탈남자(脫南者) South Korean Refugees
내가 좋아하는 지식인 중 한 명인 박노자 교수가 최근에 한겨레 블로그에 올린 ‘탈북자와 탈남자’라는 글을 읽고 요즘 내가 고민하고 있는 문제와 연결되는 부분이 있어 몇 자 적고자 한다. 글의 요지는 탈북자만큼 탈남자도 많고, 이는 주로 경제적 이유로 탈남을 선택한 불법체류자 뿐만 아니라 사회, 문화적 이유로 탈남을 한 이들도 포함한다는 것이다. 아울러 이런 계층에는 병역을 거부한 자, (그래서) 해외에서 학위를 마치고 현지에서 취업을 하는 이들, 국내에서의 여성 취업의 어려움, 승진의 한계, 가부장적 문화 등을 고려해 국제 결혼 및 해외 생활을 선택한 한국 여성도 넓은 의미의 탈남자에 포함된다고 한다.
After reading a blog post titled ‘North Korean Refugees and South Korean Refugees’ by Professor Noja Pak, one of my favourite intellectuals, I’m writing this post because the topic he suggested is in line with the issue I’m currently struggling with. The main points of his post are that there are as many South Korean refugees as North Korean ones and that the refugees include not only the illegal immigrants who left S. Korea because of economic problem but also those who escaped from the southern part of the peninsula with the social and cultural reasons. In addition, the South Korean refugees in a broader meaning include those who denied their military services, (therefore) who obtained degrees and found jobs abroad, and Korean women who were married to another nationalities or decided to live abroad with regard to the difficulty of women’s employment in Korea, the limit of promotion, patriarchal culture etc.
나는 ‘탈남자’라는 그의 표현에 적극 동의하며 그가 열거한 탈출의 이유 몇 가지에도 동의한다. 거기에 나의 의견을 덧붙이고자 한다. 유럽연합 집행위원회에서 만나는 동료 인턴들과 처음에 만나서 나누는 질문은 이름이 뭐니, 어디에서 왔니, 어느 DG (Directorate-General: 유럽연합 집행위원회 내의 행정 및 업무 부처)에서 일하니 등이다. 이 중 두 번째 질문에서 내가 한국에서 왔다고 하면, 으례 다음과 같은 질문이 따라온다. “정말? 그럼 유럽 국가 중 어느 나라 여권을 갖고 있니?” 그래서 내가 난 유럽 여권 없다, 한국 국적자로 온 거다라고 하면 절반은 “아, 정말? 비유럽 국가에서도 유럽연합 집행위원회 인턴쉽에 지원할 수 있는 줄 몰랐어.”라 하고 나머지 절반은 “아, 진짜? 혹시 유럽과 관계된 공부를 했니?”라고 묻는다. 이에 내가 사실은 2004년에 네덜란드 마스트리히트에서 유럽공공행정학을 공부했다고 하면 그제서야 이해가 된다고 한다. 그러면서 몇몇은 유럽연합 집행위원회가 제삼국(第三國) 출신을 받아들임으로써 서로의 이해도 넓히고 다양성을 증가시킬 수 있어서 좋은 것 같다고 (내 생각에 아마도) 반은 외교적 멘트를 던지지만, 그들 생각의 나머지 반은 분명 ‘그래도 도대체 한국 애가 여기서 뭘 하겠다는 거야?’ 일거다. 그런데 사실 이건 내가 나 자신에게도 계속 묻고 있는 질문이기도 하다.
I absolutely agree to his term, ‘South Korean Refugees’ and also agree to some of the reasons he specified. But I’d like to add my own opinions and reasons to them. The first questions asked by fellow trainees (’stagiaires’ in French or in Frenglish, which is much more common in the EU and Europe) in the beginning are “What’s your name?”, “Where are you from?”, “Which DG (Directorate-General) are you working in?” Of these questions, when I answer to the second saying I’m from Korea, immediately the next question follows, “Really? Then, which European passport do you have?” After my answer goes “I don’t have any European passport, I’m here as a Korean national.”, half of them says “Oh, really? I didn’t know non EU citizen can apply for the traineeship (’stage’ in French, also more common in here.), and the other half adds “Oh, are you? Did you study something related to Europe before?” Finally I explain I studied European Public Affairs in Maastricht, The Netherlands in 2004, then they nod. Some of them continue to add a diplomatic (I think) comment that it’s actually good for the European Commission to have stagiaires from the third countries and thus broaden each other’s understanding and increase the diversity. But, half of their minds must ask themselves, ’Nonetheless, what on earth is this Korean girl doing here (at the Commission)?’ Well, as a matter of fact, this is the question I’m also continuously asking myself.
나는 왜 한국을 그토록 떠나고 싶어하는가? 왜 외국에서 살고 싶어하는가? 내가 가장 쉽게, 빨리 내놓는 대답은 ‘한국에 있는 회사에서는 휴가를 넉넉히 쓸 수 없어서’이다. 하지만 이를 기점으로 이어지는 대답으로는 휴가를 비롯한 비효율적인 근무 환경, 계층주의, 획일주의를 열거한다. 기본 연차로 보통 3주가 주어지는 유럽인들도 휴가가 적다고 불평을 하기는 하지만, 일단 3주가 보장된다는 것은 나에게 중요한 요소이다. 휴식의 중요성이야 다들 이해하리라 믿기에 굳이 언급하지 않겠다. 계층주의와 획일주의 또한 유럽이라고 해서 완전히 타파된 것은 아니다. 이 곳에서도 기득권층, 부유층에 속하지 않은 계층은 상부층과 갈등을 겪고 있다. 획일주의를 보자면, 유럽은 오히려 넘치는 다양성 때문에 표면적으로 드러나는 인종 및 종교 갈등이 한국보다 심각하며 이로 인해 사회 통합 문제가 국가 및 전 유럽 차원에서 늘 우선 순위에 드는 문제 중 하나이다.
Why do I so much want to leave Korea? Why do I so much long to live abroad? The easiest and fastest answer I make is that I’m not given enough holidays at companies in Korea. However, the further answers to this are inefficient working conditions including the small number of holidays, hierarchism and uniformity. Although Europeans normally given 3 weeks for basic annual leaves even complain that they are too short, at least the guaranteed annual leave for 3 weeks is a very important element for me. I won’t discuss further about the importance of holidays as I trust everyone understands it. Regarding hierarchism and uniformity, it’s not that Europe is free from these problems. There are conflicts between the upper level who are privilieged and rich and the lower level who are not. When it comes to uniformity, due to its overflowing diversity, Europe faces more serious problems between races and religions than Korea does, and therefore social integration is among the top priorities both national and Euro-wide .
그럼에도 불구하고 내가 해외 생활을 선호하는 이유는 이 모든 문제들이 있지만, 상대적으로 느끼는 삶의 질이 한국에서보다 나았기 때문이다. 물론 이는 총 1년 6개월이라는 짧은 기간, 그리고 노동자가 아닌 학생, 인턴으로 거주한 경험에서 온 것이기 때문에 이 조건들이 달랐다면 나의 이유도 달라질 수도 있다고 생각한다. 하지만 나의 경험과 그 경험에서 내가 가졌던 생각들, 느꼈던 감정들이 모두 환상이라고만은 보지 않는다. 세상 어디를 가든 완벽한 행복은 없다. 우리 엄마의 말씀처럼 행복과 슬픔은 늘 동반되는 것이기에. 하지만 내 조국, 한국은 내가 추구하는 행복을 가져다 줄 수 있는 조건에 우호적인 환경을 제공하는 곳이 아니었다.
Despite these problems, the reason why I prefer living abroad is the quality of life in Europe was relatively better than in Korea. Of course, since my impression is based only on the short period of my residence, 1 year and a half in total, and on my status as a student and intern, not as a worker, if these conditions were different, there might have been some changes in my reasons. However, I do not think that my experiences, and my thoughts and feelings from those experiences were merely fantasies. There is no absolute happiness anywhere in the world. Because, as my mom says, happiness and sadness always come together. However, my motherland, Korea was not a place which provides a favourable environment to the conditions which allow me to pursue my happiness.
인턴들끼리 자주 하는 또 다른 질문 중 하나는 “인턴쉽이 끝나면 무엇을 할거냐? 고국으로 돌아가서 일을 할거냐?”이다. 내 대답은 이 곳에 쓰지 않아도 이 글을 읽는 이 모두 알 수 있을 것이다. 내년 2월 인턴쉽이 끝날 즈음 보다 구체적인 대답을 하기 위해 난 지금 이 곳, 브뤼셀에 있다.
Another most frequently asked question among stagiaires is “What are you going to do after the stage? Are you going back home to work there?” The readers of this post will surely know my answer. To give more detailed answer around the end of my stage in February next year, I am here in Brussels now.
Owen:
Sometimes I find the best answer is “just because”. What I mean is, that people who are not under immediate danger or distress, generally make their decisions based on a myriad of factors which represent themselves not as an ordered list inside our brains - but as a feeling or impulse.
Just as we often cannot verbalise exactly why we love someone, chose a particular major, listen to a certain singer or watch a genre of film, or like a certain kind of food…
…we often cannot accurately verbalise why we make some of the more important decisions in our lives.
Each time people ask me why I wanna go back to Korea…I have a different answer. I have never been able to decide which answer was the correct, or most correct one. kk
19 October 2008, 11:17 pm시은:
100% 공감- 그리고 언니의 대답, 기대!
21 October 2008, 3:27 amOwen:
Reading a second time, and also running the original article by Professor Noja Pak, I believe that you have hit upon an interesting debate of when does a migrant begin to be classed as a refugee (or vice versa)?
Well, it seems that an Economic migrant could be classed as a refugee if their lives or health were in immediate danger due to their economic situation in their country.
But a Social Refugee is a more contentious idea because unless there is the threat of immediate physical or mental harm because of their social status, then refugee is not likely the appropriate term.
There have been numerous large migrations throughout history and in Europe today there is a constant migration from the porrer and newer Eastern States to the Richer Established West of Europe. But unless these people were in immediate physical or mental danger because of their social status then they are simply migrants looking for a better life.
The Irish escaped Europe in great numbers over the last 150 years to the point that the population in Ireland halved over a period of 15 years or so from 6 million to 3 million because millions migrated to the USA and Australia and New Zealand. Some may have been Refugees because of immediate danger, however the vast majority were considered migrants because they wanted to improve their lives.
I guess the main distinction to be made is one of immediate danger due to social status. If there is no immediate danger then one is simply someone looking for a better life, no?
The term refugee comes from the French word “refuge” which means to “shelter and protect”. If someone is able to make do in their own country then do they need shelter and protection? That is the question…
21 October 2008, 12:24 pmSunkyoung:
Owen - Now you’ve revealed another information about you: your link to Korea. I too can answer with ‘just because’, but I wanted to dig deep into ‘my just because’ because I believed there must have been some contexts that lied in my desire to live abroad.
As for the second comment, I agree to your opinion that South Korean who left their country for social and cultural reasons don’t exactly fit into the term ‘refugees’ but rather ‘migrants’. In Chinese and also in Korean, we have a separate word for refugess, 難民(난민), and we definitely don’t use this term for South Korean migrants as they are not in serious problems like wars, disasters, famine etc.
However, I’d like to suggest you to take more interest in the word, ‘탈(脫)’, placed in the first syllable of the words for both South and North Korean people who are out of their countries. The literal meaning of the word is ‘to get out of; to escape’, and Noja Pak used ‘탈남자(脫南者: People who get out of the South part (of Korea))’ as a relative concept to its counterpart in North.
As North Korean refugees have been widely known throughout the world, we are familiar with the term ‘탈북자(脫北者)’. But, by simply replacing the word ‘north (북:北)’ with ’south (남:南)’ in the title of his post, he attempted to call the attention to those South Korean people who left their country with different reasons from the North Koreans’.
Since the English term, ‘North Korean refugees’ already exists, I wanted to change only the part of the territory within the term as Noja Pak did in the Korean word. But, as you raised the question of the terms and their meanings, I now think if I used ‘migrants’ for South Korean people, it would have been more accurate in English text.
I welcome the further opinions or suggestions on this topic not only from you but also from other readers.
시은 - 그 기대에 부응하도록 하마.
21 October 2008, 11:36 pmOwen:
I didn’t mean to seem rude, if my comments seemed so I apologise! kk Rather I enjoy critical discussion. It seems you are great at that! Your are suited to the EU Commision SunKyung!
I must confess my Korean is scratchy at best. I recently learned the word 탈, but in a different context - that of the mask dance! But I did not know the word of 탈(脫).
I am happy I can draw some parallels between the current migrations of Koreans and the historical Migrations of Europeans to the ‘New World’. I mean, I don’t wanna down play the very serious reasons people leave their own country in search of another because these can be very serious to them. Issues such as gender discrimination and extreme working conditions are something that do not occur in New Zealand to the extent they might in Korea so I probably cannot feel the issue as closely as you could.
As I heard it, from my since passed away grandmother, her father had come to NZ in 1918. This was during the time of the Irish Civil War (1922-23), which again draws many parallels with Korea. As the larger British power fought to take over the country, the local peoples split into two groups - the loyalists who wanted to make a deal with Britian, and the Republicans, who wanted a free country. These groups proceeded to fight eachother rather than the invading British and more lives were lost fighting eachother than in fighting the British.
Anyway, her father, my great grandfather, as she tells it, saw his name carved in the concrete inside a barn 1n 1918. In those days, this meant that he could be next to be killed. So he booked on a boat to NZ as soon as he could…and the rest is history as they say. Anyway, she said that he never talked about it much, similar to many war veterans.
Long story huh? kk
22 October 2008, 11:57 amOwen:
Huh? You spent an hour to write that?! Wow, thanks for your thoughtfulness. I appreciate it!
22 October 2008, 12:00 pmOwen:
Sorry! So many replies! But…I am a postgraduate student in applied linguistics and according to my study it is very beneficial to your language skills and abilities to simply read and understand critical and engaging material - there is no need to respond. What I mean is that although writing is good for your language skills do not underestimate the power of simply reading and understanding.
So you do not have to do long replies that wear you out too much! Reading alone is also ok!
I just wanna help kk
22 October 2008, 12:08 pmSunkyoung:
I absolutely enjoyed writing the reply to your comment and it was good for my reasoning practice and of course for writing as well. I also want to add the type of comment you made is exactly the thing I expect from my readers. Though I know that, to draw the responses I hope to get, I need to write more posts that can bring out critical discussions.
The part of Irish history you mentioned reminds me of the film, ‘The Wind that Shakes the Barley’, which beautifully filmed the tragic story.
Btw, I have to tell you that when I wrote the first two paragraphs, I opened a link, by mistake, to the Prof. Pak’s post on the same window and it contributed to more time-taking.
22 October 2008, 12:43 pmOwen:
Ha! I was going to mention that film. It was after watching it that I mentioned it to my grandmother and she relayed the story about her father at that same time. Because I already had some inkling that her father came to NZ at that time.
Watching “The Wind That Shakes The Barley” I am sure that you needed subtitles right? Because I myself couldn’t understand about 25% of it and only picked it up from context. They used alot of local slang and thei accents were thick as anything!
I have also recently seen the movie “Once” which is Irish also. The storyline was not famous but the music and characters were good^^
23 October 2008, 12:36 pmDalicia:
Thank you for writing about South Korean refugees. And also about your life in Korea. As for me, during my time in Europe. Europeans knows how to relax.
Where in US, we feel that we rush into things. Speaking of 3 weeks vacation. I can’t take 3 weeks at the time. I have to separate my vacation few days here and there. Nonetheless, I’m lucky that my company grants us paid vacation. Unlike other companies.
My parents left the country for a reason. Better opportunity. Otherwise, only the rich can move up. Despite the problems that I faced here. There are always good and bad points. But hey, isn’t happiness just a state of mind?
1 November 2008, 11:07 pmKML:
Really great reflective stuff in this article. I think you will enjoy the opportunity to go back and read this in a few years time and remember how you were thinking when you wrote this! Clearly what drives us to move is never easy to pin down exactly but even the process of trying to do so can help one get a clearer perspective on one’s own situation now and in the past.
2 November 2008, 4:38 amSunkyoung:
Dalicia - Thanks for sharing about your own experience.
KML - Yeah, that’s why I ask this question to myself, to better know what I am and to better understand where I am and why I am here.
16 November 2008, 9:22 pm