social, ethnic issues in South Korea that are issues related to how women are treated, religious matters, and issues affecting foreigners that are refugees and immigrants

social, ethnic issues in South Korea that are issues related to how women are treated, religious matters, and issues affecting foreigners that are refugees and immigrants

Social rights are rights such as the right of a person to an adequate standard of living, affordable education, food and housing, satisfactory health services, and security based on respect, not sanctions (Asbjorn, Krause, and Rosas,1995). South Korea is a democratic nation that respects civil and political liberties but established unreasonable restrictions on freedom of speech, association, and assembly. This has led to discrimination in various social groups across the country. These groups include homosexuals, transgender peoples, bisexuals, women, people living with HIV, racial, foreigners such as refugees and migrants (Neary, 2004). This essay is analyzing social, ethnic issues in South Korea that are issues related to how women are treated, religious matters, and issues affecting foreigners that are refugees and immigrants.

Racism is a widespread social problem in South Korea. In the 2000s, there was an increase in the number of immigrants to South Korea (Seol, 119). This increased more expressions of racism. The discrimination befalling foreigners that is the refugees and immigrants has been published on many South Korean newspapers reporting and criticizing discrimination against foreigners. Foreigners face discrimination in many forms, for instance, in workplaces where they receive low wages, which is below the nation’s minimum payments, delay in the release of their salaries, unsafe and unfavorable working conditions, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and general denigration (Kim, 129). Statistics carried out between 2010-2014 showed that 44.2% of South Koreans did not want neighbors who were foreigners. Not all immigrants are prone to racism, as the same statistics reported that immigrants from other Asian countries and Africa face more racism issues than immigrants from Europe and North America.

South Korea still lacks an anti-discrimination law, though it is a recommendation by the UN Human Rights Committee suggested in 2015. The bill has not been there due to a lack of public consensus. This has led to the probability of people being denied services at social places, business establishments due to their ethnicity. This means that immigrants and foreigners face a lot of discrimination as they try to seek assistance in any establishment and organization across the country (Shin, 350). The people of mixed race are usually referred to as “mongrels” I South Korea. No matter how much talent you have but you are of mixed race, problems always arise in your workplace since south Korea is an ethnically homogenous country. This affected the career of Han-Hyun-min, a half-black with Nigerian roots faced a lot of challenges trying to succeed in his career as a model just because he was half black. Han faced racism in a country where white people are welcomed with open arms while the black people are maltreated due to their ethnicity.

The Republic of South Korea is known as a society with multi-religions. Korea is a nation in which the major religions in the world that are Christianity, Islam, Confucianism, Shamanism, and Buddhism coexist peacefully together (Kim, 112). Typically, conflicts, either large or small scale ones, arise everyday between religious groups. Inter-religious issues could arise from the education systems; for instance, educational ideologies, forced chapel attendance to students from different religions, and textbook content is a source of conflict in South Korea. Most of the issues befalling the religion sector in South Korea is the ignorance of people on the religion of others.

South Korea has proven to have diversity in religion, and currently, it is advancing to a mulita-religious, multi-ethnic, and multicultural society. The law protects Korea advocates for the respect of the differences in the moral choice of the people and this. People living in South Korea have the freedom to lead in spiritual life per their preferences. However, when Catholicism was introduced to South Korea, the first Catholics were subjected to adverse persecution (Kim, 119). The abuse of Christians, which was carried out by Joseon’s rulers, led to the death of many Christians, which led to South Korea registering most of the saints in the entire world.

Currently, most of the young people in South Korea are opting to keep away from religious activities due to their issues and sometimes work issues (Kim, 117). Young people in South Korea are more concentrated on the demanding education system and job market to spend time on religious activities. People are more concerned about their economic growth than their growth in matters concerning religion.

Women in South Korea are affected by some issues which are all rooted in gender inequality. This is due to the unequal opportunities and treatment that women face as compared to men in South Korea. According to the statistics from the deeply-rooted patriarchal ideologies and practices, South Korea is ranked as one of the countries which have high methods of gender inequality in the world (Das, Monica, and Li, 650). Cases of gender inequality are most prevalent in South Korea’s economy and politics, but it has also extended to healthcare and education. Gender inequality in South Korea has been deepened by historical practices and events like military sexual slavery and Park-Hye’s scandal. South Korea has put across measures in an attempt to reduce gender inequality through legislation and policymaking.

The challenges that women face in South Korea in their workplaces have also greatly affected the economic ranking of South Korea in the world. Women face discrimination even when in their workplaces. For instance, women get questions pertaining to their marital status and plans for motherhood as they apply for jobs. This affecting the probability of a woman getting a job if she has a family or children due to the believe that their concentration will not be fully on the betterment of the workplace.  Some jobs are also referred to as inappropriate for women (Lee, 130). These questions and scrutiny on women during job interviews or in their workplaces are greatly discouraged and usually illegal in South Korea however many firms still do it but face minimal fines. Women who have children usually face pressure from the society to leave their jobs so that they can be able to take care of their children. Sometimes when mothers take maternal leave and return to the workforce after they leave, they often get a lower pay since they are forced to take irregular jobs rather than take the full-time positions. Moreover, women in the South Korean Government only make around 17 percent of the members of the national assembly. This is because leadership positions are deemed better for men. The failure of the treated women equally when it comes to the workforce has a long-term economic effects for South Korea as a whole

South Korea should come up with ways to ensure that women are equally integrated into the workforce as compared to the men without bringing issues on family and the decisions one has on parenthood (Lee, 130). This will increase labor force in South Korea which will in turn improve the economy of the country. If South Korea would increase female labor force participation to the same level of the male labor force participation would lead to an increase in the GDP growth by 7% according to the IMF. Not equally integrating women into the workforce will lead to effects on economic competitiveness of South Korea in the world. The government of South Korea should come up with ways to ensure that the social ethnic issues affecting the country are solved.

Work Cited

Eide, Asbjorn, Catarina Krause, and Allan Rosas. “Economic, social and cultural rights.” 1995) Economic Social and Cultural Rights A Textbook, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers (1995).

Neary, Ian. Human Rights in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Vol. 5. SUNY Press, 2004.

Seol, Dong-Hoon. “The citizenship of foreign workers in South Korea.” Citizenship studies 16.1 (2012): 119-133.

Kim, Andrew Eungi. “Christianity, shamanism, and modernization in South Korea.” CrossCurrents (2000): 112-119.

Das Gupta, Monica, and Li Shuzhuo. “Gender bias in China, South Korea and India 1920–1990: Effects of war, famine and fertility decline.” Development and Change 30.3 (1999): 619-652.

Shin, Gi-Wook. “Chapter Fifteen Racist South Korea? Diverse but Not Tolerant of Diversity.” Race and Racism in Modern East Asia. Brill, 2013. 369-390.

Kim, Jin-Hee. “Racism, equity, and quality of education for international students in South Korean higher education institutes.” Frontiers of Education in China 11.3 (2016): 338-355.

Lee, Hye-Kyung. “Gender, migration and civil activism in South Korea.” Asian and Pacific Migration Journal 12.1-2 (2003): 127-153.