In Changing Korea, Questions of Identity

(Seekng to redefine what it means to be Korean.)

By CHOE SANG-HUN

　　SEOUL, South Korea ─ Jasmine Lee realizes just how Korean she's become when she begins speaking the language, forgetting that her Filipino mother on the phone can't understand her. But she is reminded of the limits of assimilation when Koreans, impressed by her fluency, comment, “You shound more Korean than Koreans do.”
　　Ms. Lee, 35, who was born Jasmine Bacurnay in the Philippines, made history in April when she became the first naturalized citizen ─ and the first nonethnic Korean ─ to win a seat in South Korea's National Assembly. Her election reflected one of the most significant demographic shifts in the country's modern history, a change she says “Koreans understand with  their brain, but have yet to embrace with their heart.”
　　Only a decade ago, school textbooks still urged South Koreans to take pride in being of “one blood” and ethnically homogeneous. While the foreignborn population is still small compared with that of countries with a tradition of immigration, it's enough to challenge how South Koreans see themselves.
　　“It's time to redefine a Korean,” said Kim Yi-seon, chief researcher on multiculturalism at the government-financed Korean Women's Development Institute. “Traditionally, a Korean meant someone born to Korean parents in Korea, who speaks Korean and has Korean looks and nationality. People don't think someone is a Korean just because he has a Korean citizenship.”
　　Among the factors driving this development is the influx of women from Southeast Asia who have come to marry rural South Korean men, who have difficulty  attracting Korean women willing to embrace country life. The number of marriage migrants grew to 211,000 last year from 127,000 in 2007, most of them women from Vietnam and other poorer Asian countries.
　　In industrialtowns, young men from Bangladesh and Pakistan toil at jobs shunned by Koreans as too dirty and dangerous, providing cheap labor that South Korea's export-driven economy needs to compete with China. The number of such workers more than doubled to 553,000 last year, from 260,000 in 2007 ─ not counting those who overstay their visas and work illegally.
　　One of every 10 marriages in South Korea now involves a foreign spouse. Although the overall number of schoolchildren in South Korea has been declining ─ to 6.7 million this year from 7.7 million in 2007 ─ as a result of one of the world's lowest birthrates, the number of multiethnic students has been climbing by 6,000 a year.
　　“A multicultural society is not just coming; it's already here,” Ms. Lee, a member of the governing Saenuri Party, said.
　　But, after Ms. Lee's election, anti-immigration activists warned that “poisonous weeds” from abroad were “corrupting the Korean bloodline” and “exterminating the Korean nation” and urged political parties to “purify” themselves by expelling Ms. Lee from the National Assembly.
　　Prime Minister Kim Hwangsik has condemned such xenophobic outbursts as “pathological,” and he urged South Koreans to take the transition to a multicultural society “not as a choice, but as an imperatice.”
　　But the government itself stands accused of fostering xenophobia by requiring foreigners who come to South Korea to teach English to undergo H.I.V. tests while not requiring the same of South Koreans in the same jobs.
　　“Back in 1995, people adored me for saying 'hello' and 'thank you' in Korean,” Ms. Lee said. “beginning around 2000, however, people started looking at me suspiciously. On the bus, they'd ask, 'Why are you here？'”
　　Ms. Lee thinks South Korea still has a long way to go. “In a recent program supposedly aimed at fostering multicultural harmony, organizers divided participants into one bus for 'Koreans' and another bus for 'multicultural families,'” she said. “I envision a society that doesn't need a label like 'multicultural.'”

中譯：
變動中的南韓  出現認同問題

　　來自菲律賓的李賈斯敏(譯音)用韓語跟老家的媽媽講電話，竟然忘了媽媽根本聽不懂她說些什麼，她這才理解到自己韓國化已有多深。不過當南韓人對於她韓語如此流利感到驚奇，並說道：「妳的韓語聽起來比韓國人還標準。」時，卻也提醒了她，民族融合畢竟有其限度。
　　李賈斯敏35歲，出生於菲律賓，本名賈斯敏‧巴庫奈；她今年四月創造了一項歷史，成為第一位當選國會議員的非韓裔歸化公民。她的當選反映出這個國家現代史上最重要的人口結構變化，她指出對於這項轉變，「南韓人腦袋裡已很清楚，但還沒有敞開心胸擁抱它。」
　　僅僅在十年前，學校教科書仍要求南韓人以自己的「單一血統」及種族同質性為傲。雖然與有引進移民傳統的國家相比，南韓人口中出生在他國的非韓族裔仍然為數不多，卻已足以挑戰南韓人對於本身身分認同問題的看法。
　　政府資助的韓國女性政策研究院多文化融合理論主任研究員金益善(音譯)說：「韓國人一詞該重新定義了。傳統上，韓國人指的是生在韓國，父母都是韓國人，說韓語，有韓國人的長相和國籍。僅僅具有韓國國籍，人們不會當他是韓國人。」
　　推動此種情勢的因素之一，是東南亞的婦女流入南韓，嫁給南韓農村的男子，因為這些男人很難吸引南韓女性一同去過鄉村的生活。婚姻移民的人數從2007年的12萬7千人，增加到去年的21萬1千人；這些女性大都來自越南及其他比較貧窮亞洲國家。
　　在一些工業城鎮裡，也有一些來自孟加拉與巴基斯坦的年輕男性，從事那些南韓人不願做、嫌它太髒而且危險的勞力工作，也為南韓這個靠出口帶動的經濟體，提供了與中國大陸競爭時必要的廉價勞力。這類勞工人數在2007年時為26萬人，到去年已達55萬3千人，增加一倍多，還不包括那些簽證逾期仍留下來非法打工的人。
　　現在南韓每十件婚姻中便有一件有外籍配偶。雖然南韓的出生率是世界最低者之一，以致學童總人數持續減少，從2007年時的770萬人減少到今年的670萬人，但混血兒學童的人數卻每年增加6千人。
　　身為執政黨新世界黨黨員的李賈斯敏說：「一個多文化的社會不是即將到來，而是已經在這裡了。」
　　然而在李賈斯敏當選後，一些反移民運動人士警告說，來自外國的「毒草」正在「敗壞南韓的血統」，且「正在使南韓亡族滅種」；他們並要求各政黨將李賈斯敏逐出國會，來「純化」自己。
　　總理金滉植已譴責這種莫名的仇外論述為「病態」，並要求南韓民眾把這種朝向多文化社會的變遷，「並非只當作一項選擇，而是一項使命」。
　　然而政府本身卻被外界指責是在培養仇外心理，因為政府要求到南韓來教英文的外國人須通過愛滋病的檢驗，擔任相同工作的南韓人卻不須如此。
　　李賈斯敏表示，「回想1995年時，人們會因為我能用韓語說『哈囉』和『謝謝你』而表示讚賞。然而大約從2000年起，人們開始用疑忌的眼光來看我。在公車上，他們會問我『妳幹嘛來這裡？』」
　　李賈斯敏認為南韓還有一段長路要走。她說：「在最近一項用意在促進多元文化和諧的活動中，主持人把參與的南韓人士分配到一輛巴士，將『多文化家庭』歸到另一輛巴士。我期盼能見到一個不需要貼上『多文化』標籤的社會。」