Accommodating foreign students
Two headlines about Korea recently caught my eye. Time Out named Seoul's Jongno 3-ga the world's coolest neighborhood, and the Financial Times called Seoul the "new Paris" for university students going abroad. Along with many other recent stories praising Korea as a destination for travel, study, culture and business, they reflect the growing global appeal of the country and its capital city.
For decades, many Koreans associated overseas opportunity with the West. Corporate employees coveted postings in the United States and Western Europe. Ambitious young Koreans packed their bags for New York, Boston or Paris to pursue a Western degree, often seen as a ticket to upward mobility back home. Now, Korea is becoming a destination in its own right. According to government statistics, the total number of visitors to Korea reached 18.9 million last year, a record high. Walk through Jongno 3-ga, Seongsu or Hongdae, and you may hear as many foreign voices as Korean ones.
This shift is very clear on campuses throughout Korea. As the Financial Times reported, Seoul is increasingly attracting students who might once have looked primarily to London, Paris or New York. There were about 22,500 foreign students in Korea in 2005. Two decades later, there are about 300,000. Given Korea's rising cultural appeal, living costs lower than those in many Western capitals and reputation for safety and convenience, this growing interest is understandable. It is tempting to celebrate. But attracting students is one thing. Welcoming them into society is quite another.
For foreign students, especially those hoping to build a life in Korea, the difficulties often begin after admission. Korean universities are eager to recruit them, but the support available once they arrive does not always match that enthusiasm. I have heard foreign students describe how delays in residence documents and work permissions disrupt financial support and internship opportunities. What looks like routine paperwork to an institution can determine whether a student receives money needed for rent or can accept a chance to gain professional experience.
The uncertainty becomes more consequential as graduation approaches. Korea encourages international students to contribute to its future, yet many struggle to turn a Korean degree into a job and a realistic chance to remain. In a survey last year by KBIZ-Korea Federation of SMEs, two-thirds of international students said obtaining a work visa after graduation was a major hurdle. After years of study, many still find it difficult to imagine what their next few years in the country could look like. The same survey found about 9 out of 10 students hope to stay and work in Korea after completing their studies.
There is also a media dimension to this story. For many students, dramas, idols and carefully curated social media feeds provide their first introduction to Korea. The Korea on screen is glamorous, safe and endlessly photogenic. The Korea of immigration offices, rental contracts and job applications is far less so. When the gap between the two grows too wide, disappointment follows, and it travels through the same platforms that made Korea attractive in the first place.
Beyond the practical hurdles lies the quieter problem of social isolation. I have seen foreign students remain largely within their own international circles, sharing classrooms with Korean students without developing meaningful relationships with them. Language barriers, established friendship groups and limited opportunities for sustained interaction all contribute.
Exclusion does not always involve deliberate rejection. It can also emerge from indifference and from the assumption that newcomers alone must adapt. When local connections prove difficult, foreign students understandably turn to one another for companionship and support. Learning Korean and taking part in local life matter, and that responsibility lies partly with the students themselves. But recruiting a diverse student body brings a corresponding responsibility for the institutions that recruit them.
Universities can create regular opportunities for Korean and international students to work together, not merely sit side by side. And the path from study to work should be predictable enough that a student can plan a future rather than wait on one.
Part of Paris's appeal has come from people who arrived from elsewhere, stayed, worked, wrote, argued in its cafes and made the city their own. Seoul, too, can be enriched by those it attracts. Students who return home after a rewarding education are also a measure of success. But a true global destination should look beyond how many foreign students arrive and ask whether those who wish to stay can build a future there.
Min Seong-jae (smin@pace.edu) is a professor of communication and media studies at Pace University in New York.