Janice Kim(Kim Jae Eun)

Kim 1

Janice Kim(Kim Jae Eun)

9 March 2015

Globalization in South Korea

Throughout history, South Korea has dramatically developed, and globalization is one of the huge factors in South Korea’s growth and economic success. Modern days, South Korea is leading many industries, including IT technology, automobile, and music entertainment. In fact, Samsung, to produce 3D televisions, announced collaboration plans with Dreamworks Animation in US last year. However, while Korean companies succeeded greatly, globalization in its domestic market is not fully achieved yet. There still exists a passive view that international competition is likely to damage the local businesses. Moreover, some believe that Korean companies lack abilities to meet global standards. On the contrary, such biased perception should change in order to truly become a globalized country. To achieve it, we must first be aware of how South Korea embraces globalization.

Basically, South Korea’s immigration policies are: Nationality Act, Immigration Control Act, Multicultural Families Support Act, and Framework Act on Treatment of Foreigners. For the Nationality Act, South Korea suggests several specific standards for foreigners to gain Korean nationality. Regarding the immigrants and multicultural families, Korea promotes the multicultural society by attempting to bind all the various cultures into one, and helps the immigrants adapt through various ways, like marriage settle. Also, Korea aims to create a comfortable environment for multicultural children. Politically, it enforces immigration laws for the immigrants and carefully manages the borders to protect national security. For the foreigners and immigrants, there are some helpful services like “Hi Korea (www.hikorea.go.kr or www.g4f.go.kr) and Immigration Contact Center (dial 1345 without an area code) that provide information about Korea for immigrants who need help.

Regarding the asylum and refugees, Korea establishes an effective system for determining refugee status and supporting refugees. For example, Refugee Division of Ministry of Justice (MOJ) recognizes refugees ands supports for settlement. Furthermore, the Foreigner Policy Committee of MOJ coordinates certain policies for the foreigners. Border Control Division provides services that clarify the entry and exit of the country, and controls operations on landing permissions. Moreover, its security management strategies prevent the country from terrorism.

To become a naturalized citizen of South Korea, immigrants should meet the following standards:

1) Must have had a domicile address(permanent residency) in the Republic of Korea for more than five consecutive years.

2) According to Korean civil law, must be a legal adult.

3) Must have good conduct.

4) Must be capable of sustaining a living standard on his or her own potentiality, or be a dependent member of a family that has such abilities.

5) Must have some fundamental knowledge of Korea, such as “Hangul” (Korean language), customs, and culture to demonstrate the ability to assimilate into Korea.

According to the United Nations recommendations on Statistics of International Migration, immigrants are people who leave their country of origin for over one year. Therefore, before enforcing new policies, I agree that Korea should be aware of including current illegal immigrants, foreign workers and their children in this regulation.

For the international policies, Korea pursues to protect the unalienable human rights for all immigrants. To be specific, the Immigration Integration Division of MOJ conveys basic information of life in Korea for foreign residents, and promotes social integration by addressing human rights violation issues against foreigners, increasing the public awareness of multi-culturalism, and cooperating with related government agencies on social integration campaigns.

In addition, Korea’s national plan is to promote world wide democracy, by making Korea as a place where both foreigners and immigrants live together in harmony, without being discriminated. By creating a friendly and receptive environment for foreigners, Korea attempts to prevent social discrimination among foreigners and thus promotes balanced national development. Also, Korea maintains active military presence for national security because South Korea has always been threatened by North Korea since the country divided into two in Korean civil war.

Works cited

Korean government. “Korea Immigration Service”. http://www.immigration.go.kr/HP/IMM80/index.do. Ministry of Justice Republic of Korea. Web. 8 March. 2015.

Ministry of Justice Republic of Korea. “Organization structure”. http://www.moj.go.kr/HP/ENG/eng_03/eng_3100.jsp. 2010. Web. 8 March. 2015.