Tae Conan Kim, left, introduces Chung-Ang College scholar Yovo Blessing Grace throughout a particular lecture, titled “Portrayal of Refugees in Korean Media,” at Korea College’s Graduate College of Worldwide Research (GSIS), Nov. 10. Courtesy of Bereket Alemayehu
The Korean media’s persistent tendency to border refugees as safety dangers continues to gas public worry and deform coverage debates, overshadowing the far much less seen human tales of individuals fleeing battle.
That was the conclusion at a particular lecture, titled “Portrayal of Refugees in Korean Media,” organized by the Human Rights Society (HRS) at Korea College’s Graduate College of Worldwide Research (GSIS) in collaboration with the refugee-led initiative Hanokers at Seoul Startup Hub on Nov. 10.
The occasion explored how totally different media retailers strategically body information about refugees and the way it impacts insurance policies and public notion in Korea, offering a uncommon alternative for Korean and worldwide college students to achieve perception into the lived expertise and perspective of migrants dwelling right here with a refugee background.
The portrayal of refugees in Korean media performs a significant position in shaping public notion and political debate. It gives a mixture of worry and sympathy, whereas traditionally leaning towards risk-focused political narratives, particularly conservative ones, that body refugees as a possible risk by specializing in crime, cultural conflicts and exaggerated security considerations.
Tae Kim Conan, Hanokers’ co-representative, mentioned that whereas protection varies throughout media retailers, sure narratives seem repeatedly when new teams of asylum seekers arrive within the nation, notably in 2018 after Yemeni refugees began arriving on Jeju Island. He highlighted that general, media illustration emphasizes safety dangers and cultural tensions over humanitarian considerations, making a narrative that refugees convey instability.
“Examples of bias towards refugees, from the delicate to the downright hogwash, inundate the media on this society,” Kim mentioned. “They feed into the tradition of xenophobia and vice versa, propelling a malicious loop. On this comparatively free society, the residents, in a broad sense of the time period, are the one efficient guardians of ethics and humanity. We should educate ourselves — not solely to filter out the anti-refugee propaganda, but additionally to demand and to assist foster broad protection of real-life refugees as full human beings. Solely once we make a real effort to narrate to ‘newcomers’ in real-life contexts can society start to forge workable options for the way its constituencies, the previous and the brand new, can coexist.”
Whereas much less widespread, the nation additionally has progressive newspapers and media retailers, together with unbiased journalists and documentary filmmakers that painting refugees in a extra compassionate and humanizing manner. They spotlight tales of households fleeing battle, private testimonies of trauma, younger refugees navigating Korean faculties and asylum seekers contributing to Korean society. Nonetheless, these narratives usually obtain much less consideration than fear-driven protection.
After studying pattern information articles revealed within the Korean press, college students from Hankuk College of Overseas Research, Yonsei, Sogang and Korea College mentioned how framing refugees as ‘unlawful’ or ‘harmful’ can reinforce dangerous stereotypes and deform public discourse. Additionally they explored optimistic examples to speak concerning the position media can play in telling extra balanced and humanizing tales.
Yovo Blessing Grace from Togo, at the moment learning sociology at Chung-Ang College, gave a chat through the occasion about her experiences. She has spent almost her whole life in Korea, having arrived on the age of three along with her mother and father as they had been in search of asylum. Korea is the place she grew up, studied and found the profession she hopes to pursue.
She attended each degree of education in Korea, but regardless of dwelling most of her life within the nation, she was not totally conscious of her residency standing throughout her childhood. Her mother and father, involved concerning the emotional burden it would place on her and her brother, selected to not clarify the small print. She solely remembers being whisked round between nations, with out figuring out why.
“After I was in my third 12 months of highschool, I realized concerning the Ministry of Justice’s reduction measures and instantly utilized for residency,” she mentioned. “Because of my residency standing, I used to be in a position to be a part of the college. Now, I’m lively in movie golf equipment and attend worldwide boards as a presenter, having fun with my college life.”
That residency utility opened the door to school training, granting her a full scholarship, and she or he now hopes to pursue a profession as a author or movie director, or proceed her research and ultimately grow to be a professor.
Nathalie Marver-Kwon, a visiting researcher at Hankuk College of Overseas Research who research inbound immigration from the Korean diaspora, raised the query of find out how to inform who’s a foreigner now, when Korea’s demographics are altering shortly.
“What the presentation confirmed is that you would be able to’t,” she mentioned. “Blessing, the primary speaker of the occasion, has spent most of her life in Korea. Though she was born in a distinct nation, her household, buddies and future are right here. What it means to be Korean is altering. ‘Koreanness’ is greater than a query of race and geography, but additionally particular person alternative: the selection to come back to Korea and make a life right here, to place down roots, to be a part of society. It’s folks that cross borders, and folks that transcend them. But it surely’s not simply the selection of immigrants to come back right here that issues — it’s additionally a matter of phrase alternative. Relatively than utilizing phrases like ‘foreigner’ to explain all racial outsiders to Korea, we must always transfer in direction of language that acknowledges the opportunity of everlasting residence.”
She identified the media’s significance with regards to framing minorities in headlines. “The media performs an essential position in the way it labels ‘outsiders’ in photos and headlines,” she mentioned. “Even the phrase ‘multicultural’ … implies that totally different cultures keep separate, when in actual fact they work together with and affect one another. As Korean tradition spreads overseas, it turns into formed by the native audiences who work together with it. The identical is true right here as overseas cultures make a house in Korean areas.”
Comply with @hrs_kugsis on Instagram.
Bereket Alemayehu is an Ethiopian photograph artist, social activist and author based mostly in Seoul. He’s additionally the co-founder of Hanokers, a refugee-led social initiative, and freelance contributor for Pressenza Press Company.
