Korean diaspora: Difference between revisions

Template:Koreanname The terms gyopo or dongpo in Korean refers to persons of Korean ethnic descent who have lived the majority of their lives outside Korea. It can also mean simply any Korean who lives outside Korea.^[1]

Large-scale emigration from Korea began as early as the mid-1860s, mainly into the Russian Far East and Northeast China; these emigrants became the ancestors of the 2 million ethnic Koreans in China and several hundred thousand ethnic Koreans in Central Asia.^[2][3]

During the Japanese colonial period of 1910-1945, Koreans were often recruited or forced into labour service to work in mainland Japan, Karafuto Prefecture, and Manchukuo, especially in the 1930s and early 1940s; the ones who chose to remain in Japan at the end of the war became known as Zainichi Koreans, while the roughly 40 thousand who were trapped in Karafuto after the Soviet invasion are typically referred to as Sakhalin Koreans.^[4][5] According to the statistics at Immigration Bureau of Japan, there were 901,284 Koreans resident in Japan as of 2005, of which 515,570 were permanent residents, and another 284,840 were naturalized citizens.^[6][7] Koreans amount to 40.4% of the non-Japanese population of the country. Three-quarters of the Koreans living in Japan are Japanese-born, and most are legal aliens.^{[citation needed]}

Aside from migration within the Empire of Japan or its puppet state of Manchukuo, some Koreans also escaped Japanese-ruled territory entirely, heading to Shanghai, a major centre of the Korean independence movement, or to the already-established Korean communities of the Russian Far East. However, the latter would find themselves deported to Central Asia in 1938.^{[citation needed]}

After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, Ethnic Koreans in China (Chaoxianzu) became one of the officially recognised as one of the 56 ethnic groups of the country. They are considered to be one of the "major minorities". Their population grew to about 2 million ethnic Koreans in China; they stayed mostly in northeastern China, where their ancestors had initially settled. Their largest population was concentrated in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in Jilin Province, where they numbered 854,000 in 1997.^[3][8]

Korean emigration to America was known to have begun as early as 1903, but the Korean American community did not grow to a significant size until after the passage of the Immigration Reform Act of 1965;^{[citation needed]} now, roughly 1.4 million Koreans live in the United States.^[9] More than 2 million ethnic Koreans live in the U.S., mostly in metropolitan areas. A handful are descended from laborers who migrated to Hawaii in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A significant number are descended from orphans of the Korean War, in which the U.S. was a major ally of South Korea. Thousands were adopted by American (mostly white) families in the years following the war, when their plight was covered on television. The vast majority, however, immigrated or are descended from those who immigrated after the Hart-Cellar Act of 1965 abolished national immigration quotas.

Europe and Latin America were also minor destinations for post-war Korean emigration. The largest Korean community in Europe is in Germany, but the largest European Koreatown is in London.^{[citation needed]} Korean immigration to Latin America was documented as early as the 1950s; North Korean prisoners of war migrated to Chile in 1953 and Argentina in 1956 under the auspices of the Red Cross. However, the majority of Korean settlement occurred in the late 1960s; as the South Korean economy continued to expand in the 1980s, investors from South Korea came to Latin America and established small businesses in the textiles industry.^[10] Brazil has Latin America's larget Koreatown; there are also Koreatowns in countries such as Argentina, Guatemala. Mexico City's Korean population is estimated to be around 30,000.^{[citation needed]} In the 1970s, though, Japan and the United States remained the top two destinations for South Korean emigrants, with each receiving more than a quarter of all emigration; the Middle East became the third most popular destination, with more than 800,000 Koreans going to Saudi Arabia between 1975 and 1985, and another 26,000 Koreans going to Iran. In contrast, aside from Germany (1.7% of all South Korean emigration in 1977) and Paraguay (1.0%), no European or Latin American destinations were even in the top ten for emigrants.^[11]

Emigration to America became less attractive as a result of the Rodney King riots, during which many Korean American immigrants saw their businesses destroyed by looters; South Korean media reports on the riots increased public consciousness of the long working hours and harsh conditions faced by immigrants to the United States.^[12] Instead, the development of the South Korean economy, the focus of emigration from Korea began to shift from developed nations towards developing nations. With the 1992 normalisation of diplomatic relations between China and South Korea, many citizens of South Korea started to settle instead in China, attracted by business opportunities generated by the reform and opening up of China and the low cost of living. Large new communities of South Koreans have formed in Beijing, Shanghai, and Qingdao; as of 2006, their population is estimated to be between 300,000 and 400,000.^[13] There is also a small community of Koreans in Hong Kong, mostly expatriate businessmen and their families; according to Hong Kong's 2001 census, they numbered roughly 5,200, making them the 12th-largest ethnic minority group.^[14] Southeast Asia has also seen an influx of South Koreans. Koreans in Vietnam have grown in number around 30,000 since the 1992 normalisation of diplomatic relations, making them Vietnam's second-largest foreign community after the Taiwanese.^[15] Korean migration to the Philippines has also increased due to the tropical climate and low cost of living compared to South Korea; 370,000 Koreans visited the country in 2004, and roughly 46,000 Korean expatriates live there permanently.^[16]

Koreans born or settled overseas have been migrating back to both North and South Korea ever since the restoration of Korean independence; perhaps the most famous example is Kim Jong-Il, born in Vyatskoye, Khabarovsk Krai, where his father Kim Il-sung had been serving in the Red Army.^[17][18] The largest-scale repatriation activities took place in Japan, where Chongryon sponsored the return of Zainichi Korean residents to North Korea; starting from late 1950s and early 1960s, with a trickle of repatriates continuing until as late as 1984, nearly 90,000 Zainichi Koreans resettled in the reclusive communist state, though their ancestral homes were in the South. However, word of the difficult economic and political conditions filtered back to Japan, decreasing the popularity of this option. Around one hundred such repatriatess are believed to have later escaped from North Korea; the most famous is Kang Chol-Hwan, who published a book about his experience, The Aquariums of Pyongyang.^[19][20] South Korea, however, was a popular destination for Koreans who had settled in Manchukuo during the colonial period; returnees from Manchukuo such as Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan had a large influence on the process of nation-building in South Korea.^[21]

Roughly 1,000 Sakhalin Koreans are also estimated to have independently repatriated to the North in the decades after the end of World War II, when returning to their ancestral homes in the South was not an option due to the lack of Soviet relations with the South and Japan's refusal to grant them transit rights. In 1985, Japan began to fund the return of Sakhalin Koreans to South Korea; however, only an additional 1,500 took this offer, with the vast majority of the population remaining on Sakhalin or moving to the Russian Far East instead.^[22]

With the rise of the South Korean economy in the 1980s, economic motivations became increasingly prevalent in overseas Koreans' decisions of whether to repatriate and in which part of the peninsula to settle. 356,790 Chinese citizens have migrated to South Korea since the reform and opening up of China; almost two-thirds are estimated to be Chaoxianzu.^[23] Similarly, some Koryo-saram from Central Asia have also moved to South Korea as guest workers, to take advantage of the high wages offered by the growing economy; remittances from South Korea to Uzbekistan, for example, were estimated to exceed USD100 million in 2005.^[24] Return migration through arranged marriage is another option, portrayed in the 2005 South Korean film Wedding Campaign, directed by Hwang Byung-kook.^[25] However, the Koryo-saram often face the most difficulty integrating into Korean society due to their poor command of the Korean language and the fact that their dialect, Koryo-mar, differs significantly from the Seoul dialect considered standard in the South.^[24]

Until recently, return migration from the West has been much less common than that from Japan or the former Soviet Union, as the economic push factor was far less than in 1960s Japan or post-Soviet collapse Central Asia. However, an increasing number of aspiring Korean Americans singers and actors, frustrated by their inability to break through stereotypes in Hollywood, choose instead to go to South Korea through talent and modelling agencies; prominent examples include singer Brian Joo (of R&B duo Fly to the Sky) and actor Daniel Henney (who initially spoke no Korean).^{[26][27] [28]}

Continent / Country	Articles related Korean population	Overseas Korean Population	Year	% of local population	% of Global Overseas Korean population
Asia		NA	NA	NA	NA
China	Koreans_in_China	2,043,578	NA	NA%	NA%
Hong Kong	Koreans_in_Hong_Kong	5,200	NA	NA%	NA%
Indonesia	Koreans_in_Indonesia	23,205	NA	NA%	NA%
Iran	Koreans_in_Iran	540	NA	NA%	NA% [29]
Japan	Zainichi Koreans	901,284	NA	NA%	NA%
Kazakhstan	Koryo-saram	105,000	NA	NA%	NA% [30]
Kyrgyzstan	Koryo-saram	19,000	NA	NA%	NA% [30]
Malaysia	Koreans in Malaysia	5,000	2006	NA%	NA%
Philippines	Koreans in the Philippines	92,608	2007	NA%	NA%
Russia	Sakhalin_Koreans	125,000	NA	NA%	NA% [30]
Singapore	Koreans_in_Singapore	8,000	2006	NA%	NA%
Taiwan	Koreans_in_Taiwan	3,454	NA	NA%	NA%
Tajikistan	Koryo-saram	6,000	NA	NA%	NA% [30]
Thailand	NA	19,500	NA	NA%	NA%
Turkmenistan	Koryo-saram	3,000	NA	NA%	NA% [30]
Ukraine	Koryo-saram	12,000	NA	NA%	NA% [30]
Uzbekistan	Koryo-saram	198,000	NA	NA%	NA% [30]
Vietnam	Korean_people_in_Vietnam	33,000	2006	NA%	NA%
Americas		NA	NA	NA	NA
Argentina	Asian Argentine	35,000	NA	NA%	NA%
Brazil	Asian_Brazilian	250,000	NA	NA%	NA%
Canada	Koreatown,_Toronto	110,000	NA	NA%	NA%
Dominican Republic	Asian_Latin_American	500	NA	NA%	NA%
Chile	NA	NA	NA	NA%	NA%
Guatemala	NA	49,000	NA	NA%	NA%
Mexico	NA	14,571	NA	NA%	NA%
United States	Korean American	2,057,546	2005	0.5%	NA% [9]
Europe		NA	NA	NA	NA
France	NA	13,162	NA	NA%	NA%
Germany	NA	34,000	NA	NA%	NA%
United Kingdom	NA	40,810	NA	NA%	NA%
Oceania		NA	NA	NA	NA
Australia	Korean_Australian	150,000	NA	NA%	NA%
New Zealand	NA	31,500	NA	NA%	NA%
Middle East		NA	NA	NA%	NA%
Kuwait	Koreans_in_the_Arab_world	5,000	NA	NA%	NA% [31]
Qatar	Koreans_in_the_Arab_world	1,800	NA	NA%	NA% [32]
United Arab Emirates	Koreans_in_the_Arab_world	1,600	NA	NA%	NA% [33]
Saudi Arabia	Koreans_in_the_Arab_world	1,200	NA	NA%	NA% [34]
Jordan	Koreans_in_the_Arab_world	290	NA	NA%	NA% [29]
Oman	Koreans_in_the_Arab_world	105	NA	NA%	NA% [29]
Iraq	Koreans_in_the_Arab_world	100	NA	NA%	NA% [35]
Bahrain	Koreans_in_the_Arab_world	99	NA	NA%	NA% [29]
Tunisia	Koreans_in_the_Arab_world	69	NA	NA%	NA% [29]
Algeria	Koreans_in_the_Arab_world	54	NA	NA%	NA% [29]
Yemen	Koreans_in_the_Arab_world	49	NA	NA%	NA% [29]
Syria	Koreans_in_the_Arab_world	34	NA	NA%	NA% [29]
Lebanon	Koreans_in_the_Arab_world	26	NA	NA%	NA% [29]
Mauritania	Koreans_in_the_Arab_world	NA	NA	NA%	NA% [29]
Africa	Koreans_in_Africa	7,900	2005	NA%	NA% [36]
Botswana	Koreans_in_Africa	200	2005	NA%	NA% [36]
Ivory Coast	Koreans_in_Africa	180	2005	NA%	NA% [36]
Egypt	Koreans_in_the_Arab_world	685	NA	NA%	NA% [29]
Ethiopia	Koreans_in_Africa	174	2005	NA%	NA% [36]
Ghana	Koreans_in_Africa	614	2005	NA%	NA% [36]
Kenya	Koreans_in_Africa	726	2005	NA%	NA% [36]
Libya	Koreans_in_Africa	964	2005	NA%	NA% [36]
Morocco	Koreans_in_Africa	310	2005	NA%	NA% [36]
Nigeria	Koreans_in_Africa	800	2005	NA%	NA% [36]
Senegal	Koreans_in_Africa	164	2005	NA%	NA% [36]
South Africa	Koreans_in_Africa	3,452	2005	NA%	NA% [36]
Sudan	Koreans_in_the_Arab_world	86	NA	NA%	NA% [29]
Tanzania	Koreans_in_Africa	238	2005	NA%	NA% [36]
Uganda	Koreans_in_Africa	196	2005	NA%	NA% [36]
Total	--	NA	NA	NA%	NA%

• Korean adoptee
• Koreans
• Overseas Chinese
• Immigration
• Asian Latin American

Template:Ethnic Koreans