Korean Communities in Argentina

Introduction

Koreans in Argentina form the second-largest Korean Diaspora community in Latin America and the 15th-largest in the world, according to the statistics of South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Their population declined by more than 50% between 1997 and 2003; despite the small rebound in their numbers since then, they have been surpassed in size by the rapidly-growing Korean communities in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and southeast Asia.

Overview

South Koreans historically and statistically have been a growing and prosperous community within Argentina (Koo, pp 45-389). Ethnic capitalism, long workdays, competitive prices and cheap labor established and have made them visible within the public sphere of Argentine society. Purchasing power and industry success initially allowed Koreans to be treated better than other immigrant groups in Argentina. Generations of South Koreans were slowly integrating and assimilating into Buenos Aires life. However, discrimination against Korean immigrants drastically worsened after a series of news reports in 1993. These stories focused on a case of Korean grocers exploiting undocumented Bolivian immigrant workers, and stealing electricity from the State (Kim, pp 156-59). Soon after, more reports appeared accusing Korean factory owners of exploiting Bolivian workers. The Korean community began to be synonymous with exploitation and despotic labor practices, within national public opinion.

Migrating South: A Historical Contextualization

Argentine national identity deserves a brief historical assessment, in order to expound its relationship to racial discrimination and immigration. This helps explain past and present national attitudes about race. Argentina was conceived in the following manner: the founding fathers imagined a “white” nation, and thus, pursued violently the elimination of ethnic minority populations (non-whites), while simultaneously encouraging European (white) migration to el Sur (the South.) The “legal” and “moral” precepts of this national foundation still resonate within the contemporary formation of class and citizenship. Racism is Argentina's original sin and undibutably, it colors the lens by which “non whites” and for the purpose of this work, Koreans, are seen (Austin, pp 45-39).

In the 1950s, Korea was entering a definitive historical moment; war. One of the natural byproducts of conflict is displacement and by extension, voluntary and forced migration. This action impacts society in both sending and receiving territories. The transformative nature of these experiences problemitizes notions of identity, nationality and culture, and their impossible compromise. With the creation of a newly partitioned South Korea, came decades later, a mass exodus of the recently formed citizenry throughout the world, including to Spanish-speaking Latin America (Harper, pp 45-399).The Korean Diaspora to Argentina distinguishes itself in that South Koreans migrated with a respectable amount of purchasing power, which distinguished them from other Asian immigrants of the time. 6A high population in South Korea made it impossible to develop national economic and social agendas “(Garine, pp 487-507).

By 1965, the South Korean government propagated migration as a solution policy. They awarded a monetary sum of approximately $40,000 per family, and this funded the reestablishment of South Koreans outside of the borders of their nation-state (Foucault, pp 45-389). Promoting a ...