Attitudes towards influx of immigrants in Korea

Volume 120 No. 6 2018, 4861-4872 ISSN: 1314-3395 (on-line version) url: http://www.acadpubl.eu/hub/ http://www.acadpubl.eu/hub/ Attitudes towards influx of immigrants in Korea Jungwhan Lee Department of Sociology, Cheongju University, Cheongju, 28503, South Korea jungwlee@cju.ac.kr Abstract Background/Objectives: The purpose of this study is to identify attitudes of Korean people towards influx of immigrants and to examine factors affecting the attitudes. Methods/Statistical Analysis: Samples for the survey were drawn from the adult population aged 18 or over who live in households of Korea by multi-stage area cluster sampling procedure and interviewed face-to-face with a structured questionnaire. The data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, univariate analyses and multivariate regression. Findings: The findings reveal that the average level of attitudes of Koreans towards the number of immigrants currently entering Korea to live is 2.8 on a 5-point scale, which is close to the response, the number of immigrants to Korea nowadays should be remain the same as it is. Among the variables in the study, real threat, symbolic threat and multiculturalism appear to be salient variables in predicting the attitudes towards the number of immigrants entering Korea to live, which confirms the previous theoretical expectations. The directions of their associations with the attitudes, however, are different: higher the degrees of both real and symbolic threats are associated with more favorable attitudes towards reduction of the number while higher the degree of multiculturalism is associated with more favorable attitudes towards increase of the number. There are 4861

no sociodemographic background variables having a statistically significance, except religion. Attitudes towards the influx of immigrants are more positive among Protestants than members of other religions. Improvements/Applications: The result is slightly different from the dominant view that members of majority groups hold negative attitudes towards immigrants and support restrictions on immigration. Key Words : Attitudes, Influx, Immigrants, Immigration policy, Korea 1 Introduction Migration is not a new phenomenon. The current globalization, however, has rapidly increased the volume, diversity and geographical scope of international migration. It is estimated that there are approximately some 258 million people, or about 3.4% of the world s population, currently living temporarily or permanently outside their countries of origin [1]. In this global trend, South Korea (hereafter, Korea) is not an exception. For the recent 5 years between 2011 and 2016, the number of foreign residents increased with an annual rate of 9.2% [2]. As of the end of 2016, more than two million foreigners reside and account for about 4% of total residents in Korea. The sudden growth and spread of foreign residents brought about new circumstances and difficulties of adaptation to both the immigrants and locals. The newcomers who encounter new cultures, an unfamiliar language, a different climate and strange people have to overcome the challenges the new environment produce for a living. Contacts with people with different appearances, languages and customs are, also, a new experience to the local people and produce various and complicated situations to the society. Especially, for South Korea that has maintained a homogeneous existence with an absolute majority of the population of one ethnicity for centuries, a sudden massive influx of immigrants is an unprecedented event, which cause many local people problems of adaptation to the new circumstances. As new problems and issues occur and spread out into the base of the society with the continuing influx of immigrants, there have 4862

been growing attention to understand and tackle them among academics. Most studies and researches on migration in Korea, however, tend to focus on the conditions and attitudes of immigrants. Although their size enlarges, their stay is prolonged, and their social networks are well developed on the basis of kinship or common area of origin, immigrants are a minority group, the weak as compared with local people in the host country, and their social status is largely dependent on the views and responses of local people, a majority [3, 4]. In addition, a host country s policy for immigrants is far more determined by the opinion of local residents, who have citizenship, rather than by voices of immigrants, who are mostly regarded as foreigners. In this regard, more researches are needed to identify the attitudes and views of local people to understand and respond the problems and issues of immigration. This study examines attitudes of Korean people towards the influx of immigrants and predictors of their attitudes. Most issues and problems on immigration are very related with the size of immigrant population. If the number of immigrants is small and their activities are limited within the society, the existence of immigrants has little effect on the lives of local people. With immigration growing in size and complexity, however, contacts between immigrants and local people increase and expand into various areas of the society, which affect the living of local people and can result in occurrences of diverse social issues and problems such as multiculturalism, prejudice, racial and ethnic discrimination, and job competition. In this respect, it is necessary to examine how local people view the influx of immigrants and what factors affect the attitudes for a more comprehensive understanding of immigration. Immigration can have both positive and negative effects on the host countries. On the one hand, immigration often benefit the host countries as sources of labor and cultural diversity, fulfilling a labor shortage and providing new ideas [4,5]. On the other hand, immigration can have detrimental effect on the host countries, increasing job competition and undermining national culture [6]. Despite the fact that there are both advantages and disadvantages of immigration, many researches on immigration have found that majority members hold negative views and express prejudice and discrimination toward immigrants. [7-9]. Recent studies have suggested an important role of fear and per- 4863

ceptions of threat in generating the negative consequences for attitudes toward outgroups in general, and toward immigrant groups in particular [10,11]. According to the competition model, people tend to feel threat when they perceive immigrants as competitors for scarce resources such as economic assets, employment opportunities and national identity [12-14]. Recognizing these threats, members of the majority group develops negative attitudes and prejudices against immigrant groups. The anti-immigrants sentiments, thus, is shaped by the perceived threat to the interest and privileges of the majority group. The threat perceptions are commonly distinguished into two domains, such as realistic and symbolic threats [15,16]. Realistic threats refer to tangible threats to physical, economic, and political resources of the majority group. Immigrant groups can be regarded as new competitors in a clash of the political and material interests, and the needs to keep in-group interests result in negative attitudes towards immigrants. Symbolic threats relate to group differences in values, norms, and beliefs. Immigrant groups that have different worldviews and ideas may be perceived as a threat to the cultural identity of the dominant group. The advocacy of multiculturalism has been found to lower the negative attitudes of majority group towards immigrant groups [17,18]. Multiculturalism is an ideology recognizing cultural diversity in a society and supporting cultures of different groups, particularly those of minority groups. The acceptance of multiculturalism entails contribution of cultural diversity and equitable participation of all the groups within a society. Agreement with multiculturalism, thus, can lead to a positive evaluation of immigrants within a society. 2 Materials and Methods The data for this study come from 2013 Korean General Social Survey (KGSS), a cross-national representative survey. Samples for the survey were drawn from the adult population aged 18 or over who live in households of Korea by multi-stage area cluster sampling procedure and interviewed face-to-face with a structured questionnaire. The 2013 survey data consists of 1,294 participants. 4864

The study includes measurement of attitudes towards influx of immigrants, perceived threat and multiculturalism. Attitudes towards influx of immigrants are measured with an item asking a respondent s evaluation of the number of immigrants currently entering Korea to live. The item was rated with a 5-point scale ranging from 1 (reduce a lot) to 5 (increase a lot). Perceived threat is assessed with two dimensions, realistic and symbolic. Realistic threat is measured with three items asking effects of immigrants on the prevalence of crime, Korean economy and Koreans jobs. Sample items include Immigrants increase crime rates (reverse coded), Immigrants are generally good for Korean economy and Immigrants take jobs away from people who were born in Korea (reverse coded). Symbolic threat is measured with two items asking effects of immigrants on Korean society and culture. Sample items are Immigrants improve Korean society by bringing new ideas and cultures and Korean culture is generally undermined by immigrants (reverse coded). Responses to the threat items were rated using a 5-point agree-disagree scale with higher scores reflecting stronger feelings of threat. Multiculturalism is assessed with two items measuring attitudes toward diversity. Sample items include It is impossible for people who do not share Korea customs and traditions to become fully Koreans and Ethnic minorities should be given government assistance to preserve their customs and traditions (reverse coded). Responses to the statements were rated on a 5-point scale ranging from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). Higher scores imply a stronger endorsement of a society that embraces cultural diversity. The individual background variables included in the study are sex, age, marital status, religion, education, employment status and monthly household income. The data was first analyzed with descriptive statistics including means, standard deviation, and percentages to provide a general figure of the study sample. Univariate analyses including t-test, one-way analysis of variance and Pearson correlations were used to identify the association between the attitudes towards influx of immigrants and independent variables. Multivariate regression was conducted to assess the relationship of the attitudes to the independent variables. 4865

3 Results and Discussion Table 1 exhibits attributes of respondents in the analysis. The proportions of males and females are almost equal and their mean age of respondents is 44 years. Distribution of their marital status reveals that the proportions of 61.6% is married, while 38.5% is not married - that is, never married, divorced or separated. Among the respondent, 22.7% are Buddhist, 21.1% are Protestant, 9.1% are Catholic, and 47.2% belong to no religion. The average years of formal schooling is 13.3. Distribution of their employment status shows that the proportion of 54.7% is employed, while 45.7% is unemployed, and the average monthly household income is 6,068,800 won (equivalent to 5,500 USD). The degrees of realistic threat and symbolic threat have means of 3.0 and 2.8, respectively, which are close to the response, neither agree nor disagree. The average level of multiculturalism is 3.2 on a 5-point scale. As a dependent variable for the study, the degree of attitudes towards the number of immigrants currently entering Korea to live has a mean of 2.8, which is close to the response, the number of immigrants to Korea nowadays should be remain the same as it is. Table 2 shows the mean and standard deviation of the attitudes towards number of immigrants by categorical variables. There are 4866

few differences in the attitudes by gender, marital status, religion and employment status. Correlation coefficients concerning of the attitudes towards number of immigrants and each continuous variable in the study are shown in Table 3. Results reveal that education, realistic threat, symbolic threat and multiculturalism are positively associated with the attitudes. Variables positively correlated with the attitudes include education and multiculturalism; however, realistic threat and symbolic threat are negatively correlated. Table 4 presents the results of multiple regression analysis that indicate the pure influence of various variables on the attitudes towards number of immigrants. Among the variables that show an association with the attitudes in the univariate analysis, real threat, symbolic threat and multiculturalism maintain their significant effects on the attitudes, though the directions of their associations are different; both associations between realistic and symbolic threats are negative, while the association between multiculturalism and 4867

the attitudes is positive. Education, which was associated with the attitudes in the univariate analysis, lost its significance in the multiple regression analysis, while religion that was not associated with the attitudes in the univariate analysis emerged to be significant in the multiple regression analysis. Protestants have more lenient attitudes towards the influx of immigrants into Korea than other religious groups. 4 Conclusion This study identifies overall attitudes of Korean people towards the influx of immigrants and examines key factors influencing the attitudes. The findings reveal that the average level of attitudes of Koreans towards the number of immigrants currently entering Korea to live is 2.8 on a 5-point scale, which is close to an opinion favoring the current level in the number of immigrants. The result is slightly different from the dominant view that members of majority groups hold negative attitudes towards immigrants and support restrictions on immigration. The average levels of perceived real and symbolic threats from immigrants are 3.0 and 2.8, respectively, on a 5-point scale, which show a mid-range tendency towards a belief that immigrants pose a threat to realistic and symbolic conditions of the society. The average score of multiculturalism is 3.3, 4868

suggesting a slightly positive view of the ideology. Among the variables in the study, realistic threat, symbolic threat and multiculturalism appear to be salient variables in predicting the attitudes towards the number of immigrants entering Korea to live, which confirms the theoretical expectations. The directions of their associations with the attitudes, however, are different: higher the degrees of both realistic and symbolic threats are associated with more favorable attitudes towards reduction of the number while higher the degree of multiculturalism is associated with more favorable attitudes towards increase of the number. There are no sociodemographic background variables, which have a statistically significant effect on the attitudes, except religion. Attitudes towards the influx of immigrants are more positive among Protestants than members of other religions. The fact that effect of education on the attitudes in the univariate analysis lost its significance in the multiple regression analysis suggests that the association between education and the attitudes could be spurious. References [1] United Nations (UN). (2017). The International Migration Report 2017. New York: UN. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2017/12/unreport-finds-numbers-migrants-continue-rise/. [2] Korea Immigration Service (KIS). (2017). 2016 Annual Report on Emigration and Immigration. Seoul: KIS. Retrieved from http://www.moj.go.kr/doc html/viewer/skin/doc.html?fn= 60a3355f2a1a33b62fb275d9651838cc&rs=/doc html/viewer/ result/201802/ [3] Massey, D. S., Arango, J., Hugo, G., Kouaouci, A., Pellegrino, A. & Taylor, J. E. (2005). Worlds in Motion: Understanding International Migration at the End of the Millennium. New York: Oxford University Press. [4] Castles, S. & Miller, M. J. (2009). The Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the Modern World. New York: The Guilford Press. 4869

[5] Borjas, G. J. (1994). The Economics of Immigration. Journal of Economic Literature, 32(4), 1667-1717. [6] Joppke, C. (1999). Immigration and the Nation State: The United States, Germany, and Great Britain. New York: Oxford University Press. [7] Jackson, J. S., Brown, K. T. & Marks, B. (2001). Contemporary Immigration policy orientations among dominant group members in Western Europe. Journal of Social Issues, 57(3), 431-456. [8] Raijman, R., Semyonov, M. & Schmidt, P. (2003). Do foreigners deserve rights? Determinants of public views towards foreigners in Germany and Israel. European Sociological Review, 19(4), 379-392. [9] Dixon, J. (2006). The ties that bind and those that don t: toward reconciling group threat and contact theories of prejudice. Social Forces, 84(4), 2179-2204. [10] Schlueter, E., Schmidt, P. & Wagner, U. (2008). Disentangling the causal relations of perceived group threat and outgroup derogation: cross-national evidence from German and Russian panel surveys. European Sociological Review, 24 (5), 567581. [11] Callens M., Meuleman B. & Valentova, M. (2015). Perceived threat, contact and attitudes towards the integration of immigrants: Evidence from Luxembourg. Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER) Working Paper Series 2015-01. 1. [12] Bobo L. (1999). Prejudice as group position: Microfoundations of a sociological approach to racism and race relations. Journal of Social Issues, 55(3), 445472. [13] Mayda, A. M. (2006). Who is against immigration? A crosscountry investigation of individual attitudes toward immigrants. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 88(3), 510-530. 4870

[14] Sides, J. & Citrin, J. (2007) European attitudes toward immigration: the role of interests, identities, and information. British Journal of Political Science, 37(3), 477504. [15] Stephan, W. G., Renfro, C.L., Esses, V. M., White Stephan, C. and Martin, T., The effects of feeling threatened on attitudes toward immigrants, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 29(1), 1-19, 2005. [16] Verkuyten, M. (2009). Support for Multiculturalism and Minority Rights: The Role of National Identification and Outgroup Threat. Social Justice Research, 22(1), 31-52. [17] Ward, C. & Masgoret, A. (2008). Attitudes toward immigrants, immigration, and multiculturalism in New Zealand: A Sociopsychological Analysis. International Migration Review, 42(1), 227-248. [18] Guan, Y., Verkuyten, M., Fung, H. H., Bond, M. H., Chan, C. C., & Chen, S. X. (2011). Outgroup value incongruence and intergroup attitude: The roles of multiculturalism and common identity. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 35(3), 377-385. 4871

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