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Korean Job Discussion Forums
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catman
Joined: 18 Jul 2004
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 Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 3:42 pm Post subject: NK refugees face discrimination |
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Working-class families who were born and raised in South Korea share their neighborhood with a public housing complex in western Seoul where approximately 600 North Korean defectors have settled.
The number of ``new settlers'' has continued to grow sharply since 2000, as an increasing number of North Koreans have taken the dangerous journey in search of freedom and the chance to lead decent lives.
This rush for freedom from North to South Korea has not only created a financial burden that the latter has to shoulder, but negative stereotypes of these new citizens have also formed.
A policy suggestion paper released by the Korean Association for Public Administration (KAPA) last year found that the households surrounding the new citizens have a negative North Korean stereotype.
The South Korean natives felt that they had to work hard to make ends meet but that those escapees from the North don't have to work hard because of the money they receive from the government.
The KAPA report also mentioned that these neighbors believed that the new settlers have a double standard about money.
North Korean defectors are critical about how South Korean capitalism works but ironically they are much more attached to money than South Koreans.
North Korean defectors also harbor hard feelings toward their South Korean neighbors as well.
There is a lot of animosity once it is discovered from their different accents that they are from the North. Locals will give them the cold shoulder and be unfriendly.
Furthermore, employers hold negative stereotypes regarding North Koreans, the report found.
``New settlers tend to show up at their workplace on time but they do not work as hard as their South Korean counterparts. This problem appears to stem from the social background that they are accustomed to. In the communist state, all citizens receive their portion regardless of the quality of their labor,'' it said.
Employers also found that the new settlers are obedient only when they used scare tactics and that workers from the North tend not to regard agreements or consensus as important.
Kim Hyun-kyung, a labor protection official of the Ministry of Labor, said the new settlers usually have bad relations with managers who are in the middle hierarchy at the workplace.
They disregard the chain of command.
``They tend to go directly to the head of the division, bypassing their supervisor. This gets them into trouble as their supervisors consider them unable to work in a team,'' she said.
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http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/special/2010/04/180_64846.html
Anyone here have the opportunity to work with NK refugees? |
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pkang0202
Joined: 09 Mar 2007
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| Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 4:23 pm Post subject: |
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North Korean collapse would be a nightmare.
This article only hints at the social crisis that will happen. In Korea, you will 2 distinct social classes. South Koreans and former North Koreans. Take a wild guess as to which group will be on top, and which will be on the bottom.
What kind of jobs are North Koreans going to get? The women will probably end up working at Room Salons, brothels, and massage parlors. The men will be working the "dirty and dangerous" jobs.
Don't forget the sweatshops that will open up in the north. Korean businesses would love to use North Korean workers to instead of relying on Chinese manufacturers.
Sorry to go off topic OP. Its jsut that your article reminded me of the complete social nightmare that would occur if the North collpased. |
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seoulsucker
Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Location: The Land of the Hesitant Cutoff
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| Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 6:12 pm Post subject: |
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Never worked with any refugees, but I've done the whole samgyupsal/soju thing with a group of NK guys a few times. Most of the guys were living fairly normal lives...car salesman, data entry, etc.
They have all faced some level of discrimination because of their ID cards...apparently they have different prefixes that are a dead giveaway. The accent thing is spot on, as well as the fact that they have very different vocabulary for some common things and have had to adjust to using Konglish and slang.
One of the guys was born in one of the more infamous gulags and due to being malnourished most of his life, he was barely 5 feet tall.
All in all, though...really nice guys and we've had some really interesting arguments/discussions over a few bottles of 'da ju. |
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morrisonhotel
Joined: 18 Jul 2009
Location: Gyeonggi-do
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| Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 12:23 am Post subject: |
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I help out in a centre for North Korean refugees. I've yet to meet one North Korean who doesn't have loads of really interesting stories about what life is like in North Korea. One of the guys is in early 20s. His father is one of Kim Jong-il's personal film directors. He's got some really interesting stories about his father's job.
Discrimination goes much wider than the article states. If you are interested, there are a couple of NGOs based in South Korea who publish articles and newsletters about North Koreans and North Korea. Most of the time the articles are about human rights issues in North Korea. There are on certain occasions some interesting articles about the issue of discrimination (salaries is a big one. There was an article a couple of months ago which said that North Koreans, on average, earn a third of the salary earned by South Koreans doing the same job). |
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