In a survey of 1,000 adult Koreans conducted by a local pollster early this year, less than a third of the respondents would like to have been born again in the same country.
This response may be seen as reflecting the increasing dissatisfaction and distress many Koreans have with life in the nation, which seems to have been seized by political paralysis, economic sluggishness and social conflict. A series of disasters and the inability of the government to cope with them have deepened their skepticism.
In a trend seen to be related to this skeptical attitude, the number of people who abandoned Korean nationality has surpassed that of naturalized Koreans in recent years. Nearly 20,000 persons gave up Korean nationality last year, compared with 14,200 foreigners who obtained Korean citizenship.
In a related phenomenon, the number of Koreans who were issued U.S. work visas rose from 3,356 in 2010 to 5,945 last year, according to figures from the U.S. State Department.
Emigrating has become an attractive alternative particularly for young Koreans who have difficulties finding jobs and see little hope for their life in a highly competitive society that lacks an adequate social safety net and public safety system.
They create many online communities to exchange information on emigration to certain countries and encourage each other to leave the country for a new life abroad. Some youths have set aside a large chunk of their salaries to raise money needed to move abroad.
Even highly-educated Koreans with well-paid jobs want to emigrate ― preferably to Scandinavia, where they believe they could lead a leisurely and safe life with their children.
It is sad to see a growing number of young Koreans leaving the country with a sense of frustration and distress. This phenomenon is all the more worrisome for a nation with the world’s fastest-aging population and lowest birthrate, which threaten to undermine its growth potential.
A U.S. online site on investment recommends retirement migration to Korea, which it says is modern, technology-driven, equipped with inexpensive public transport, has its own delights and respects the elderly. It may be added to the list of its conveniences that Korea is perhaps the only place in the world where almost everything can be delivered to the doorstep, and where some snack foods can be found 24 hours a day.
This recommendation can hardly be expected to serve to make our youth view their circumstances any more positively. The practice of 24/7 delivery may simply remind them of their poor working conditions.
Korean society is now required to seriously consider how to make its young members confident of their future and to get them to assume a leading role in making the changes needed to advance it.
Politicians should work out measures to help ease young people’s hardships and translate their voices into policy. It may serve this purpose to lower the voting age from the current 20 to 19 as many other advanced nations have done.
The political activism of young voters would replace the old paradigm of Korean politics set along ideological and regional fault lines with one focused on practical matters related to everyday life.
Efforts to put young voices into the political process are essential to keep Korean society vibrant and forward-looking and avoid being held back by vested interests resistant to changes.
It is also necessary to strengthen support for youths seeking to start their own businesses at home and abroad. Successful cases of venture start-ups launched by young entrepreneurs would help our new generation become more confident and positive. Young Koreans should be encouraged to venture abroad to find more opportunities rather than dream of migrating to a foreign country for what they hope will be a peaceful and leisurely life.
The need to make our youth pull out of their skeptical attitude may be related to the more fundamental issue of what our country should eventually look like.
Korea has made remarkable accomplishments since its independence from Japan’s colonial rule in 1945, shifting from an aid recipient to a donor state. But the fact that a growing number of its young people want to leave the country reminds us Korea has a long way yet to go to become a “good nation.”
What is needed to achieve this goal may be a will to contribute to making the world, as well as our own nation, safer, more just and affluent. It should be recognized that, in the increasingly borderless era, some domestic problems can be resolved or prevented more efficiently when perceived and approached in an international context.
With a liberal and inclusive global outlook, Koreans need to try to enhance their country’s reputation in the international community. Building a nation that commands respect from people around the world may be our ultimate task beyond achieving an industrialized democracy on the ruins of the 1950-53 Korean War. Then, Koreans would find themselves in a more favorable atmosphere when they either start up a business or move abroad.
In the survey of adult Koreans, more than half of them said the world was suffering from so many problems that they did not wish to be born again in Korea or any other place. It is to be hoped that this pessimistic attitude will be replaced by firm desire to help change the world for the better.
Kim Kyung-ho is an editorial writer for The Korea Herald. He can be contacted at khkim@heraldcorp.com ― Ed.
