring illegal aliens, but illegal aliens aren’t punished.

Meanwhile, the Korean laborers who have lost their jobs to illegal aliens find it difficult to find new jobs, since it’s commonly believed that they cost more than foreigners.

Foreigners, the Hole in National Security

Then there are the other foreigners, says Jeon. The ones who enter Korea on tourist visas to do business. English speaking ones from former British colonies in Southwest Asia and Africa first head to English hagwon.

Native speaker English teachers make an average of 4 million won a month. Because you can get a degree forged for about 200,000—300,000 won, they can get a job anywhere. And because they (i.e., the black folk) tend to be popular with Korean women, they can get along “just like it was Harlem” (emphasis mine). After a few years, they take the money they’ve earned to start small businesses.

In the case of Chinese, they find work in the skyrocketing number of Chinese hagwon. They make less than English teachers, but it’s still enough to live on.

Most run small-scale trading companies, but some run illegal businesses, such as hawala money transfer businesses, drug smuggling and document forging. Violent gangs eventually get involved in these businesses, which in turn often leads to bigger crimes.

These activities are having an impact on national security. If you go to the restaurants near the Ministry of Defense in Yongsan, you’ll notice that many of the restaurant employees are from China. Some people seem to think that since they are older women, there’s not much of a problem, but if one remembers that China uses all of its overseas nationals to obtain intelligence, it’s impossible to know how many secrets are slipping out.

It’s easy to understand, said Jeon, if you think back on how a Chinese restaurant in Yeouido frequented by lawmakers and high officials turned out to be a safe house for Chinese intelligence agents.

Southwest Asians and Africans are also a problem. Koreans think Korea is safe from terrorism, but they’d be wrong — in 2003, the CIA informed the Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) that an Al-Qaeda operative had visited Korea in the late 1990s. In particular, because Koreans tend to believe that all white folk come from the West and terrorists are from Southwest Asia, Korea is completely defenseless against white terrorist organizations like the Chechens.

Despite this, Korea’s media, government, civic groups and intellectuals are excessively lenient to foreigners. In particular, many take the side of Joseon-jok (ethnic Koreans from China), citing shared ethnicity, and people from Asia and Africa, calling them poor people who have come from underdeveloped nations far away to make money. Other figures protect foreigners by claiming that the idea of “ethnic homogeneity” is a symbol of national isolation and exclusivity, and that Korea must become a multi-racial nation.

Examples of Failure from Overseas

Jeon asks, however, would it be such a great thing for Korea to unconditionally accept foreigners, as they claim? Some 25 years ago, there were two regions adopting a similar policy of importing foreigners. Those would be the United States and Europe, namely France.

In the case of the United States, the institution people find most frightening is not the Pentagon, CIA or FBI, but the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS). In a particularly charming turn of phrase, Jeon says the CIS is to illegal aliens what the spirit that takes departed souls to the underworld is to the population at large. It’s said that every years, 8—9% of the US population is either entering the country or leaving. This flow of foreigners in and out of the country, however, is strictly managed by CIS.

America’s favorite immigrants are high-tech workers and investors. The US government gives them benefits equal to those it gives its own citizens. On the other hand, the US isn’t particularly welcoming to unskilled laborers. Through this policy, the US is able to maintain its top-class industrial level and share its fruits with the entire society.

France and Europe, on the other hand, pursued a different immigration policy, and hence their societies are now undergoing great transformation. These nations accepted many Southwest Asian and African immigrants in the early 80s under the so-called “tolerance” policy. They believed immigrants would fill-up the labor shortages affecting a Europe that was growing older.

The result, however, was completely different from what they expected.

Countries like France and Austria, which have better social welfare systems than the United States, extended foreign laborers the same social benefits as its own citizens. Foreign laborers, however, only took advantage of these benefits; rarely did they work hard. They also had little zeal for education. Moreover, they refused to assimilate with the host society, citing ethnic and religious reasons, and in some instances, they are forcing their religion on existing social constituents.

One generation later, and now the word “Eurabia” (”Europe” and “Arabia”) is going around Europe. This is because foreign laborers have brought all their family from home, driving Europe’s foreign population past 10%. The concerns over these transformations are more serious in nations that stress social welfare and human rights.

The result is that social conflict is insecurity is growing progressively worse. Neighborhoods where foreign laborers live have become slums, while skinheads and racists grow in number. Representative of this are the riots that started in France and spread throughout Europe and the election in France of President Nicolas Sarkozy. Since then, immigration laws have been growing tougher.

The Failure of the Left’s Attempt to Follow Europe

We can learn a lot from these overseas examples, says Jeon. Looking to these instances, the Japanese instituted from late last year a fingerprinting system. The Japanese were more concerned about the rise in crime that about the issue of racism. In particular, the Japanese were greatly troubled by Chinese and Joseon-jok who were committing crimes using forged Korean passports.

On the other hand, Korea has spent the last several years mimicking the French by accepting any and all foreigners. Because Korea lacks a proper verification system, even guys like Canadian pedophile Christopher Paul Neil, who was wanted by Interpol, could come to Korea and operate.

People point out that the biggest problem behind this is the media’s and leftist civic groups’ excessively lenient view of foreigners. In particular, they consider the media’s and civic groups’ worship of white society and their sympathy for foreigners from underdeveloped Asian and African nations to be serious mistakes.

These leftist groups, however, are not admitting their mistakes, says Jeon. Despite citizen anger at violent crimes like the killing of the girl in Yangju, some leftist media has been running columns like “Isn’t it natural for foreigner crimes to increase along with the increase in the foreigner population?” and “Foreigners commit fewer crimes than Koreans.”

Jeon concludes:

The Lee Myung-bak government recently said, “The foundation of a developed nation is establishing legal order.” Citizens are interested to see where the Lee administration’s intention will be applied to foreigners without discrimination, too.

Marmot’s Note: While I don’t expect the mainstream conservative press to take as strident a tone as you see above, I do expect under LMB more and more pieces like this Dong-A Ilbo story from last week. Coincidentally, I don’t disagree completely with such sentiment — I’m not a fan of large-scale immigration, illegal or otherwise. But if you’re going to argue against immigration, especially with the way the numbers play out in Korea, you have to stay away from crime (unless you can demonstrate that foreigners are especially prone to violence) and focus more on the debatable wisdom of importing foreigners in numbers so large that it hinders assimilation, creating social divisions.*

*At 1 million foreigners, a mere 2% of the total population, of which only 20% is illegal, one might also question whether we’ve reached the point at which “rivers of blood” is a clear and present danger. Sure, the development of ghettos like Ansan and Haebangchon isn’t good, but really, how difficult would it be to send in the karcher, so to speak? It’s not like Seoul is ringed by suburbs full of angry immigrants prepared to make the place look like Gaza.