The Koreans who ate the "Sudden Death Prevention Package" rolled up and died began to escape.
According to a survey by Korean TV media in 2023, 56% of young people aged 20-30 in South Korea want to emigrate. Korean authoritative marriage information company also said that,More than 70% of Korean couples aged between 20 and 30 are considering emigration.
According to the statistics of the Korean Immigration Bureau, in the past ten years, South Korea has steadily transported 600,000 people every year.
You know, only 249,000 people were born in South Korea in 2022.
〓 South Korea has reached the turning point of death in 2019.
One "cuts off the source" and the other "opens the flow", and the main one can’t make ends meet.
The prediction of South Korea’s disappearance is getting closer.
As a developed country in Asia and once one of the four little dragons in Asia, South Korea’s economic take-off speed was once called "Hanjiang Miracle". In such a country, why do people desperately want to escape? Where do they want to escape?
"Invisible" Immigrant Power
In fact, judging from the "absolute value" of the number of immigrants, South Korea is not a big immigrant country.
In 2020, there are about 7 million registered overseas immigrants in South Korea. Compared with the number of 18 million overseas immigrants in India, the scale of Korean immigrants is simply not ranked in the world.
But everything depends not only on the numerical value, but also on the proportion.
You know, the total population of South Korea is just over 51 million, of which 7 million people immigrated overseas, equivalent to 15% of Koreans, and they are not at home at all. Today, there are 1.1 million Korean immigrants and 2.2 million China immigrants in the United States, and the total number of immigrants in the United States and China is twice that of South Korea.
But China’s population base is 28 times that of South Korea.
South Korea’s "Run History" actually has a long history.
Many of the earliest Asian faces in American TV series are Koreans.
In the eyes of many Koreans, the United States is the "terminal" for immigrants.
According to the statistics of the global immigration website, except for the global epidemic in 2019, the total number of Korean immigrants in the United States has maintained a strong growth in every decade since 1980.
Up to now, there are more and more Koreans wandering overseas, and their destinations are not limited to the United States.
Chinese traveled across the ocean to the New World and wanted to see exotic customs. As a result, he joined three supermarkets, all of which were Korean speakers of bulk English.
Many people began to wonder: Why do so many Koreans "moisten" one after another?
Did those Koreans who "run" away get what they wanted?
Korean, why do you want to immigrate?
In 1986, Korean Jin Songjun and his wife came to new york with their 7-year-old son.
Like many immigrants at that time, they wanted to provide their son Ron with more advantages and opportunities.
A BBC report recorded his experience in America. As the second batch of compatriots who arrived in the immigration tide, he received full help from the "immigrant predecessors".
From the moment they set foot on the mainland of the United States, several Korean friends who moved to new york five years ago began to settle Jin Songjun in an arranged way: first, they stood outside the arrival hall of the airport and greeted him with a famous brand, then they drove him all the way into the city, and finally they gave him a store that was being put up for sale in the East District of new york.
At first, Jin Songjun was often uneasy about this foreplay entertainment.
However, he soon discovered that this kind of "arranged" mutual assistance is a common local atmosphere, and Korean immigrants from various cities generally spontaneously form close communities.
Most Koreans who immigrated during this period were holding the American dream.
Koreans’ longing for the United States can be traced.
In 1945, with the help of the United States, South Korea was liberated from Japanese colonialism for 35 years, but the American troops stationed in South Korea did not leave with the end of the war.
In the decades after the Cold War and the pro-American regime in South Korea, the American troops stationed in the country played the role of a propaganda media under the social background at that time, which greatly influenced the economy and culture of South Korea and shaped a colorful "American dream" in the hearts of South Koreans.
In fact, Korean immigrants in the 1980s generally felt regret.
They were severely hit by the background of the times.
"Although most Koreans have received university education, they often cannot find jobs commensurate with their education level due to language barriers and other issues." A professor at Queen’s College in new york said.
They followed the land of freedom and wealth in their minds, and when they really arrived, they found that what was waiting for them was the old and solidified class and the private property that had already been carved up.
According to the survey, nearly 60% of the second batch of Korean immigrants have received higher education, but they face more severe entrepreneurial difficulties than the first batch.
Looking back on his parents’ choices, Ron said that if they waited for the rising South Korea in the 1990s, they might not choose to emigrate.
Just 50 years later, a new generation of immigrants in South Korea have different purposes.
Tom, a Korean student, whose parents are businessmen in South Korea, intends to finish his graduate school and work and settle down in one stop, and then meet his parents who came to Britain later and never return to South Korea.
But this seemingly smooth-sailing international student exudes a cautious sense of formality everywhere.
Tom is very good at dealing with people. He will prepare greeting cards and gifts for all his roommates at all festivals. On Korean festivals, he will spend the whole day in the kitchen preparing Korean-style food such as rice cake salad, rice cake shredded, fried beef with Korean hot sauce, and knock on the door of his roommates one by one to invite them to the party.
Later, my friends learned that Tom was a victim of bullying in high school.
On the Korean campus, bullying methods are as old and mysterious as Wulin cheats, ranging from verbal abuse to pushing and kicking.
Under high pressure, Tom was obese because of overeating, and was once troubled by depression and dropped out of school.
Studying abroad is the best solution after consulting with his family.
Below a post about studying abroad, a student said why he wanted to leave Korea:
"Because they don’t compare with each other, they don’t just pay attention to appearance, and they won’t be compared by their parents."
Some Korean netizens described the current Korean society in his eyes:"As long as you are hungry, you will be regarded as happy."
The predecessors of the 1980s, "run" out to pursue opportunities; The reasons for the migration of a new generation of Koreans are somewhat bitter.
"Cancer" in Korean society
If there is anything in Korean society that forces people to "have to moisten", bullying must be one.
In South Korea, bullying is like a "cancer" that is difficult to cure.
According to the statistics of the Korean Human Rights Commission, 73% of office workers in Korea have been bullied in the workplace, while nearly 87% of school students have participated in or suffered from bullying on campus.
The Korean drama "Dark Glory" describes the terrible means of bullying in South Korea: sexual assault, beating, heating the curling iron …
What is even more frightening is that the violent plot of Dark Glory is not fabricated out of thin air, but based on the bullying incident that really happened in Cheongju Girls’ Middle School in South Korea in 2006. Real events are more cruel than TV shows.
The military service period left over from the American garrison period is also a high incidence of bullying. This year, a policy to improve military bullying is particularly telling:
In the former conscript barracks in South Korea, the generation size was divided by month. In the latest anti-bullying policy, the seniority in the military camp has changed every six months, so there are only two generational changes during the whole military service.
Others improve bullying: it is forbidden for seniors to bully newcomers.
South Korea improves bullying: prohibiting seniors from becoming seniors.
Although it’s funny, this move did significantly improve the bullying situation in the army.
Bullying is rampant, on the one hand, it stems from the strict hierarchy of seniority in Confucian culture; On the other hand, it is also because the value orientation of Korean society is single.
When everyone is "crossing the wooden bridge with thousands of troops", people who can’t roll can only gain a sense of superiority by suppressing others.
The tense social atmosphere has naturally not just formed in the past two years, but it has become more and more serious in these two years.
Under the influence of the epidemic,South Korea’s employment is difficult and unemployment is fast, which is getting worse.
In April 2020 alone, South Korea lost 1.1 million jobs. In the first half of 2021, the unemployment rate in South Korea reached the highest point in 21 years, and the actual unemployment rate of young people aged 15-29 in the country was as high as a quarter.
But the most fantastic set of data comes from this year.
In November, 2023, South Korea created an extremely bright figure since the unemployment rate was recorded: 2.3%, which is still very good even compared with countries with low unemployment rate.
However, as long as you look at it again, you will find something strange: this group of unemployment rate data includes the employed population over 60 years old, which has increased by 379,000, the largest increase, making up for the decrease in the employed population of other age groups.
In order to find a stable job, many people in South Korea study 16 hours a day just to compete with 200,000 people for more than 4,000 civil service posts.
In 2021,In South Korea, 13,352 people died of suicide, with an average of 36.6 people dying of suicide every day, ranking first among OECD countries.
Leaving a bad place and heading for a good place is the nature of human beings to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages.
As we all know, the fertility rate in South Korea has accelerated since it reached the turning point in 2019. Due to various factors, South Korea has gradually opened up its immigration.
Among many immigration intermediaries, South Korea is a rare immigration destination with low cost, low risk, high speed and no immigration supervision in developed countries.
In 2020, the resident foreign population in Korea is close to 5% of the total population, which is not enough.
The latest plan of the Korean Ministry of Education is to increase the number of overseas students studying in Korea to 300,000 in 2027. At the same time, the threshold for issuing visas to foreigners is also relaxed to "people who live in Korea but are employed by foreign employers to work remotely" and "foreign young people who are interested in Korean culture and want to receive Korean training".
The government’s explanation of this series of policies is "strengthening the introduction of talents". But Koreans who have been fed up for a long time have quit.
Last year, Daegu, South Korea planned to build an Islamic mosque to attract local Pakistani students to worship, which caused strong protests from local people, who repeatedly clashed with construction teams and Pakistani students at the construction site.
In the end, the Supreme Court of South Korea declared the temple legal and sent armed police to expel the protesters by force.
But interestingly, according to many media reports, the fertility rate of those foreigners who immigrated to South Korea is far lower than that in their own countries. There is quite a feeling that oranges are born in Huaibei, but they are oranges.
This statement failed to find data support, but many people were deeply convinced.
The decline in fertility rate and population loss in South Korea is rooted in society itself.
After all, Teacher Zhao Zhongxiang has long said: When the environment is no longer suitable for survival, animals will stop breeding first, followed by great migration.
Reference content:
1. Asia Daily. There are over 2.2 million foreigners living in South Korea, and over 40% in Chinese. https://www.yazhouribao.com/view/20201029135644285.
2. BBC. The Korean American success story. https://www.bbc.com/news/world～us～canada～12888908
3. Zhongxin Jingwei, foreign media: South Korean youth employment fell for 13 months, https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s? id=1785130884240710191&wfr=spider&for=pc
This article comes from WeChat WeChat official account:Phoenix Weekly (ID: Phoenix Weekly), Author: Mo Wang, Editor: Yan Ruyi
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