60thAnni Wongok explores ethnic diversity
By Park Si-soo
ANSAN, Gyeonggi Province — An unprecedented “experiment” that is testing the country’s readiness for a demographic shift into ethnic diversity is underway in Wongok, a residential town in the industrial city of Ansan, 40 kilometers southwest of Seoul.
Policymakers, scholars and activists have rushed to the tranquil hamlet to preview what ethnically diverse Korean society will look like.
A variety of studies and research has been conducted at the “borderless village,” to find ways of making a smooth transition in a society where racism, xenophobia and discrimination against immigrants still persist.
Wongok is the country’s largest foreign resident population center, where more than 10,500 people from 64 countries around the world live. More than half of its entire population is made up of immigrants — Chinese at nearly 70 percent, followed by Vietnamese, Filipino and Indonesian.
Ansan City, which governs Wongok, is also well known for the ethnic diversity of its population — 35,258 non-Korean lived in the industrial city as of June.
The foreign population in Wongok continues to increase, statistics show, thanks largely to its location close to a major industrial complex on the west coast, a major employer of immigrants here.
Wongok was designated as a “special zone” in May last year by the government, the first area in the country protected for its ethnic diversity.
Wongok at a glance
The diversity has spawned unique street scenes, one of which is merchants speaking at least two or three languages to attract consumers and to negotiate with them. One butcher is said to speak as many as 15 languages.
Many restaurants here have menus written in at least two or three languages — Chinese is virtually regarded as another official language with Korean.
It was a sunny afternoon when The Korea Times visited Wongok. Like other Korean-dominated districts on weekdays, its main street was quiet and only a handful of housewives were spotted on the road. Some women, seemingly Chinese, were sitting in a beauty salon having their hair waved.
One eye-catching scene at the salon was its sign, which promoted its name in three languages — English, Chinese and Korean.
At the same time, two chubby women walked past talking in Russian.
A group of school-aged children looking at the high-end iphone4 on display in a cell phone store next to the hair salon were seemingly from Southeast Asia.
“Nearly 70 percent of my clients are Chinese,” said Woo Sang-rok, an ethnic Korean from China who has run the beauty salon for three years. “Favorite hair styles vary by country of origin. That’s why the vast majority of my clients are Chinese and ethnic Koreans from China.”
Food up-for-grabs here was as diverse as the ethnic makeup of the town. Dozens of restaurants decorated to the project uniqueness of their own nations lined the main street, aptly named “A street attractive to walkers.”
“I came here to buy skewered meat grilled in Uzbekistan fashion, which my pregnant wife is eager to taste,” said an Uzbek, who took one-and-a-half hours to get to Wongok by subway from Seoul. A Mongolian said traditional Mongolian food here tastes the same as that back in his home country, catering to all eaters suffering from homesickness.
Changes
Kwon Joong-yup has run a “phone room” here for five years, but with most foreign residents here now having a mobile phone, the popularity of his business, which Kwon said was once one of the most sought-after “entertainment facilities” in this village, has fallen. Immigrants relieved their daily stress from work through chatting with family, lovers or friends in their home country on the phone.
“The heyday went two or three years ago. Before that this room was packed with immigrants at night,” Kwon said. Among 18 phones installed, only two were taken at the time of the interview.
“My declining business means a lot,” Kwon said. “First, this indicates a growing number of immigrants here have built up enough wealth to cover mobile fees, which are far more expensive than fixed lines.”
He said they might have had nothing but their body during their first years in Korea, but now a growing number of them own house and even business.
“Some of them clearly show their wish to join mainstream society, which only a handful of selected elite foreigners used to be allowed into,” he said.
Such endeavors used to materialize in the form of moving to a town where foreigners are less concentrated, experts said.
Jun Jae-goo, director of the Migrant Community Services Center in Ansan, said wealthy foreign residents in Wongok began to move to towns in its vicinity.
“Due to visible and invisible discrimination persistent outside Wongok, they are still afraid of moving to a town remote from here,” Jun said. “One thing clear is that they are widening their space for residency gradually.”
Backlash
Their “dauntless” attempts to become a major part of society are not always welcomed.
Many immigrants have fallen prey to various forms of discrimination in Korea, largely based on their skin color or countries of origin. Most victims were from countries with weaker economic power than Korea. Some crimes committed by immigrants have frequently been exaggerated in cyberspace by xenophobic Koreans, labeling them as a culprit behind crimes against locals.
Recently, an anti-foreigner website was created on a portal and is poised to launch a cyber campaign fueling anti-foreigner sentiment among Koreans. Its members recently bombarded messages critical of the unfolding multi-ethnic trend on a government website, which were deleted because of their defamatory language.
State bodies are stepping up efforts to revamp policies to treat foreigners the same as locals and also unveiling a series of measures meant to enhance their human rights protection. But many pro-immigrant activists are still doubtful of the effectiveness of such tools in the real world.
“People’s minds should be changed first,” Jun said. “As long as they stick to the idea that immigrants are a constant source of crime and social instability, making South Korea a country with a harmonious ethnic mixture will be a pipedream.”