Barriers to integration
Most North Korean defectors say leaving the Hanawon is the most overwhelming part of their journey to South Korea. For many refugees, it is the moment they realize they are on their own.
Identity crisis
Joo Kyungbae defected from North Korea in 2011.
Kyungbae says it’s important to help North Koreans understand their unique identity in South Korea. Kyungbae believes identity is connected to a positive integration into South Korea.
“North Koreans have South Korean citizenship, but they have an identity crisis. They don’t know where their hometown is – they’re not defectors from North Korea anymore, but they don’t feel like South Koreans,” he says.
Kyungbae’s daughter struggled with her identity in South Korea.
“She almost committed suicide and she went through depression,” says Kyungbae. His son also experienced a similar depression. Kyungbae could understand his children’s struggle. He defected to South Korea by himself and also struggled with his mental health.
Kyungbae felt life in South Korea without his family was meaningless. Although he was a respected solider in North Korea, he worked as a bus boy in a restaurant, because that was the only job he could find. He needed to save enough money and bring his family to South Korea.
“I never wanted to kill myself in North Korea, but in South Korea I wanted to die,” Kyungbae says.
It was difficult for him to save money in South Korea.
The South Korean government invests millions of dollars each year in resettlement programs, subsidies and grants designed especially for North Koreans, but refugees are still struggling to integrate into the South. Settlement workers believe that strong social relationships are linked to steady career paths, socioeconomic status and mental well-being.
“North Korean refugees don’t have close friends from South Korea,” says Jihyun Roh who is the Resettlement Community Manager for the NGO Liberty in North Korea. “It’s hard for them to rely on anyone. They may have health issues, struggle with mental health or miss their family. This makes it hard for them to make friends with South Koreans.”
Factors
Factors hindering North Korean refugees from forming social relationships range from language barriers to experiencing discrimination, because of being North Korean. Government funded resettlement programs do not emphasize building relationships between North and South Koreans. Hanawon curriculum is focused on North Koreans assimilating into South Korean culture, and there is no such equivalent opportunity for South Koreans to learn about North Korea. One-sided assimilation fuels stress for refugees who feel they must speak with a perfect South Korean accent before engaging with South Koreans.
Although we are the same people and same country there are many differences between us, so it was really stressful. I thought that I was very stupid or not smart. I wanted to hide. I didn’t want to come out of the house.
I didn’t want to make a mistake or fail. I was very stressed and worried. This stress came from a desire to build relationships with others. It was very difficult, because I wanted to be perfect.
Language barriers
North Korean refugees frequently cite their accent as the first barrier towards building meaningful relationships with South Korean people. The North Korean accent is more direct than the South Korean accent. It immediately identifies them as non-South Korean and can be a source of embarrassment.“South Korean people tend to talk very indirectly. Sometimes the way North Korean people talk can sound intense and can cause some misunderstandings,” says Roh.
Beyond accent, seven decades of separation has left the two Koreas with an entirely different bank of vocabulary. Because of North Korea’s ban on western media, the North Korean dialect is devoid of English words.
“Although it’s the same Korean – they are not familiar with a lot of loan words from English like upgrade, ATM and handi-phone,” says Roh. “English gives them a lot of headaches. People who want to pursue their education need a good English score,” says Roh.
Marius Grinius travelled to North Korea several times as the Canadian Ambassador to North and South Korea.“My interpreter brought a North South Korean dictionary with her. There are just different words in South Korea,” says Grinius.
A school staff celebrates a “hweshik” faculty outing to the mountains. Faculty outings in Korea are scheduled each month and usually involve dinner and drinking. [Photo © Ash Abraham]
Pace of life in South Korea
For North Koreans who do stay on the university route, the journey doesn’t end with graduation. After university they will enter one of the most competitive markets in the world. The fierce competition to work in companies like Samsung, LG and Hyundai, breeds a culture of chronic business that North Korean refugees claim is difficult to navigate.
Maintaining employment is not only important for refugees financially, but also for their social integration into South Korea. Workplace friends are common in South Korea with monthly hweshick (work dinner parties) bonding coworkers together over drinks and noraebang (singing rooms). Older North Korean refugees who do not go back to school are relegated to service and janitorial jobs, subsequently creating a low-economic class of North Koreans.
“Usually middle-aged North Korea women take job training classes to be a caretaker or a nursing assistant. They also work as cleaners in hotels,” says Roh. “There’s lot of support from the government, but it’s hard for older North Koreans who are not familiar with online research to piece it all together. And if they aren’t well connected with their Hana Center or social worker then they might miss out on new benefits.”
Busan, South Korea. Most North Korean defectors have never used a subway or lived in a big city. The fast-pace of South Korean cities like Seoul and Busan can be overwhelming for North Koreans when they first move to the South. [Photo © Ash Abraham]
For South Koreans, attending university is not only viewed an investment in one’s future, it is viewed as the ultimate marker of success. Graduating from a “SKY” university, an acronym for Seoul National University, Korea University and Yonsei University, can determine a student’s career path and even their marriage prospects.
South Koreans put an extraordinary amount of pressure on themselves to succeed in school so that they can compete for entrance to a prestigious university. English is a component of university and college admission examinations, and poses an additional burden for most North Korean refugees who have limited English language training. South Korean children grow up learning English in school and in after school academies.
Parents are so keen on teaching their children English that often mothers will move with their children to English speaking countries while the father stays in South Korea. This is so common, there is a term for the father of these families: giroegi appa (goose dad), because the father must fly or migrate to see his family. North Koreans learn a basic level of English in high school, and Pyongyang elites may attend universities like Kim Il-Sung University where English is taught. But it is uncommon for North Koreans to come with South Korea having known a great deal of English.
Attending university in South Korea is difficult without a high mark on the university entrance exam. Without a university education North Koreans may be seen as “second-class citizens” and cut off from whole pockets of South Korean society.
Solace in community
Kyungbae eventually found solace in a church community. He drew comfort from a verse from the Gospel of Matthew: Seek first the kingdom…and everything will be added upon you.
“That helped me grow out of my pain and I felt reborn,” he says.
With renewed focus, Kyungbae saved enough money to fund his family’s escape from North Korea.
Now, he works as North Korean activist. He organizes events to send contraband to North Korea, and to inspire more people to defect and fully participate in South Korean life.
Pre-conceived notions
Eunice Jeong grew up in South Korea.“When I was young, we called North Koreans Reds. Communists. They were bad,” she says. She had never met a person from North Korea until she was nearly 40 years old. Her perceptions of North Korea changed significantly after she became friends with North Korean women.
Not all South Koreans share Jeong’s warm feelings towards North Koreans. Dong-Joong Jo is a researcher at Seoul National University’s Institute for Peace and Reunification Studies. He organizes an annual Unification Perceptions Survey. The 2018 survey found that South Korean’s perceptions of North Koreans has deteriorated significantly since 2014.“South Koreans tend to view North Koreans in terms of competition,” says Jo. “The percentage of South Koreans that want to provide more assistance to North Korean defectors has decreased.” The survey also found a decrease in South Koreans who want to accept more refugees from North Korea.“In South Korea there’s an extraordinary social and even family pressures to succeed,” says Tim Peters, founder of Helping Hands, an organization that rescues North Korean defectors from China. “I think the average young Korean sees North Korean defectors in terms of higher taxes and more competition for jobs. North Koreans get free education and they don’t. And so this breeds discontentment, resentment and a sense of insensitivity.”
Peters has lived in South Korea on and off since the 1970s. He remembers a time when South Korean political rhetoric was predominately anti-North Korea, and thinks these sentiments are ingrained in the psyche of some South Koreans today.“From the 70s up to the election of Kim Dae Yoon, North Korea was demonized for political reasons,” says Peters. “The public consumption of anti-North Korean rhetoric was a regular drumbeat. There was a kind of knee jerk anti-North Korean political distrust to the extreme of having some people say we shouldn’t send food, because the kids will grow up and carry rifles and attack us.”
How South Koreans perceive North Korea can have a direct effect on refugees’ overall integration. A study published by The Social Science and Medicine Journal found a correlation between social adaptation, depression and perceived discrimination. The report surveyed 261 North Korean refugees and found an increase in depressive symptoms among refugees who felt discriminated against by South Koreans. The report states: “The perception of how a refugee is treated by members of the host society plays an important role in the individual’s process of adaptation, which has implications for mental health.
The Hana Center 2017 Settlement Survey of North Koreans Living in South Korea found 75 per cent of North Koreans cited “different communication and culture for North Korean refugees” as a reason for experiencing discrimination from South Koreans. Forty-one per cent cited: “Negative perceptions toward North Korean refugees,” and 25 per cent answered: a “Lack of professional knowledge and skills compared to South Korean.”
North Korean refugees arrive to South Korea with an alarming rate of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. Discrimination exacerbates the mental health issues that North Korean refugees have already likely developed in transit countries like China due to trafficking, fear of repatriation and lack of identification papers.
In a study which is the first of its kind, psychologists from South Korea found that suicidal thoughts are higher among North Korean refugees than the general South Korean population. A study on Agoraphobia, the fear of leaving one’s house, is most strongly associated with suicidal ideation in North Koreans.“Psychological challenges are the biggest,” says Roh. “Some feel guilty about leaving their family and they can’t sleep. They try to save money and send it back to their family in North Korea. So they work and go to school and can get exhausted doing so many things at once.”