• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.125-147
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• 2020

On the World Refugee Day in 2017, Yao Chen, a Chinese actress, philanthropist, and social media influencer, posted messages in her Weibo in support of the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Yet, social media users quickly interpreted this supportive message of the refugee program as encouraging people to "accept and receive refugees" (jieshou nanmin) into China. Particularly, the category of Middle Eastern refugees elicited most criticism in China's cyberspace. As the inclusion of refugees is an integral part of immigrant multiculturalism, this article examines the limits of multicultural imagination of refugees―particularly those from the Middle Eastern and North Africa―in contemporary China. I argue that the limits of multicultural imagination in contemporary China is profoundly shaped by an intricate interweaving of domestic policies and global imaginaries toward refugees. By deploying a mixed methodology, such limits are examined from legal-institutional, ideological, and sociocultural perspectives. More specifically, three interrelated aspects will be highlighted in the article: (1) the global circulation of right-wing populism imaginaries, and their entanglements with the anti-Muslim sentiments in contemporary China; (2) the current insufficiency of the legal-institutional framework regarding refugees and asylum-seekers, which needs to be contextualized in China's modern history of dealing with refugee issues; (3) population politics, the rise of Han-centric nationalism, and their constraining impact on the interpretation of historical events related to cultural diversity. In conclusion, this article also offers potential implications for further examining the different yet potentially intersected genealogies of multicultural imaginaries beyond the Middle Eastern and North African refugees in Asia.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.299-304
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• 2024

Human rights problem of refugee is the most important task to be solved in the international society. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was established in 1950, with the need for cooperation in the face of the European refugee crisis. In 1951, 'The 1951 refugee convention' was signed for the protection of all refugees. Since the 1951 Refugee Convention, a legal framework has been established for responding to refugees. However, the discrimination and persecution of refugees are still lingering. The interest and the political will of many people in the world are needed to solve this problem. This article analyzes what efforts should be made with respect to human rights issues. This article concludes that, when comparing refugee acceptance and Korea, Korea needs to look at the common denominator of refugee law, human rights law, and international humanitarian law while looking at the treatment of refugees and displaced people from an inclusive approach, and reorganize law and policy. Since Korea is expected to gradually require inclusive policies, Korea should also supplement the legal system and take an inclusive approach. Although Korea as a member of the Refugee Convention, the Geneva Convention, and the Supplementary Protocol, has an obligation to enact domestic implementation laws, it does not reflect all of the obligations required by these conventions, so reorganization is needed.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.185-196
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• 2004

The purpose of this study was to describe initial adaptation processing of North Korean refugee children & Adolescents. Four children, four adolescents and Five faculties were participated in depth-interview. Results indicate that North Korean refugee children and adolescents have difficulties in adaptation. They have problems such as insufficient learning proficiency, confusion in curriculum, cultural gap, difficulty in making a friend, destruction in the family. But at the same time, we found out their unique and positive aspect which might help to overcome their problems. In conclusion, specific concerns and policies should be provided to support their school achievement and social adaptation.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.35-58
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to identify the moderating effect of social support between daily life stress and suicidal ideation of North Korean refugee women in South Korea. We survey with self-report questionnaires for 156 refugee women, conduct descriptive and regression analysis. As results, (1) almost half of the surveyed experience suicidal ideation in a year, (2) daily life stress affects suicidal ideation controlling with depression, PTSD, alcohol use, income, and age, (3) social support which North Korea refugee women perceive buffers the relationship between life stress and suicidal ideation. From these results, implications are suggested. Gender cognitive policies are needed in North Korea refugees in South Korea. Also, community mental health services and sustainable community program for North Korea refugee women are important to prevent their suicidal attempts.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.61 no.4
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• pp.191-215
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• 2009

The purposes of this study were to investigate the factors that influence the school drop-out of North Korean refugee youth and to generate recommendations for social work practice and the resettlement policies of the government to ameliorate the high school drop-out rate among North Korean refugee youth. This study examined the effects of the environmental factors such as the quality of parenting practice, peer attachment and the kind of school a youngster attends, and personal characteristics such as self-respect and acculturation stress level, and academic efficacy on the school drop-out intention. Gender, duration of stay in Korea, family economic status were established as control variables. The drop-out intention was used as a proxy for drop-out behavior. The study findings indicate that the personal characteristics such as gender, self-respect and acculturation stress, academic efficacy were the significant influencing factors, whereas environmental factors such as quality of parenting, peer attachment did not exert any statistically significant effect on the drop-out intention. At the conclusion, the implications of the study findings for research, social work practice and the government policies were discussed.

• Journal of International Area Studies (JIAS)
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.109-134
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• 2011

Drug-related crime has increased in spite of visible results of Uribe government's hard-line policies on drug eradication and illegally armed organizations which were pursued under U.S. support, without the accompaniment of quantity change in drug cultivation and trade. Military disputes of left-right illegally armed communities surrounding illegal crop cultivation rights were rather intensified, and the number of refugees was increased through enforced displaced people. The 2005 refugee registration committee RUPD reports that 3,316,862 people, 7.3% of total population, were refugees. In particular, the number of refugees presented a large increase rate of 624% when compared to the past year due to enforced displaced people. Main discharge areas of enforced displaced people are connected with drug crime and activities of illegally armed organizations, and are places of increased armed disputes in the process of occupied territory expansion of illegally armed communities and militia. Undiscriminated attacks were executed on farmers in the process of occupation of illegal crop cultivation sites by illegally armed organization and militia to emit enforced displaced people, who moved to border areas by crossing national borders. Enforced displaced people were restricted to certain areas before the appearance of Uribe administration. However, enforced displaced people not only presented quantitative expansion, but also showed tendency of nationwide expansion after national security policy was pursued. With the closing of the Amazon area, previously the main route of drug trade, activity base of illegally armed organizations was moved to the Pacific region, and Panama border area experienced refugee increase due to the new policy of enforced displaced people. This study aims to understand the actual condition and cause for the increase in refugees in Colombia based on border areas of Venezuela, which is the nation of highest dispersion of Columbian refugees, Panama, which has appeared as a new destination for refugees after the 90s, and Ecuador, which has experienced sudden refugee increase in 2000.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.329-338
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• 2017

This study aims to examine heterogeneous acculturation patterns of elite North Korean female defectors in South Korea. The study employed a synthetic comparative analysis. A series of in-depth interviews with 5 North Korean female defectors in South Korea were conducted. In addition, the research team implemented 20 open-ended surveys with other defectors. Through this study, we have found various types of cultural adaptation in the group of the elite North Korean women in South Korea. The study findings imply that it is imperative to establish national policies that support different types of North Korean defectors. Putting all North Koreans into one category might result in alienation and discrimination to some groups. Thus how the participants reframed their social identify in South Korea illuminates essential facets of human-right education, especially education for refugees and immigrants in different global and multi-cultural contexts.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.381-393
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• 2019

This study aimed to develop an educational program on cervical cancer prevention and human papillomavirus (HPV) for female North Korean refugees and to assess the effect of the program. This study used a nonequivalent control group with a pretest-posttest design. The participants were 42 female North Korean refugees in their 20s residing in South Korea. Measurements included cervical cancer knowledge, HPV knowledge, attitude toward HPV vaccination, and intention for HPV vaccination. Statistically significant differences emerged in levels of cervical cancer knowledge (U = 40.00, p < .001), HPV knowledge (U = 4.50, p < .001), and attitude toward HPV vaccination (U = 128.00, p = .013) between the experimental and control group. The educational program is an effective nursing intervention to improve cervical cancer knowledge, HPV knowledge, and attitude toward HPV vaccination of female North Korean refugees. Stakeholders must work to establish health policies to reduce health disparities between South and North Korean women to prepare for unification.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Child Welfare
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• no.59
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• pp.151-182
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• 2017

The purpose of this study was to understand the survivors who experienced and suffered through the tragic earthquake in Nepal. Individual interviews were conducted with 13 participatns, consisting of 5 children, 5 parents and 3 staff members. Analysis was done using photos, drawings and records. Identified themes included "daily routine, pleasure of life (life before the earthquake)," "survival from the crossroad of life and death (situation at the time of the earthquake)," "nonfunctional governmental system and impassioned foreigners who lend a helping hand (post earthquake recovery)", "trace of the day left everywhere (the current life),"and "desiring to get back up again (hope for future)."Based on the results, this study suggested policies and practical guideline for preventing and coping with disaster and supporting the survivors.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.63-88
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• 2019

The goal of this paper is to investigate changes in North Korea's domestic and foreign policies through automated text analysis over North Korea represented in South Korean mass media. Based on that data, we then analyze the status of text mining research, using a text mining technique to find the topics, methods, and trends of text mining research. We also investigate the characteristics and method of analysis of the text mining techniques, confirmed by analysis of the data. In this study, R program was used to apply the text mining technique. R program is free software for statistical computing and graphics. Also, Text mining methods allow to highlight the most frequently used keywords in a paragraph of texts. One can create a word cloud, also referred as text cloud or tag cloud. This study proposes a procedure to find meaningful tendencies based on a combination of word cloud, and co-occurrence networks. This study aims to more objectively explore the images of North Korea represented in South Korean newspapers by quantitatively reviewing the patterns of language use related to North Korea from 2016. 11. 1 to 2019. 5. 23 newspaper big data. In this study, we divided into three periods considering recent inter - Korean relations. Before January 1, 2018, it was set as a Before Phase of Peace Building. From January 1, 2018 to February 24, 2019, we have set up a Peace Building Phase. The New Year's message of Kim Jong-un and the Olympics of Pyeong Chang formed an atmosphere of peace on the Korean peninsula. After the Hanoi Pease summit, the third period was the silence of the relationship between North Korea and the United States. Therefore, it was called Depression Phase of Peace Building. This study analyzes news articles related to North Korea of the Korea Press Foundation database(www.bigkinds.or.kr) through text mining, to investigate characteristics of the Kim Jong-un regime's South Korea policy and unification discourse. The main results of this study show that trends in the North Korean national policy agenda can be discovered based on clustering and visualization algorithms. In particular, it examines the changes in the international circumstances, domestic conflicts, the living conditions of North Korea, the South's Aid project for the North, the conflicts of the two Koreas, North Korean nuclear issue, and the North Korean refugee problem through the co-occurrence word analysis. It also offers an analysis of South Korean mentality toward North Korea in terms of the semantic prosody. In the Before Phase of Peace Building, the results of the analysis showed the order of 'Missiles', 'North Korea Nuclear', 'Diplomacy', 'Unification', and ' South-North Korean'. The results of Peace Building Phase are extracted the order of 'Panmunjom', 'Unification', 'North Korea Nuclear', 'Diplomacy', and 'Military'. The results of Depression Phase of Peace Building derived the order of 'North Korea Nuclear', 'North and South Korea', 'Missile', 'State Department', and 'International'. There are 16 words adopted in all three periods. The order is as follows: 'missile', 'North Korea Nuclear', 'Diplomacy', 'Unification', 'North and South Korea', 'Military', 'Kaesong Industrial Complex', 'Defense', 'Sanctions', 'Denuclearization', 'Peace', 'Exchange and Cooperation', and 'South Korea'. We expect that the results of this study will contribute to analyze the trends of news content of North Korea associated with North Korea's provocations. And future research on North Korean trends will be conducted based on the results of this study. We will continue to study the model development for North Korea risk measurement that can anticipate and respond to North Korea's behavior in advance. We expect that the text mining analysis method and the scientific data analysis technique will be applied to North Korea and unification research field. Through these academic studies, I hope to see a lot of studies that make important contributions to the nation.