If Korea is going to solve this, it has to actively embrace immigration and make it work in practice: language support, fair pathways to residency and citizenship, real anti-discrimination enforcement, and practical help for mixed families.
Also, I’m reading a book titled 한국인의 마음 속엔 우리가 있다 (roughly, “There Is ‘We’ in the Korean Mind”). It argues that the “single-ethnicity nation” idea is newer than many people think. Historians note it was strongly emphasized during the Japanese colonial era, as both colonial policy and Korean nationalism leaned into ethnic unity. Long before that, people on the peninsula intermarried with neighbors from China, Japan, Mongolia, and elsewhere. In other words, diversity here isn’t new.
- Thank you so much for your always genuine, sincere writings on Korea!
Reposting the comment I left on my own thread in reply to yours:
https://yoonjiwon.substack.com/p/is-south-korea-going-extinct
Totally hear you.
If Korea is going to solve this, it has to actively embrace immigration and make it work in practice: language support, fair pathways to residency and citizenship, real anti-discrimination enforcement, and practical help for mixed families.
Also, I’m reading a book titled 한국인의 마음 속엔 우리가 있다 (roughly, “There Is ‘We’ in the Korean Mind”). It argues that the “single-ethnicity nation” idea is newer than many people think. Historians note it was strongly emphasized during the Japanese colonial era, as both colonial policy and Korean nationalism leaned into ethnic unity. Long before that, people on the peninsula intermarried with neighbors from China, Japan, Mongolia, and elsewhere. In other words, diversity here isn’t new.
- Thank you so much for your always genuine, sincere writings on Korea!
Thank you so much!!