9 years ago when I was 10, I used to go to my mom’s book store after school everyday. It was an english bookstore, and many foreigners used to come. I was a little kid, so out of curiosity, I tried to approach them regardless of my poor english. With the easiest word such as “Hi” and with tons of body languages, I could be friends with them, and there, I met Shan who became an unforgettable friend in my life.
He was an immigrant worker who came from Pakistan. He worked in a factory, but unfortunately, the employer who he worked under was a greedy man who refused to give the employees reasonable payments. My mom used to visit the factory to discuss payment problems on behalf of Shan who couldn’t speak Korean well, but it didn’t turned out so great. Shan and his friends had to live in a basement without enough space to sleep and eat. Nevertheless, he didn’t lose his smile. It still gives me laugh when I think about the conversations we had.
About a year later, Shan married a Canadian women named Maria and they had a baby named Rakib. He was a sweet boy with a charming smile like his father’s. Yet, Rakib could never live normally because he was born under a illegal immigrant worker in Korea. Shan and Maria couldn’t report the birth of Rakib because they themselves were not legal Korean. Thinking of Rakib came both with smile and pain, because I knew he wouldn’t be able to attend normal public school nor live in good conditions throughout his life.
Fortunately, with the help of a church Maria was going to, Shan’s family could move to Canada and they are currently living a pleasant life there. Luckly, their lives turned out to be great. Yet, in Korea, there are tons of other immigrant workers’ families who are living in similar, poor situations in Korea.
The rapid growth in the Korean economy since the 1980’s engendered increasing immigrations from foreign countries. 30 years have passed and the burgeoning population of foreigners in Korea these days has exceeded 10 million. Simultaneously, the number of unregistered foreigners (also known as illegal immigrants) has increased as well. Of course, such illegitimate residence is to be criticized. However, the innocent children of those criminals are stigmatized as illegal immigrants, irrelevant to their own will. Furthermore, most of these children are deprived of opportunities to receive education, like Rakib.
The Korean government shouldn’t neglect their presence in Korea anymore. We should understand that unregistered children under illegal immgrants are not currently in Korea on their will. It wasn’t their choice to become an unregistered children, thus they are innocent and should be provided with at least the basic privilage and welfare while they are in Korea. Along with the rising number of illegal immigrants in Korea, I believe having tolerance towards those people is urgent for a better society.
Minhyung's Blog 
Hello Min-Hyung.
Great essay. Beautiful anecdote.
But, how would you articulate the key “emic” point(s) of the opposing view?
Also, to resolve the disequilibrium, and arrive at some homeostasis–regarding the rights of illegal aliens versus the disadvantages to the under-employed Korean citizen vis a vis illegal aliens–what would you recommend the government do concerning the parents, if the government makes special allowances for the children of illegal aliens.
To register the children would not automatical involve registering the parents, somehow?
Hello, Mr. Johnson!
Thank you for your reply. I understand that there are many opposing view regarding this matter as it is becoming an important issue these days.
To see this in an emic view, many Koreans are strongly against of providing the illegal immigrants’ kids the previlage of staying and getting education in Korea. They aseert those heart-warming policies will accelerate the current inflow of illegal immigrants. Moreover, Korean workers are afraid that they will be substituted by those illegal immigrants in Korea because of their low labor costs.
However, it is also an undeniable fact that those illegal immigrants are playing a big role in taking care of 3D jobs that normal Korean people hesitate to do. Furthermore, if we keep on neglecting the lives of these illegal immigrants, there won’t be any progress in our society, but be more chaotic as time goes on. Currently, there are no specific and straight-forward government policies on this problem. The government is expeling them forcefully without any alternative action regarding their future lives. Thus, the illegal immigrants living in inferior environment are growing in anger and resentment towards the society that disregards their presence.
I believe we should understand that this current flow can never be hidden without any plan. The government should consider the kids of illegal immigrants who will be growing up in this country, Korea, to be part of it, and at least help them to live with the basic necessities so that they could be endowed with righteous individuality and personality when they grow up.