By Kim Rahn
For Alok Kumar Roy, an Indian-born resident here for nearly three decades, getting a cell phone registered in his own name was a really frustrating experience. Also, was it was not easy for the college professor to get state-sponsored subsidies for his study projects ㅡ he always had to register joint research with a Korean to get his hands on financial support.
Maybe things will be different from now on, as he has recently obtained citizenship ㅡ the 100,000th person to be naturalized in Korea and 54 years since the first naturalization of a Taiwanese citizen in 1957.
“I decided to get Korean citizenship to solve everyday inconveniences I’ve faced as a foreign national. I thought that if I had citizenship, I would be able to play my role and do my work better,” Roy told The Korea Times.
The 56-year-old first came to Korea in 1980 as a scholarship student to study international politics and diplomacy at Seoul National University. He returned home after finishing the course, but came back here in 1987 to marry his Korean girlfriend.
He has taught at Pusan University of Foreign Studies since 1989, and is a member of Busan Daily’s readers’ committee and an advisor to the Busan Development Institute.
Despite the long stay and career here, Roy, like many other foreigners, has suffered from many inconveniences and unequal treatment.
“I had to extend my contract with the school year after year without tenure, which made my job status unstable. With the alien registration, I couldn’t buy a cell phone on my own. I couldn’t do many things without a guarantor,” he said.
Roy said colleagues and friends ㅡ seeing him face such inconvenience ㅡ recommended naturalization, saying that unless the system is changed, it would be better for him to obtain Korean citizenship.
“There were limits when applying for support for a study project as a foreigner. When I wanted to introduce Korean literature to India, for example, I had to perform joint research with a Korean colleague in order to get financial support. While undergoing such complicated and annoying process, projects were delayed, or I sometimes came to lose interest in them,” Roy said.
He also wanted to be equally recognized by Koreans, not wanting advantages or disadvantages given to a foreign national. “I wanted equal recognition, to be recognized as a Korean. That’s one of the reasons for my naturalization.”
Following a revised law on nationality, Roy holds dual citizenship without giving up his Indian one. India technically doesn’t allow dual nationality, but the country doesn’t actively deprive people of their original citizenship, according to justice ministry official Cha Gyu-geun.
The naturalized Korean is waiting for his resident registration card to be issued. Under the Korean name system, his family name will be written first on the card ㅡ Roy Alok Kumar.
He said that despite some discrimination, Korean society has become more open to foreigners, adding that’s what he has worked and will work for.
“Korean society is changing, and as a Korean now, I’d like to do work that will bring change. Spring will come, but there are people who make efforts to usher in the season. I want be one of them,” he said.
According to the ministry, an average of 34 people were naturalized annually until 2000, but the figure sharply rose to 9,816 per year between 2001 and 2010. The increase reflects the influx of foreign spouses amid growing interracial marriage and a revision to the Immigration Law that allows ethnic Korean-Chinese to get citizenship easily.