Hello, I am Wuyoujun from Hua Renzhi.
Recently I saw a picture called "The number of Chinese immigrants to various countries in the world from 1990 to 2020", which details the ranking and specific number of countries with the largest number of Chinese immigrants in the past 30 years.
Among them, the top five countries with the largest number of Chinese immigrants are the United States: 1.41 million; South Korea: 783,000; Japan: 625,000; Australia: 555,000 and Canada: 531,000.
Among all the data, what surprised me the most was South Korea, which ranked second.
Why do so many Chinese immigrate to South Korea? How accurate is this data?
Since this picture does not provide detailed data sources, I went to find more detailed information for comparison.
The more detailed and authoritative information currently available on the Internet is the "China International Migration Report 2020", which was compiled by the Globalization Think Tank and Southwestern University of Finance and Economics Development Research Institute and published by Social Science Literature Press .
In this report we can find the following data:
1. As of 2019, the number of Chinese immigrants overseas has reached 10.73 million, becoming the third largest immigrant-sending country in the world (first, India, second, Mexico).
2. The top five countries with the largest number of Chinese immigrants are the United States (2,899,267 people); Japan (784,763 people); Canada (691,489 people); Australia (641,624 people); and South Korea (620,295 people).
Chart source: "China International Migration Report 2020"
The data in this report is obviously more authoritative than a chart without data source. Therefore, the first country with the largest number of Chinese immigrants is the United States, which is not controversial. The second country is Japan, which is actually more in line with my expectations. South Korea ranks fifth. Although it ranks a little lower, it is still unexpected.
In our impression, South Korea is a smaller country than Japan, and it seems that in the evaluation of Chinese people, South Korea is not as good as Japan in all aspects. Koreans are paranoid, arrogant, and like to take other people's things as their own... Why have more than 620,000 Chinese people chosen to immigrate to South Korea in the past 30 years?
After carefully reviewing the relevant information and data, I have the answer.
In fact, before the 1990s, not to mention immigrants to South Korea, the living conditions of the few local Chinese in South Korea were very poor.
Because China and South Korea only established diplomatic relations in 1992, before that, due to reasons that everyone knows, South Korea’s feelings towards the Chinese have always been complicated. Korean society shows a repulsive attitude toward Chinese immigrants.
Since the 1960s, South Korea has formulated a series of restrictive policies for the development of the Chinese, including: prohibiting Chinese from engaging in real estate, foreign trade and other industries. Chinese are not allowed to serve in the government, the military or large enterprises no matter how long they have lived in South Korea. They are also excluded from job hunting. If Chinese borrow loans from banks, they must pay much higher interest rates than Koreans. Even if you finally get a Korean ID card, the number will be special and distinguish it from Koreans...
So in South Korea's 1990 census, 99.95% of the country's more than 40 million people were Koreans. The foreign population in South Korea (excluding the US military) was only 20,000, of which more than 90% were Chinese nationals, which was only more than 10,000 people.
This phenomenon of rejection of China began to change after the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and South Korea. With the rapid economic growth and practical needs, South Korea gradually opened its doors, changing the narrow thinking of a single nation in the past.
South Korea successfully hosted the Olympic Games in 1988, showing the image of an emerging country that is growing rapidly and embracing the world.
In 1996, South Korea was admitted as a member of OECD, which marked South Korea as a member of the developed countries and also made South Korea an attractive regional destination for international immigrants.
Since then, due to the impact of the "low birthrate and aging population" and the intensified industrial and technological competition between countries brought about by economic globalization , South Korea has experienced a partial "talent shortage", with many technical and basic positions seriously lacking people. Against this background, South Korea continues to improve its immigration policy and expand the introduction of foreign labor. At the same time, the South Korean government has begun to relax the conditions for permanent residence and naturalization (acquisition of Korean nationality) for foreigners in South Korea, encouraging foreigners needed by Korean society to live in South Korea for a long time, and jointly create a multicultural country.
The people who benefit the most from this policy are the Chinese, to be precise, the nearly 2 million Korean people in China.
Korean immigrants from China are themselves "compatriots" recognized by the South Korean government. Therefore, among the immigrants who came to South Korea from China in the past 30 years, the number of people who have naturalized Korean nationals has increased year by year.
By 2012, the number of Chinese in South Korea who had obtained Korean nationality through naturalization applications had reached 99,538, including 68,612 Koreans (68.93%).
Moreover, it is easier for Chinese Koreans to obtain South Korean work visas and go to South Korea to work.
According to the monthly statistical report released by the South Korean Ministry of Justice in March 2013, among the Chinese immigrants in South Korea at that time, there were 726,000 Chinese immigrants from the mainland, and 455,000 Koreans, accounting for 63% of the total. Especially the two groups of "visiting workers" and "residents". Due to the influence of the Korean government's "compatriots first" policy in the introduction of foreign workers and the review system for permanent residence, Koreans accounted for almost all and the majority respectively.
It can be said that the reason why so many Chinese have immigrated to South Korea in the past 30 years is due to the development of South Korea’s economy and various convenient policies for Chinese Korean groups to obtain South Korean work visas and permanent residence.
In fact, we often hear about China’s overseas immigration wave. The majority of immigrants are ordinary working immigrants. They do not want to spend money abroad after making money at home, but they want to work abroad to make money to support their Chinese families. For them, immigrating abroad is just a way of livelihood, no different from people from small places going to first-tier cities to work.
After all, there are only a few rich people. Behind the investment immigration that spends a lot of money, there is a much larger group of ordinary workers.
According to the " World Migration Report 2020" jointly released by the Think Tank on Globalization (CCG) and the United Nations Migration Agency (IOM), in 2018, the amount of remittances received by China exceeded US$67 billion, becoming the second largest remittance country in the world after India. In fact, this data has always been very high.
The overseas remittances here refer to the foreign exchange sent back by Chinese workers abroad. Most of the money they made abroad is sent back to their homes in China.
China is a multi-ethnic country. Various opportunities in history have resulted in us not only having Koreans, but also Russians . Multi-ethnic groups have merged into the Chinese nation.
In our surrounding countries, South Korea, Japan, and Singapore are all economically developed countries. Cantonese and Fujian people mostly choose to go to Nanyang to pan for gold. That is because the Chinese there are basically descendants of Guangdong and Fujian people. It is also normal for Koreans to choose to work in South Korea, which has a similar language.
Therefore, the number of Chinese immigrants to South Korea has increased sharply in the past 30 years. We "unexpectedly" South Korea has become a popular country for Chinese immigrants.
