As I have mentioned in my last post, I needed to take a look at Korea before they became tech giant and how it is changing now. In looking through South Korea’s history major events such as the Japanese occupation in North Korea and the US in South Korea, the military regime, the fight for democracy and their rise to be an industrial power come up. But something else seems to pop up as well: the word homogeneous. South Koreans consider themselves to be a homogeneous country but depending on who you ask the meaning will be different. If you take the word at face value, you would probably assume that South Korea is only made up of people of Korean descent. While this is not true (and it would be hard to argue it being true since we all know what happens when two countries occupy the same territory) the phrase is used to mean that South Korea is an ethnically and racially homogeneous country. While it could be a point of pride in only having a single race in the country, it has led to many discussions on the rise of immigrants and how South Korea is becoming a multicultural country. Some believe that the country needs open-nationalism to embrace other people and some believe they should not allow other races in the mix. These conflicting views has lead to some immigrants experiencing discrimination in the work place and in public. It is not uncommon to see signs that ban non-Koreans from entering an establishment as there is no anti-discrimination law. On the other hand laws such as The Act to Support Multicultural Families have come into effect and helps those whose family dynamics include foreign spouses. As time goes on, the migrant population is going to keep growing and the Korean government is going to have to step in to find a way to include other cultures in their way of life.
Oct 022016