Amendment to the Naturalization Examination and Its Social Impact on International Marriage Immigrants in South Korea

Compared with the previous naturalization law, which automatically granted citizenship eligibility after 2 years of marriage and residence in Korea, the 2009 amendment requires all inter

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Amendment to the Naturalization Examination and Its Social Impact on International Marriage

Immigrants in South Korea

JIYOON LEE

University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

doi: 10.5054/tq.2010.232866

& This article provides a brief description of a change in the 2009 naturalization law of international marriage immigrants in South Korea (hereafter Korea) Compared with the previous naturalization law, which automatically granted citizenship eligibility after 2 years of marriage and residence in Korea, the 2009 amendment requires all international marriage immigrants either to take the naturalization test or to attend up

to 650 hours of a society integration education program including both Korean language and culture education The Ministry of Justice, Republic

of Korea (hereafter Ministry of Justice), claimed that the former system failed in its efforts to promote Korean language learning and under-standing of Korean culture and society and hopes that the new mandatory system provides an opportunity for marriage immigrants to better adjust to Korean society However, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and marriage immigrant experts argue that the new system will put marriage immigrants in a far more difficult position in their attempts to obtain legal status in Korea by not taking into account the financial and familial situations of marriage immigrants (e.g., Kim, 2009) This article analyzes these arguments with special attention to the rationale of the amendment and to the covert and overt exclusionism in relation to the test Based on the analysis, this article argues that the new requirement is a contemporary example of a historic pattern of exclusionism and suggests what should be done to guarantee the validity of the naturalization test and help marriage immigrants’ life in Korea

INTERNATIONAL MARRIAGE IMMIGRANTS IN KOREA

Marriage migration is defined as a cross-nation marriage in which a spouse comes to the other’s home country Worldwide findings indicate that, generally, a female from a developing country marries a male from a developed or advanced economic country (Malibiran, 2008) According

to the Korean Ministry of Justice, around 12 million people migrated

in and out of Korea in 2007, and no less than 10% were marriage immigrants This high percentage of international spouses (88% are women; Gyeonggi Women’s Developmental Center, 2009) is partly a result of the change in women’s status in Korea As industrialization and modernization provide more opportunities, women leave rural areas, receive higher education in the cities, and ultimately refuse to go back

to their traditional life in rural areas The shortage of women eligible for marriage in those rural areas directed men’s attention to different countries Many women from neighboring countries, including China, Indonesia, Mongolia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam, came to Korea as a result of marrying Korean farmers and fishermen and migrated to rural areas The rate of international marriages has increased rapidly over the years, and 13% of new marriages in Korea in 2008 were international marriages The bar graph in Figure 1 shows the total num-ber of marriage immigrants, and the line graph shows the rate of increase

of the number of marriage immigrants compared to the previous year The number of marriage immigrants has increased steadily, with more than 10,000 additional immigrants arriving yearly Although the rate has slowed since 2005, an increase is still noticeable

Figure 2 shows where marriage immigrants reside by region: 23% in Seoul, the capital of Korea; 18% in major or medium-size cities (Busan 5%, Daegu 3%, Inchon 6%, Gwangju 2%, Daejeon 2%); and about 60%

FIGURE 1 Total number (bars) and rate of increase (line graph) of marriage immigrants by year (Park, 2008, p 96; data from Korean Statistical Information Service, 2008).

in rural areas The census data from 2008 show that the majority of these marriage immigrants, more than 70%, were involved in agriculture or fishing as their major occupation

The majority of marriage immigrants are occupied with physically challenging work in rural areas and have limited access to the diverse cultural activities that can help them to develop their understanding of Korean culture, history, and value systems Moreover, while these marriage immigrants do not receive any language or culture education prior to their marriage and arrival in Korea, they are expected to understand and practice Korean customs, to appreciate its food and culture, and to be good citizens Marriage immigrants frequently report confusion as a result of cultural differences, language problems, and an unfamiliar atmosphere (e.g., Kim, 2009)

Furthermore, the patriarchal culture that still exists in many Korean families in those areas limits the immigrant women’s rights in the family, and in many cases, their roles are stereotyped as a tool for reproducing Korean offspring (Pagaduan, 2009) More problematically, their hus-bands neither actively help them obtain Korean citizenship nor support their Korean language and culture education (Kim, 2009) The husbands are concerned that if their wives obtain legal status or acquire adequate language abilities, they may abandon their husbands’ families and their physically challenging life in rural areas

The active as well as passive negligence by their families makes marriage immigrants concerned about securing their legal status, adjusting to society, and developing Korean language ability These concerns are well reflected in numerous surveys done by NGOs: a recent

FIGURE 2 Areas of residence for marriage immigrants (Ministry of Public Administration and

Security, 2008)

survey by Kim (2008) shows that the first concern of marriage immigrants is to obtain stable legal status in Korea (44.7%), and the second concern is to obtain proficiency in the Korean language (29.5%) Marriage immigrants also expressed concerns that they are often excluded from important family decisions or discussion and not respected in their family or community due to their ethnicity and lack

of language proficiency Exclusionism of marriage migrants due to their ethnicity and low language proficiency is observed not only in the family but also in society The next section discusses the societal overt and covert exclusionism toward this new population

SOCIETAL OVERT AND COVERT EXCLUSIONISM

Exclusionism generally refers to ‘‘opposition to the granting of civil rights to legally administered resident migrants’’ (Scheepers, Gijsberts, & Coender, 2002, p 17) In Korea, however, the notion of exclusionism extends beyond resident migrants to include expressions of antipathy against anyone not born in Korea Such exclusionism is often ex-perienced by foreign-born Koreans (e.g., Korean Americans), who report that they are mistreated or undertreated because of their accent

or lack of Korean language proficiency (Lim, 2009)

Throughout Korean history, exclusionism was manifested in the emphasis on ‘‘one blood, one nation.’’ Shin (2006) argues that the notion of an ethnically homogeneous and a racially distinctive unitary nation (danil minjok in Korean, meaning one people) was developed and purposefully spread as Korea faced imperialist encroachments, in particular, in the early 20th century For instance, while Korea was colonized by the Japanese empire, the exile regime needed to emphasize the nation’s uniqueness and purity even more in order to survive under Japan’s forceful assimilationist policy In 1945, after 36 years of Japanese occupancy, a national sense of defeatism prevailed in Korea The concept

of danil minjok was reinforced again as political propaganda: nationalists and the government tried to convince Koreans that they were unique and superior to other people in the sense that they had kept a pure bloodline despite numerous foreign invasions Although this notion was a driving force in helping Koreans to overcome a national sense of defeatism, this political propaganda remained part of the Korean mentality and became

a persistent obstacle in social integration in the late 20th century, when a great number of foreign workers and marriage immigrants came into the country In particular, Koreans’ pride regarding their pure bloodline resulted in their developing a harsher attitude toward marriage immigrants The fact that these marriage immigrants will remain in the country for good and reproduce Korean offspring has made Koreans more concerned about this particular population

Despite the rapid increase of marriage immigrants and foreign workers in Korea, exclusionism is still observed in many areas of Korean society from legislation to gossip in public blogs and websites Some Koreans openly criticize marriage immigrants in newspapers or portal websites, asserting that marriage immigrants only came to Korea to get money from their husbands in order to support their family in their home countries Some also point to marriage immigrants’ lack of Korean language competence as being a threat to social integration Newspaper interviews and NGO public hearings vividly describe the experience of marriage immigrants The following excerpt was taken from an interview with a Mongolian marriage immigrant

Though I may look like a Korean, having to use the ‘‘Korean’’ language and encountering many differences in everyday life brought nothing but mental confusion Meeting people and talking with them were always challenging for

me because I was all the time concerned about hiding my identity There was even a time when I refused to make friends with anyone because I felt like an inferior who ‘‘comes from a poor country.’’ My identity as a ‘‘married migrant’’ prohibited me from thinking freely, and moreover, I couldn’t express whatever was in my mind because of the language barrier Though

my life as a migrant already alienated me from the surrounding, it was how I chose to protect myself and get adjusted to the Korean society so that I survive without being discriminated (Lee, 2009; emphasis added)

The experience of this Mongolian marriage immigrant is not an isolated example Surveys conducted by various NGOs and governmental agencies show that these experiences are quite prevalent An example of those surveys is administered by the Ministry of Justice to approximately 1000 Korean nationals and 500 registered foreigners to understand the general public’s attitude toward the marriage immigrants The survey results showed that 56.4% of Koreans believed that marriage immigrants do not adjust well to Korean society, and 82% had not heard of the naturalization test for marriage immigrants Finally, almost 85% supported basic Korean education for marriage immigrants, but 62% were against the idea of increasing taxes in order to support their education and adjustment in society These results indicate that although most Koreans are aware that marriage immigrants go through hardship and suffer confusion, they are reluctant to take action to address the problems

NEW NATURALIZATION REQUIREMENT

Despite exclusionism manifesting itself in indifference and negligence among the general public and in state policy, the Korean government ascribed marriage immigrants’ social maladjustment to their own fault They blame the system that grants automatic eligibility to citizenship for

allowing marriage immigrants to be exempt from any requirement to make social and cultural adjustments to Korean society (Ministry of Justice, 2007) The Ministry of Justice argues that the general public agrees that marriage immigrants need more education to equip themselves with a basic understanding of Korean society In addition, as shown in Figure 3, the percentage of marriage immigrants who get stable legal status through naturalization is quite low In particular, the number

of naturalized marriage immigrants in rural areas such as Gyunbuk, Gyunnnam, Jeonbuk, Jeonnam, Chungbuk, and Chungnam is signifi-cantly small compared to large cities such as Seoul The government interpreted the low percentage of naturalized immigrants as reflecting their lack of interest and effort to be integrated into Korean society Public pressure as well as the low percentage of naturalized marriage immigrants motivated the government to require marriage immigrants

to take the naturalization test or extensive social integration education (up to 650 hours) and to intensify the interview procedure, which is part

of the naturalization test

NATURALIZATION TEST AND LANGUAGE LEARNING

Based on the belief that failing to learn the mainstream language threatens social integration and causes family and society breakdown (Blackledge, 2009; Saville & Avermaet, 2008), naturalization tests are developed to measure immigrants’ language ability and social knowl-edge Nonetheless, debates regarding the necessity of the language tests (Blackledge, 2009; McNamara, 2009) are ongoing, in particular,

FIGURE 3 Percentage of marriage immigrants who get stable legal status through naturalization (Ministry of Public Administration and Security, 2008)

questions regarding the language used in naturalization tests and the inclusion of the language test as a separate section (Shohamy & McNamara, 2009) Other points of debate include questions regarding,

in reality, the level of language that should be required and measured

on the test Above all, naturalization tests can discriminate against test takers who do not have access to resources for advanced language acquisition and content knowledge (Wiley, 2005)

Blackledge (2009) explains that naturalization tests have often been practiced as a gate-keeping mechanism In particular, language exams can be used for this purpose For example, McNamara (2009) shows the Australian Dictation Test to be an example of the Australian govern-ment’s exclusionism policy toward immigrants, particularly those from China That is, due to the complexity and difficulty of the language test, immigrants whose first language is not English often fail, similar to the case with the White Australia policy While some countries such as the United States and Germany have mandatory language exams as part of the naturalization test or a prerequisite of citizenship (Kunan, 2009; Laversuch, 2008), Korea does not have a separate language test However, some questions in the naturalization test are about Korean language In addition, the linguistic structure used in the test is quite complicated, so that it is not even clear whether it is a test about Korean language or Korean history The next section explains the new amendment regarding the naturalization test in Korea

THE NEW NATURALIZATION TEST

As the number of citizenship applicants rose above 23,000 in 2008, the Korean Ministry of Justice decided to revise the former 20-question naturalization test of Korean language and Korean history The former format, which consisted of 10 multiple-choice questions and 10 short- or long-answer questions, included items such as naming a historically famous person or writing the lyrics to the Korean anthem According to

a report in the Chosun Ilbo (a major newspaper in Korea), only 10% of test takers were able to understand the questions (Chung, 2007) Compared with the short-answer format in the former version, which required manual grading, multiple-choice items graded with a computer-ized system shorten the waiting and grading time A total of 20 questions will be given in a paper-and-pencil format using computerized optical mark recognition (OMR) cards, and the test will last 20 minutes Applicants need

to get a minimum of 12 questions correct in order to pass the test The Ministry of Justice claims that the difficulty level and content of the test will not go beyond the level of education for fifth or sixth grade in Korea According to a mock naturalization test result administered to 100 marriage immigrants by the Ministry of Justice, the average test score

among the marriage immigrants was 47.1, which is far below the passing score of 60 This is due to the level of difficulty of the test items on sociopolitical and historic knowledge More significant, the linguistic structure used in the test is very complicated for items that are not about language but about Korean history For instance, test takers need to understand embedded sentence structure or high-level vocabulary in order to answer the questions

The fact that so many marriage immigrants received low scores, did not take the test, or failed to pass the test is a sign not only of insufficient education on the test contents but also of problems in the test itself For instance, it is not realistic to expect that adult second language learners can acquire in just a few years the L2 and content knowledge at the level of fifth

or sixth grade which is set for native-Korean-speaking children (e.g., Butler

et al., 2000) In addition, a good number of second language acquisition (SLA) research studies show that it takes longer for nonnative speakers to reach the level if they learn a language while they simply live in a target language environment (Long, 1996; Pica, 1994) Other researchers argue that nonnative speakers will never reach such a level without formal language education

CONCLUSIONS

There are pros and cons in requiring all marriage immigrants to take the naturalization test and to acquire extensive social integration education

As McNamara (2009) points out, the more immigrants learn about the language and culture of the mainstream society, the more they integrate into that society As marriage immigrants share and transmit their knowledge to their children, social integration in a multi-ethnic society is possible Similarly, Korea’s new mandatory naturalization test policy may help marriage immigrants’ understanding of Korean society However, it is clear that the policy does not take into account the realities of familial duties and labors that marriage immigrants should take care of Governmental supports such as daycare and onsite language education may help marriage immigrants to learn Korean language and culture more effectively

The Mongolian marriage immigrant mentioned previously made the following comment:

One of the greatest changes that have taken place in my life is related to nationality My nationality was changed in 2006 I chose to change my nationality partly because having the Korean nationality would make my life a lot easier, but particularly because of my son I was worried that my son would

be disadvantaged because his mom was a ‘Mongolian’ and came from a ‘poor country.’ It didn’t take long for me to realize that the real barrier was not the sense of inferiority but my lack of ability to deal with Korean culture and language (Lee, 2009)

While this comment provides a strong rationale for the Ministry of Justice’s new policy regarding the social integration education program

or the mandatory test, these new requirements do not solve fundamental problems that marriage immigrants face in their families, communities, and society Rather, these requirements, together with a public indifference and negligence, impute all the problems to individual marriage immigrants It is desirable to acquire a high level of proficiency

in Korean in order to fully engage in socioeconomic aspects in Korean society Although Korean language and culture education are extremely important for marriage immigrants, neither education nor the naturalization test should be a precondition for obtaining Korean citizenship, as stable legal status should be protected, and any factors that harm their human rights should be eliminated Furthermore, it should be considered that citizenship affects marriage immigrants’ lives considerably, as it determines the rights and benefits they are entitled to

in Korea, such as access to healthcare and education

THE AUTHOR

Jiyoon Lee is pursuing a PhD at the University of Pennsylvania Her research and teaching interests include language assessment, theories of second language acquisition, task-based language learning, language policy, and Korean as a second language She presents at conferences and has published in journals.

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