Ant-Korean-Chinese sentiment grows
By Kim Rahn
More and more Koreans are showing their anger toward migrant workers, especially Chinese with Korean roots, following the gruesome murder of a 28-year-old woman by a Korean-Chinese man.
Some have called on the government to deport all migrant workers, citing the climbing number of crimes committed by them.
Crime experts say the nation has to take measures to tackle the growing number of crimes which might stoke anti-foreign sentiment among Koreans. In particular, they express concerns about cases involving Korean-Chinese workers.
Police arrested Wu Yuanchun, 42, on charges of abducting, raping and killing a 28-year-old woman on April 1. The case shocked the nation not only because of the police’s poor handling of it but also because of the brutal nature of his crime ― he chopped the victim’s body into 280 pieces at his home in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, to dispose of it.
Another killing took place in Yeongdeungpo, Seoul on April 6. A 37-year-old Korean-Chinese, surnamed Lee, stabbed the head of a job placement agency to death.
He visited the agency to protest that his company, which the agent introduced him to, only paid half of his wages. The victim was immediately transferred to a hospital but died. Lee fled and police are searching for him.
According to the National Police Agency, the number of crimes committed by foreign residents has almost doubled in four years to 26,915 in 2011 from 14,524 in 2004. Felonies increased significantly, with cases of violence rising to 7,830 from 3,369, rape to 308 from 176, and murder to 103 from 54.
Crimes by Chinese accounted for more than half of the total cases, and most of them were committed by Korean-Chinese who account for 70 percent of the Chinese people here.
The overall surge partly resulted from the rising number of immigrants. The discrimination and contempt they suffer from Koreans have played a certain role in triggering their criminal acts, experts say.
“Korean-Chinese are not able to enjoy social welfare and security and they are not well aware of Korea’s social systems. When they have difficulties or disputes with Koreans, there are not many ways to help them solve their problems,” said pastor Kim Hae-sung who helps migrant workers.
Anti-Korean-Chinese sentiment
The Suwon murder case has increased the number of tweets and microblog messages denouncing foreign workers, especially the Korean-Chinese.
Social Metrics, a research agency, analyzed 35 million tweets from April 1 through 9 and found negative tweets about Korean-Chinese hiked since April 5 when the media began to cover the homicide case extensively ― there were 1,786 tweets on the day, compared with only 67 the previous day.
“If you treat Korean-Chinese as Koreans, you can experience being stabbed in the back or being chopped into pieces by them. Not every Korean-Chinese does such a thing? Korean-Chinese are people who stab people with knives that they usually carry if you denounce them,” a blogger named “haku” said.
Experts say it is not right to regard an individual’s crime as the whole ethnic group’s problem.
“Statistics show the crimes by Korean-Chinese take a mere 0.5 percent of all crimes taking place in Korea. It is irresponsible to denounce them as a whole, and such an approach doesn’t help solve the problem,” said Oh Chang-ik, director of the Citizens’ Solidarity for Human Rights.