Adaptation of Russian-speaking Korean Youth in South Korea (2010-2019)

On the threshold of a new, 21st century, South Korea made a significant transition from migrants-sending to migrants-receiving country. Although different reasons stood behind such transition, the main ones were directly related to the country’s economics: a shortage of low-skilled labor force, an aging population, outcomes of the Asian crisis, etc. At the same time, the question of Overseas Korean Diaspora was also gaining momentum, when the number of ethnic Koreans grew to 5 million in 1995. Korean government was forced to change its relation towards migration and start the implementation of different migration policies, as well as the Diaspora Engagement Policy. In order to cope with the rising issue of foreign migrants (whether just foreigners or co-ethnics) within the country, South Korean government has applied to the multiculturalism policy. Nevertheless, even after 10 years of officially proclaimed multiculturalism, the society of ROK remains extremely closed towards other cultures and denies cultural diversity. This also applies to ethnic Koreans, especially from CIS and Russia. Russian-speaking Koreans, or Koryo-Saram, became to be officially counted as a part of the Overseas Korean Community after the collapse of USSR in 1991. As a sub-ethnic group, that lived outside the peninsula for more than one century, they acquired a unique cultural image and identity pattern, which made them different from other ethnic Koreans in the world, especially from South Koreans. Furthermore, within the Overseas Koreans Act of 1999 (through which Korean government regulates the relationship with co-ethnics), CIS and Russian Koreans were excluded from the beneficial category of overseas Koreans. Only After the Diaspora Engagement Policy was upgraded in 2007-2008, and Russian-speaking Koreans were finally granted with all benefits of the Overseas Korean community, Koryo-Saram’s youth became highly involved into migration processes to South Korea, mainly through student migration. However, they face a lot of difficulties and adaptational problems during their life in monoethnic Korean society. The cultural distance between them and other Koreans becomes obvious and, along with adaptation strategies to which South Korean society applies towards them, leads to the significant changes within the structure of their identity. Within the framework of our research, we are going to review the adaptational problems of Russian-speaking Korean youth in ROK, explain the main reasons for such, and examine the changes within their identity that happen under the influence of these problems.