The Social Status of the Huaqiao in South Korea: Laws, Policy and Society

Abstract

This study investigates the social status of the Huaqiao, the ethnic Chinese community, in Korea from legal, economic and socio-cultural perspectives. To explore the socio-cultural status of the Huaqiao, their education, cultural identity, social recognition and relationships with local people are examined. The main purpose of this study is to clarify and interpret the interrelation between the social status of the Huaqiao, Korean government policies and the responses of mainstream society. For this purpose, the crucial issues regarding Korean government policies and their significant impact on the Huaqiao community are revealed. Also, the prominent culture of the Huaqiao is explored in order to establish a theoretical and empirical interpretation of social status as a discursive frame. The main findings of this study suggest that Korean government policy is important to determine the social status of the Huaqiao. The social status of the Huaqiao is unstable when the government makes discriminatory policies. The major finding of this study is that in the past, when differential exclusion of minorities prevailed in Korean society, the social status of the Huaqiao was highly vulnerable, except for their cultural identity. In the present, their situations, such as legal status, economic activity and educational position have greatly improved under the circumstance that the government’s policy toward foreigners has been forced to reflect the rights of ethnic minorities by a large-scale inflow of new types of foreign groups such as guest workers and international marriage migrants after 1990s. However, the current social status of the Huaqiao still remains unstable largely due to the umbrella of “damunhwa policy” which pursues assimilation. The assimilation is not acceptable approach for the Huaqiao who have maintained their cultural heritages for a long time based on their strong sense of ethnic pride and have different situations from other newly arrived minorities in terms of the historical background of the entry and settlement, demographical scale, historical experiences, and so on. This demonstrates the necessity of special consideration for the Huaqiao with group-differentiated approach based on multiculturalism to enhance their social status. This study investigates the social status of the Huaqiao, the ethnic Chinese community, in Korea from legal, economic and socio-cultural perspectives. To explore the socio-cultural status of the Huaqiao, their education, cultural identity, social recognition and relationships with local people are examined. The main purpose of this study is to clarify and interpret the interrelation between the social status of the Huaqiao, Korean government policies and the responses of mainstream society. For this purpose, the crucial issues regarding Korean government policies and their significant impact on the Huaqiao community are revealed. Also, the prominent culture of the Huaqiao is explored in order to establish a theoretical and empirical interpretation of social status as a discursive frame. The main findings of this study suggest that Korean government policy is important to determine the social status of the Huaqiao. The social status of the Huaqiao is unstable when the government makes discriminatory policies. The major finding of this study is that in the past, when differential exclusion of minorities prevailed in Korean society, the social status of the Huaqiao was highly vulnerable, except for their cultural identity. In the present, their situations, such as legal status, economic activity and educational position have greatly improved under the circumstance that the government’s policy toward foreigners has been forced to reflect the rights of ethnic minorities by a large-scale inflow of new types of foreign groups such as guest workers and international marriage migrants after 1990s. However, the current social status of the Huaqiao still remains unstable largely due to the umbrella of “damunhwa policy” which pursues assimilation. The assimilation is not acceptable approach for the Huaqiao who have maintained their cultural heritages for a long time based on their strong sense of ethnic pride and have different situations from other newly arrived minorities in terms of the historical background of the entry and settlement, demographical scale, historical experiences, and so on. This demonstrates the necessity of special consideration for the Huaqiao with group-differentiated approach based on multiculturalism to enhance their social status.