By Steven L. Shields
Hardly a day goes by that we do not see a news item about immigration or Korea’s low birthrate. Does Korea truly want immigration? Does Korea need to worry about its birthrate? Opinion is hotly debated these days.
The president, cabinet officials and other analysts warn the nation with a siren voice: “Korea will disappear as a country within a few decades.” Typically, government solutions involve large sums of money thrown around to “solve” a perceived “problem.” One official declared generous subsidies for couples who get pregnant and have children. Even the corporate world is weighing in on benefits to employees. But does society understand why young adults today are deferring marriage or deciding to remain childless?
Some good friends of mine are middle-aged, higher-level managers working for top-notch organizations. They have two children and a grandmother in the household. Mom and Dad’s combined salaries are not insignificant. Yet, after 20 years of marriage and professional life, they still have not been able to buy their own home. For years, even the deposit money on their apartment was mostly borrowed. They now have that debt paid off, but it is no longer enough to buy an apartment in Seoul. In addition, because their boys are in middle and high school, the money they spend on education each month is several million won. The mother scoffs at the recently proposed subsidies for families to get pregnant and have children.
Another friend, believing their son could be a great pianist, pulled him out of middle school. They spent tens of millions of won the past five years paying for exclusive private lessons and a grand piano in their home for him to practice. Even though I think he’s quite good, he’s failed to gain admission to music schools three times. Part of the problem is his heart was never in it. He dreams of having an “indoor food cart” restaurant like his father. The kid’s a great cook and knows all the ins and outs of the business.
When I first came to Korea, the government was hell-bent on reducing the birthrate. Street corner mobile clinics from the Red Cross offered lunchtime snips for men. Government benefits were granted to families with few children. At one point, a campaign told us not to worry if our single child was a boy or girl but to happily raise them well.
Though many worry about the low birthrate, other government officials lament the lack of bodies to fill the needed manufacturing jobs and workers for other sectors. Perhaps if your business plan included paying good wages that Korean families could live on, the problem might not be so bad. But instead, profits rule the business world, so cheaper labor from other countries is demanded. In the child care sector, the Bank of Korea is suggesting exempting foreign nannies from the minimum wage altogether.
In most developed countries, the so-called “minimum wage” is grossly inadequate for a single individual to live on. When such an idea was proposed in the United States not quite 100 years ago, the minimum wage was supposed to be enough for a working man with a wife and two children to be paid enough to maintain a basic standard of living. That wage standard hasn’t been seen in the United States for most of the last 70 or 80 years. No elected official will make the hard call to raise it for fear of losing corporate donations to their reelection campaign.
I have a friend from the Philippines who has lived and worked in Korea for almost 30 years. He’s in his early 50s. While his company provides minimal housing for their immigrant workers, his wages are less than what would be needed to live independently, get married or have a family. Indeed, he’s paid more than the minimum wage, but it is still so low that not many Koreans will work for such a small salary.
Many may recall the recent news about a naturalized citizen born in Ukraine, a white woman, who was crowned Miss Japan. Though her language fluency was excellent, many complained that such a person “did not represent traditional Japanese beauty ideals.” She was dethroned a few days later over an alleged affair with a married man.
Immigration brings myriad other problems as society struggles to deal with various cultural and linguistic matters. Can Korea become a multicultural and multilingual “pot of stew” with its varied colors, textures and tastes? Forget the “melting pot” metaphor because, time and again, it’s proven unrealistic when a generally homogeneous society begins adding others to the mix. People’s distinctiveness never gets melted into a new alloy.
Be careful what you wish for.
Rev. Steven L. Shields ([email protected]) has lived in Korea for many years, beginning in the 1970s. A lifelong member of the Royal Asiatic Society Korea, he has served as a director and president. He was copy editor of The Korea Times in 1977. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect The Korea Times’ editorial stance.
Categories: Music
